The Creation of the World

1 In the ^abeginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was ^bwithout form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, ^c“Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, ^d“Let there be an expanse¹ in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made² the expanse and ^eseparated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were ^fabove the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven.³ And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, ^g“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth,⁴ and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, ^h“Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants⁵ yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for ⁱsigns and for ^jseasons,⁶ and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God ^kmade the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to ^lrule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds⁷ fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So ^mGod created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, ⁿ“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, ^o“Let us make man⁸ in our image, ^pafter our likeness. And ^qlet them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, ^s“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. ^tYou shall have them for food. 30 And ^uto every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 ^vAnd God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1 ^aThe book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, ^bthe son of David, ^cthe son of Abraham.

2 ^dAbraham was the father of Isaac, and ^eIsaac the father of Jacob, and ^fJacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and ^gJudah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,¹ 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by ^hRahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and ⁱJesse the father of David the king.

And ^jDavid was the father of Solomon by ^kthe wife of Uriah, 7 and ^lSolomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,² 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, ^mand Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,³ and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and ⁿJosiah the father of ^oJechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: ^pJechoniah was the father of ^qShealtiel,⁴ and ^rShealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of ^sJoseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to ^tthe Christ fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

18 Now the birth of ^uJesus Christ⁵ took place in this way. ^vWhen his mother Mary had been betrothed⁶ to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child ^wfrom the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling ^xto put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, ^yan angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and ^zyou shall call his name Jesus, ^afor he will save his people from their sins.” 22 ^bAll this took place ^cto fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

(which means, God ^fwith us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And ^ghe called his name Jesus.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

1 ^aIn the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^bthat the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so ^cthat he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^dhe has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—^ehe is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, ^feveryone whose spirit ^gGod had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. 6 And all who were about them ^haided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. 7 ⁱCyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that ^jNebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. 8 Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of ^kMithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to ^lSheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9 And this was the number of them: ^m30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 10 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; 11 all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

1 In the first book, O ^aTheophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began ^bto do and teach, 2 until the day when ^che was taken up, after he ^dhad given commands ^ethrough the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 ^fHe presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying¹ with them ^ghe ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for ^hJohn baptized with water, ^hbut you will be baptized ⁱwith² the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

The Ascension

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, ^jwill you at this time ^krestore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, ^l“It is not for you to know ^mtimes or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive ⁿpower ^owhen the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and ^pyou will be ^qmy witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and ^rSamaria, and ^sto the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, ^the was lifted up, and ^ua cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, ^vtwo ^wmen stood by them in ^xwhite robes, 11 and said, ^y“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, ^zwill ^acome in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

12 Then ^bthey returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to ^cthe upper room, where they were staying, ^dPeter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon ^ethe Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these ^fwith one accord ^gwere devoting themselves to prayer, together with ^hthe women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and ⁱhis brothers.³

15 In those days Peter stood up among ^jthe brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, ^kthe Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, ^lwho became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For ^mhe was numbered among us and was allotted his share in ⁿthis ministry.” 18 (Now this man ^oacquired a field with ^pthe reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong⁴ he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called ^qin their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

and

21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during ^tall the time that the Lord Jesus ^uwent in and out among us, 22 ^vbeginning from the baptism of John until the day when ^whe was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us ^xa witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called ^yBarsabbas, who was also called ^zJustus, and ^aMatthias. 24 And ^bthey prayed and said, “You, Lord, ^cwho know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in ^dthis ministry and ^eapostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.