1 This is the record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, the descendant of King David and of Abraham, from whom all we Jews have descended. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and Judah’s older and younger brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, and their mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon and his wife Rahab, a non-Jewish woman, were the parents of Boaz. Boaz was the father of Obed. Obed’s mother was Ruth, another non-Jewish woman. Obed was the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon. Solomon’s mother was previously married to Uriah. 7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asaph. 8 Asaph was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram. Jehoram was an ancestor of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah was the grandfather of Jeconiah and Jeconiah’s brothers. They lived at the time when the Babylonian army took the Israelites as captives to the country of Babylon.

12 After the Babylonians took the Israelites to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the grandfather of Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. 14 Eliakim was the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Akim. 15 Akim was the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph was Mary’s husband, and Mary was Jesus’ mother. Jesus is the one who is called {whom we call} the Messiah.

17 As you can calculate, I have grouped Jesus’ ancestors as follows: There was a succession of 14 of them from the time when Abraham lived to the time when King David lived. There was a succession of 14 of them from the time when David lived to the time when the Israelites were taken {the Babylonian army took the Israelites} away to Babylon. There was a succession of 14 of them from the time when the Israelites were taken {the Babylonian army took the Israelites} away to Babylon until the time when the Messiah was born.

18 This is the account of what happened just before Jesus Christ was born. Mary, his mother, {had publicly promised Joseph that she would marry him} had been publicly promised to marry Joseph. Before they began to sleep together, Mary realized that she was pregnant. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that had caused her to become pregnant. 19 Joseph, her future husband, was a man who obeyed God’s commands. One of those commands was that men must divorce women who had acted immorally. So when Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, he assumed that she was pregnant as a result of her acting immorally. So he decided to break the engagement. But because he did not want to shame her publicly, he decided to do it privately. 20 While he was seriously considering this, much to his surprise, in a dream he saw an angel whom the Lord had sent. The angel said, “Joseph, descendant of King David, do not be afraid that you(sg) would be doing wrong if you(sg) would marry Mary. Instead, begin to treat her as your wife, because the Holy Spirit, not a man, has caused her to be pregnant. 21 She will give birth to a son. Since it is he who will cause that his people will be saved from the guilt of their having sinned, name the baby Jesus, which means ‘the Lord saves people’.” 22 All this happened as a result of what the Lord told the prophet Isaiah to write long ago about what was going to happen. This is what Isaiah wrote: 23 “Listen, a virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son. They will call him Emmanuel.” Emmanuel means ‘God is with us’. 24 When Joseph got up from sleep, he did what the angel whom the Lord had sent commanded him to do. He took Mary home to be his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until she had given birth to a son. And Joseph named him Jesus.