Matthew 1:16-18
EasyEnglish Bible
16 Jacob was the father of Joseph.
Joseph married Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is the one who is called Christ, the Messiah.[a]
17 So then, there were 14 generations from Abraham to David. There were another 14 generations from David to the time they took the Israelite people away to Babylon. Then there were 14 generations from that time until Jesus, the Messiah, was born.[b]
Jesus is born
18 This is how Jesus Christ was born. His mother's name was Mary. She had promised to marry a man called Joseph. Then she discovered that she was pregnant. This happened before they started to live together. It was the Holy Spirit that caused this to happen to her.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1:16 ‘Christ’ and ‘Messiah’ both mean someone that God has chosen to be a special king. ‘Christ’ is the Greek word. ‘Messiah’ is the Hebrew word.
- 1:17 The names of all their ancestors were very important to the Jews. Then they knew that they were Jews. The list shows that Jesus was in the same family as Abraham, Judah, Joshua and David. They were his ancestors. Matthew records Jesus' ancestors as far as Joseph. Jesus was Mary's son, but he was not Joseph's son. Matthew explains this in the next verses. But, when Joseph married Mary, he became the father of Jesus by the law.
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