Matthew

¹The book of the origins²⁹ of Jesus Christ,³⁰ the son of David, the son of Abraham. ²Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers. ³Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram. ⁴Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon. ⁵Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse. ⁶Jesse became the father of King David. David became the father of Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. ⁷Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa.^{31 8}Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah. ⁹Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah. ¹⁰Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon.³² Amon became the father of Josiah. ¹¹Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the exile to Babylon. ¹²After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. ¹³Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor. ¹⁴Azor became the father of Sadoc. Sadoc became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud. ¹⁵Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob. ¹⁶Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary,³³ of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. ¹⁷And so, all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the exile to Babylon until the Christ, fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened like this: after his mother, Mary, was promised in marriage to Joseph but before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Joseph, her betrothed,³⁴ who was a righteous man did not want to make her a public spectacle and so intended to put her away³⁵ quietly.^{36 20}But as he was thinking about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife home, for what is conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son and you shall give him the name Jesus³⁷ because he will be the one to save his people from their sins.”

²²Now all this happened so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled:

²³Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bring forth a son.

They shall call his name Emmanuel;

which means, ‘with us [is] God.’³⁸

²⁴Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him: he took his wife to [live with] him, ²⁵and had no relations with her before³⁹ she had brought forth her firstborn⁴⁰ son; and he named him Jesus.

The visit of the wise men (magi)

29. Or “history,” “generations”
30. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean “Anointed One”
31. CT reads “Asaph”
32. CT reads “Amos”
33. A few manuscripts add “a virgin”
34. Or “husband”
35. Some translations have “to divorce her” or “to dismiss her”
36. Or “secretly/in private”
37. “Jesus” (Yeshua) means “God saves” or in short “salvation”
38. Isaias 7:14. NT agrees with LXX against MT (“virgin” instead of “young woman”).
39. Greek e[wj ou, literally “until.” Even in this form, this expression was not understood by the Greek –speaking Fathers as necessarily indicating a change after the event. See the Appendix E on ‘the brothers of the Lord’
40. This expression indicates a legal status, not that other siblings are implied. Other ancient manuscripts (א, B) omit “firstborn” which may have been added in Matthew to harmonize with Luke 2:7.