Luke 1-2

Luke 1

¹As a number of attempts have been made to put together in order an account of those events which took place among us,

²As they were handed down to us by those who saw them from the first and were preachers of the word,

³It seemed good to me, having made observation, with great care, of the direction of events in their order, to put the facts in writing for you, most noble Theophilus;

⁴So that you might have certain knowledge of those things about which you were given teaching.

⁵In the days of Herod, king of Judaea, there was a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the order of Abijah; and he had a wife of the family of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

⁶They were upright in the eyes of God, keeping all the rules and orders of God, and doing no wrong.

⁷And they were without children, because Elisabeth had never given birth, and they were at that time very old.

⁸Now it came about that in his turn he was acting as priest before God,

⁹And as was the way of the priests, he had to go into the Temple to see to the burning of perfumes.

¹⁰And all the people were offering prayers outside, at the time of the burning of perfumes.

¹¹And he saw an angel of the Lord in his place on the right side of the altar.

¹²And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear came on him.

¹³But the angel said, Have no fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your wife Elisabeth will have a son, and his name will be John.

¹⁴And you will be glad and have great delight; and numbers of people will have joy at his birth.

¹⁵For he will be great in the eyes of the Lord; he will not take wine or strong drink; and he will be full of the Spirit of God from his birth.

¹⁶And through him great numbers of the children of Israel will be turned to the Lord their God.

¹⁷And he will go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, turning the hearts of fathers to their children, and wrongdoers to the way of righteousness; to make ready a people whose hearts have been turned to the Lord.

¹⁸And Zacharias said to the angel, How may I be certain of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is far on in years.

¹⁹And the angel, answering, said, I am Gabriel, whose place is before God; I have been sent to say these words to you and to give you this good news.

²⁰Now, see, you will be without voice or language till the day when these things come about, because you had not faith in my words, which will have effect at the right time.

²¹And the people were waiting for Zacharias and were surprised because he was in the Temple for such a long time.

²²And when he came out he was not able to say anything, and they saw that he had seen a vision in the Temple; and he was making signs to them without words.

²³And when the days of his work in the Temple were ended, he went back to his house.

²⁴After that time, Elisabeth, being certain that she was to become a mother, kept herself from men's eyes for five months, saying,

²⁵The Lord has done this to me, for his eyes were on me, to take away my shame in the eyes of men.

²⁶Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee, named Nazareth,

²⁷To a virgin who was to be married to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary.

²⁸And the angel came in to her and said, Peace be with you, to whom special grace has been given; the Lord is with you.

²⁹But she was greatly troubled at his words, and said to herself, What may be the purpose of these words?

³⁰And the angel said to her, Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval.

³¹And see, you will give birth to a son, and his name will be Jesus.

³²He will be great, and will be named the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his father:

³³He will have rule over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

³⁴And Mary said to the angel, How may this be, because I have had no knowledge of a man?

³⁵And the angel in answer said to her, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will come to rest on you, and so that which will come to birth will be named holy, Son of God.

³⁶Even now Elisabeth, who is of your family, is to be a mother, though she is old: and this is the sixth month with her who was without children.

³⁷For there is nothing which God is not able to do.

³⁸And Mary said: I am the servant of the Lord; may it be to me as you say. And the angel went away.

³⁹Then Mary got up and went quickly into the high lands, to a town of Judah;

⁴⁰And went into the house of Zacharias and took Elisabeth in her arms.

⁴¹And when the voice of Mary came to the ears of Elisabeth, the baby made a sudden move inside her; then Elisabeth was full of the Holy Spirit,

⁴²And she said with a loud voice: May blessing be on you among women, and a blessing on the child of your body.

⁴³How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

⁴⁴For, truly, when the sound of your voice came to my ears, the baby in my body made a sudden move for joy.

⁴⁵Happy will she be who had faith that the things which the Lord has said to her will be done.

⁴⁶And Mary said: My soul gives glory to God;

⁴⁷My spirit is glad in God my Saviour.

⁴⁸For he has had pity on his servant, though she is poor and lowly placed: and from this hour will all generations give witness to the blessing which has come to me.

⁴⁹For he who is strong has done great things for me; and holy is his name.

⁵⁰His mercy is for all generations in whom is the fear of him.

⁵¹With his arm he has done acts of power; he has put to flight those who have pride in their hearts.

⁵²He has put down kings from their seats, lifting up on high the men of low degree.

⁵³Those who had no food he made full of good things; the men of wealth he sent away with nothing in their hands;

⁵⁴His help he has given to Israel, his servant, so that he might keep in mind his mercy to Abraham and his seed for ever,

⁵⁵As he gave his word to our fathers.

⁵⁶And Mary was with her for about three months and then went back to her house.

⁵⁷Now it was time for Elisabeth to give birth, and she had a son.

⁵⁸And it came to the ears of her neighbours and relations that the Lord had been very good to her, and they took part in her joy.

⁵⁹And on the eighth day they came to see to the circumcision of the child, and they would have given him the name of Zacharias, his father's name;

⁶⁰But his mother made answer and said, No, his name is John.

⁶¹And they said, Not one of your relations has that name.

⁶²And they made signs to his father, to say what name was to be given to him.

⁶³And he sent for writing materials and put down: His name is John; and they were all surprised.

⁶⁴And straight away his mouth was open and his tongue was free and he gave praise to God.

⁶⁵And fear came on all those who were living round about them: and there was much talk about all these things in all the hill-country of Judaea.

