¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was engaged ⁿ to marry Joseph, but before they married, she learned she was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Mary’s husband, Joseph, was a good man, he did not want to disgrace her in public, so he planned to divorce her secretly.

²⁰While Joseph thought about these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the baby in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus, ⁿ because he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³“The virgin will be pregnant. She will have a son, and they will name him Immanuel,” ⁿ which means “God is with us.”

²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do. Joseph took Mary as his wife, ²⁵but he did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to the son. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Read in Logos

Matthew 1:18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Footnotes

nengaged For the Jewish people an engagement was a lasting agreement, which could only be broken by a divorce. If a bride-to-be was unfaithful, it was considered adultery, and she could be put to death.
nJesus The name “Jesus” means “salvation.”
n“The virgin … Immanuel” Quotation from Isaiah 7:14.