The first three gospels - the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke - are known as the synoptic gospels. The Book of Matthew was written, according to scholars, between 80 and 90 C.E. Scholars agree that the author was a Jew by birth, and may have lived in Palestine. There is disagreement as to whether the book was originally written in Greek or Aramaic.
The text that follows is Matthew 1:18-2:23 - that is, the first two chapters of the book, with the omission of the genealogical introduction (Matt. 1:1-17). It includes links to quotations from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible that aim to emphasize that events in the life of Jesus are a fulfillment of divine prophecies uttered by the Hebrew prophets. These links lie at the very heart of the break between Judaism and early Christianity, and we will be studying them closely.
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce herquietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet:
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
2 and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
5 In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written:
6 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people
Israel. '
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child
was.
10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented
him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I
tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,
15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: Out of Egypt I called my son.
16 When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two
years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt
20 and said, Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to
the district of Galilee,
23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: He will be called a Nazarene.
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