In those days, Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that a census should be taken of the whole empire. 2 (This was the first census, taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)[1] 3 And everyone went to be registered, each to his own town.
4 So Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem — because he was of the house and family line of David. 5 He went to register with Mary, who was pledged to him in marriage and was expecting a child.
6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth, 7 and she delivered her firstborn son. She wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the guest room.[2]
8 Now there were shepherds in that same region, staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock at night. 9 An angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Look — I’m bringing you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is the Anointed One, the Lord. 12 And here is the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a feeding trough.”
13 Suddenly, a whole host of heaven’s army was with the angel, praising God and saying:
14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those he favors.”[3]
15 When the angels had left them and gone back into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the feeding trough. 17 When they saw him, they spread the word of what they had been told about this child. 18 And everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these words, turning them over in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, honoring and praising God for everything they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
21 When eight days had passed and it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus — the name the angel had given before he was conceived in the womb.
22 And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be called holy to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.[4]
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. This man was upright and devout, waiting for the comfort of Israel,[5] and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. 27 Led by the Spirit, he came into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Now, Master, you are letting your slave go in peace, just as you said. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared before all peoples — 32 a light of revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
33 The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: “Listen: this child is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be spoken against —[6] 35 and a sword will pierce your own soul as well — so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare.”
36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old. She had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.[7] 38 Coming up at that very hour, she began giving thanks to God and speaking about the child to all who were waiting for the freeing of Jerusalem.
39 When they had done everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the feast. 43 After the festival days were over, they started home, but the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem — and his parents didn’t know it. 44 Assuming he was in the traveling group, they went a day’s journey and then began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they didn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him.
46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was astonished at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were stunned. His mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
49 He said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he meant.
51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these words in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and people.
Notes
Note 1. Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was the Roman legate governing Syria, the province that oversaw Judea. A Roman census (apographe) was a registration of a subject population, taken for taxation. The date is a long-standing difficulty: Josephus places Quirinius’s census in AD 6, when Judea came under direct Roman rule, while Luke 1:5 and Matthew 2:1 set the birth in the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC. Proposals to close the gap — an earlier term of office for Quirinius, or a different sense for “first” (prote) — have each been contested, and the wording has never been settled. ↩
Note 2. The word rendered “guest room” is katalyma, a lodging or spare room in a house — the same word Luke uses for the “upper room” of the Last Supper (22:11). It is not the ordinary word for a commercial inn. ↩
Note 3. The manuscripts split here. The oldest read a genitive, eudokias, giving “peace among those he favors” — peace for the people God has chosen. Later manuscripts behind the King James Version read a nominative, eudokia, giving the familiar “peace, good will toward men.” A single letter shifts the promise from peace to certain people toward peace and goodwill for all. ↩
Note 4. The law in Leviticus 12 required a lamb for this offering, but permitted “two turtledoves or two young pigeons” for anyone who could not afford one. ↩
Note 5. The Greek word is paraklēsis, “comfort” or “consolation”; older English versions render the phrase “the consolation of Israel.” In the Greek Old Testament the same word-root opens Isaiah 40:1 — “Comfort, comfort my people.” ↩
Note 6. The Greek reads keitai eis ptōsin kai anastasin pollōn — literally “is set for the fall and rising of many.” The word for “rising,” anastasis, is the word the New Testament elsewhere uses for resurrection. “Spoken against” is antilegomenon, “contradicted, opposed”; Luke uses the same verb of the earliest Christians in Acts 28:22 — “everywhere it is spoken against.” ↩
Note 7. The Greek is ambiguous. It can mean Anna was eighty-four years old, or that she had been a widow for eighty-four years — which, added to a marriage that began in her youth, would put her past a hundred. Translators have gone both ways, and the text does not settle it. ↩