Luke 2:1-24

Contemporary English Version

The Birth of Jesus

(Matthew 1.18-25)

2 About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books.^[a] ²These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.^[b]

³Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed. ⁴So Joseph had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. Long ago Bethlehem had been King David's hometown, and Joseph went there because he was from David's family.

⁵Mary was engaged to Joseph and traveled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby, ⁶and while they were there, ⁷she gave birth to her first-born^[c] son. She dressed him in baby clothes^[d] and laid him on a bed of hay, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds

⁸That night in the fields near Bethlehem some shepherds were guarding their sheep. ⁹^(A) All at once an angel came down to them from the Lord, and the brightness of the Lord's glory flashed around them. The shepherds were frightened. ¹⁰But the angel said, “Don't be afraid! I have good news for you, which will make everyone happy. ¹¹This very day in King David's hometown a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord. ¹²You will know who he is, because you will find him dressed in baby clothes and lying on a bed of hay.”

¹³Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God. They said:

¹⁴“Praise God in heaven!
Peace on earth to everyone
who pleases God.”

¹⁵After the angels had left and gone back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about.” ¹⁶They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and they saw the baby lying on a bed of hay.

¹⁷When the shepherds saw Jesus, they told his parents what the angel had said about him. ¹⁸Everyone listened and was surprised. ¹⁹But Mary kept thinking about all this and wondering what it meant.

²⁰As the shepherds returned to their sheep, they were praising God and saying wonderful things about him. Everything they had seen and heard was just as the angel had said.

²¹^(B) Eight days later Jesus' parents did for him what the Law of Moses commands.^[e] And they named him Jesus, just as the angel had told Mary when he promised she would have a baby.

Simeon Praises the Lord

²²^(C) The time came for Mary and Joseph to do what the Law of Moses says a mother is supposed to do after her baby is born.^[f]

They took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem and presented him to the Lord, ²³^(D) just as the Law of the Lord says, “Each first-born^[g] baby boy belongs to the Lord.” ²⁴The Law of the Lord also says parents have to offer a sacrifice, giving at least a pair of doves or two young pigeons. So that is what Mary and Joseph did.

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Footnotes

2.1 names … listed in record books: This was done so that everyone could be made to pay taxes to the Emperor.
2.2 Quirinius was governor of Syria: It is known that Quirinius made a record of the people in a.d. 6 or 7. But the exact date of the record taking that Luke mentions is not known.
2.7 first-born: The Jewish people said that the first-born son in each of their families belonged to the Lord.
2.7 dressed him in baby clothes: The Greek text has “wrapped him in wide strips of cloth,” which was how young babies were dressed.
2.21 what the Law of Moses commands: See the note at 1.59.
2.22 after her baby is born: After a Jewish mother gave birth to a son, she was considered “unclean” and had to stay home until he was circumcised (see the note at 1.59). Then she had to stay home for another 33 days, before offering a sacrifice to the Lord.
2.23 first-born: See the note at 2.7.