Birth of Jesus

The birth of Jesus the Messiah is told in detail only by Matthew (chapters 1–2) and Luke (chapters 1–2), and the two accounts complement rather than duplicate each other. In the reign of Caesar Augustus and during the rule of Herod the Great over Judea — likely 6 or 5 BC — Mary, a young virgin of Nazareth in Galilee betrothed to Joseph, a descendant of David, was visited by the angel Gabriel: "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High… and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:31–33). Mary asked how this could be since she was a virgin; Gabriel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God" (1:35). Joseph was reassured in a dream that the conception was of the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:20). A decree of Augustus that all the world should be registered required Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the city of David. There Mary gave birth and laid her son in a manger "because there was no place for them in the inn." That same night an angel announced the news to shepherds keeping watch in the fields, "good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today in the city of David a Savior has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10–11), and a multitude of the heavenly host appeared praising God. Some time later, magi from the East — Gentile sages, probably from Persia or Babylon — followed a star to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem, where they fell down and worshipped the child, offering gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt 2:11). Warned by God, they returned home by another route. Herod, fearing a rival king, ordered the slaughter of the male infants of Bethlehem two years old and under, but Joseph had fled with Mary and the child to Egypt. After Herod's death the family returned to Nazareth. The incarnation — the eternal Son of God taking flesh — is the foundational miracle of the New Testament: "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).