⁶⁶And all who had word of them kept them in their minds and said, What will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.

⁶⁷And his father, Zacharias, was full of the Holy Spirit, and with the voice of a prophet said these words:

⁶⁸Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and made them free,

⁶⁹Lifting up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,

⁷⁰(As he said, by the mouth of his holy prophets, from the earliest times,)

⁷¹Salvation from those who are against us, and from the hands of those who have hate for us;

⁷²To do acts of mercy to our fathers and to keep in mind his holy word,

⁷³The oath which he made to Abraham, our father,

⁷⁴That we, being made free from the fear of those who are against us, might give him worship,

⁷⁵In righteousness and holy living before him all our days.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be named the prophet of the Most High: you will go before the face of the Lord, to make ready his ways;

⁷⁷To give knowledge of salvation to his people, through the forgiveness of sins,

⁷⁸Because of the loving mercies of our God, by which the dawn from heaven has come to us,

⁷⁹To give light to those in dark places, and in the shade of death, so that our feet may be guided into the way of peace.

⁸⁰And the child became tall, and strong in spirit; and he was living in the waste land till the day when he came before the eyes of Israel.

Luke 2

¹Now it came about in those days that an order went out from Caesar Augustus that there was to be a numbering of all the world.

²This was the first numbering, which was made when Quirinius was ruler of Syria.

³And all men went to be numbered, everyone to his town.

⁴And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judaea, to Beth-lehem, the town of David, because he was of the house and family of David,

⁵To be put on the list with Mary, his future wife, who was about to become a mother.

⁶And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

⁷And she had her first son; and folding him in linen, she put him to rest in the place where the cattle had their food, because there was no room for them in the house.

⁸And in the same country there were keepers of sheep in the fields, watching over their flock by night.

⁹And an angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord was shining round about them: and fear came on them.

¹⁰And the angel said, Have no fear; for truly, I give you good news of great joy which will be for all the people:

¹¹For on this day, in the town of David, a Saviour has come to birth, who is Christ the Lord.

¹²And this is the sign to you: you will see a young child folded in linen, in the place where the cattle have their food.

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a great band of spirits from heaven, giving praise to God, and saying,

¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased.

¹⁵And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the keepers of the sheep said to one another, Let us go now to Beth-lehem, and see this thing which has come about, which the Lord has made clear to us.

¹⁶And they came quickly, and saw Mary and Joseph, and the child in the place where the cattle had their food.

¹⁷And when they saw it, they gave them an account of the things which had been said to them about the child.

¹⁸And all those to whose ears it came were full of wonder at the things said by the keepers of the sheep.

¹⁹But Mary kept all these words in her heart, and gave much thought to them.

²⁰Then the keepers of the sheep went back, giving glory and praise to God for all the things which had come to their ears and which they had seen, as it had been said to them.

²¹And when, after eight days, the time came for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name which the angel had given to him before his birth.

²²And when the necessary days for making them clean by the law of Moses had come to an end, they took him to Jerusalem to give him to the Lord

²³(As it says in the law of the Lord, Every mother's first male child is to be holy to the Lord),

²⁴And to make an offering, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord, of two doves or other young birds.

²⁵And there was then in Jerusalem a man whose name was Simeon; and he was an upright man, fearing God and waiting for the comfort of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was on him.

²⁶And he had knowledge, through the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ.

²⁷And full of the Spirit he came into the Temple; and when the father and mother came in with the child Jesus, to do with him what was ordered by the law,

²⁸Then he took him in his arms and gave praise to God and said,

²⁹Now you are letting your servant go in peace, O Lord, as you have said;

³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹Which you have made ready before the face of all nations;

³²A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.

³³And his father and mother were full of wonder at the things which were said about him.

³⁴And Simeon gave them his blessing and said to Mary, his mother, See, this child will be the cause of the downfall and the lifting up of great numbers of people in Israel, and he will be a sign against which hard words will be said;

³⁵(And a sword will go through your heart;) so that the secret thoughts of men may come to light.

³⁶And there was one, Anna, a woman prophet, the daughter of Phanuel, of the family of Asher (she was very old, and after seven years of married life

³⁷She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day.

³⁸And coming up at that time, she gave praise to God, talking of him to all those who were waiting for the freeing of Jerusalem.

³⁹And when they had done all the things which were ordered by the law of the Lord, they went back to Galilee, to Nazareth, the town where they were living.

⁴⁰And the child became tall and strong and full of wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

⁴¹And every year his father and mother went to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover.

⁴²And when he was twelve years old, they went up, as their way was, to the feast;

⁴³And when the days of the feast came to an end and they were going back, the boy Jesus was still in Jerusalem, but they had no knowledge of it:

⁴⁴And in the belief that he was with some of their number, they went a day's journey; and after looking for him among their relations and friends,

⁴⁵And seeing that he was not there, they went back to Jerusalem, to make search for him.

⁴⁶And after three days they came across him in the Temple, seated among the wise men, giving ear to their words and putting questions to them.

⁴⁷And all to whose ears it came were full of wonder at his knowledge and the answers which he gave.

⁴⁸And when they saw him they were surprised, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? see, your father and I have been looking for you with sorrow.

⁴⁹And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? was it not clear to you that my right place was in my Father's house?

⁵⁰And his words seemed strange to them.

⁵¹And he went down with them and came to Nazareth; and did as he was ordered: and his mother kept all these words in her heart.

⁵²And Jesus was increasing in wisdom and in years, and in grace before God and men.