¹Inasmuch as  ²many have undertaken to  ³draw up a narrative concerning the  ⁴matters which have been fully accomplished among us,

Even as  ¹those who from the beginning became eyewitnesses and  ²ministers of the  ³word have  ⁴delivered them to us,

It seemed good to  ¹me also, having carefully investigated all things from the first, to write them out for you in an orderly fashion, most excellent  ²Theophilus,

So that you may fully know the certainty of the things concerning which you were instructed.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zachariah, of the  ¹course of Abijah; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

And  ¹they were both  ²righteous before God,  ³walking in all the commandments and  ⁴ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

And they had  ¹no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in their days.

And while he served as priest in the order of his course before God,

According to the custom of the priestly service, the lot fell to him to enter into the temple of the Lord and  ¹burn incense.

And all the multitude of the people were  ¹praying outside at the hour of the burning of incense.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

And Zachariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zachariah, because your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will  ¹bear you a son, and you shall call his name  ²John.

And you will have joy and exultation, and many will rejoice at his birth.

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall by  ¹no means drink wine and liquor. And he will be filled with the  ²Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb,

And many of the sons of Israel he will turn to the Lord their God.

And it is he who will go before Him in the spirit and power of  ¹Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient  ²to the  ³prudence of the righteous, to prepare for the Lord a people made ready.

And Zachariah said to the angel, By what shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in  ¹years.

And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and I was sent to speak to you and to announce the good news of these things to you.

And behold, you shall be silent and not able to speak until the day that these things happen, because you did  ¹not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.

And the people were waiting for Zachariah, and they marveled at his delaying in the temple.

And when he came out, he was not able to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he made signs to them and remained dumb.

And when the days of his service were fulfilled, he went to his house.

And after these days Elizabeth his wife conceived and stayed in seclusion for five months, saying,

In this way has the Lord dealt with me in the days in which He looked upon me to take away my reproach among men.

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of  ¹Galilee named Nazareth,

To a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of  ¹David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

And he came to her and said, Rejoice, you who have been graced! The Lord is with  ¹you.

And she was greatly troubled at this saying and began reasoning what kind of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name  ¹Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the  ¹Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of  ²David His father,

And He will  ¹reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His  ²kingdom there will be no end.

But Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I have not known a man?

And the angel answered and said to her, The  ¹Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will  ²overshadow you; therefore also the  ³holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth your relative, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who is called barren,

Because no word will be  ¹impossible  ²with God.

And Mary said, Behold, the slave of the Lord. May it happen to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

And Mary rose up in those days and went to the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah,

And entered into the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth.

And when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the  ¹baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And she lifted up her voice with a loud cry and said,  ¹Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the  ²fruit of your womb!

And how has this happened to me, that the mother of my  ¹Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby leaped with exultation in my womb.

 ¹And blessed is she who has  ²believed, because there will be a  ³completion of the things spoken to her from the Lord.

And Mary said,  ¹My soul  ²magnifies the Lord,

And my spirit  ¹has exulted in God my Savior;

Because He has looked upon the low estate of His slave. For behold, from now on all generations will count me blessed,

Because the  ¹Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.

And His  ¹mercy is unto generations and generations, unto those who fear Him.

He has exercised might with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the understanding of their heart.

He has brought down potentates from thrones and has exalted the humble;

The hungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has upheld Israel His servant to remember mercy,

Even  ¹as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.

Now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.

And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy with her, and they rejoiced with her.

And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the little child, and they tried to call him after the name of his father, Zachariah.

Yet his mother answered and said, No, but he shall be called John.

And they said to her, There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.

And they gestured to his father as to what he would want him to be called.

And asking for a tablet, he wrote, saying, John is his name. And they all marveled.

And his  ¹mouth was opened instantly, and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak, blessing God.

And fear came on all those dwelling around them, and in all the hill country of Judea all these  ¹things were spread about.

And all who heard these things put them in their heart, saying, What then will this little child be? For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

And Zachariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and accomplished  ¹redemption for His people,

And raised a  ¹horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant,

Even  ¹as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets  ²from of old —

Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,

To accomplish  ¹mercy with our fathers and to  ²remember His holy covenant,

The  ¹oath which He swore to Abraham our father,

To grant us that we, having been delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might  ¹serve Him without fear,

In  ¹holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

And you also, little child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the  ¹Lord to  ²prepare His ways,

To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins,

Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising  ¹sun will visit us from on high,

To shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And the little child grew and became strong in  ¹spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his presentation to Israel.

And in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the  ¹first census that took place when Quirinius governed Syria.

And all went to be registered, each to his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to David's city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the  ¹house and family of David,

To be registered with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant.

And while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bear,

And she  ¹bore her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a  ²manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

And there were  ¹shepherds in the same region, spending their nights in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they feared greatly.

And the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I announce to you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people,

Because today a Savior has been born to you in David's city, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the  ¹sign to you: you will find a  ²baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army,  ¹praising God and saying,

Glory in the highest places to God, and on earth  ¹peace among  ²men of His good pleasure.

And when the angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds spoke to one another, Let us go then to Bethlehem and see this  ¹thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they came in haste and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.

And when they had seen this, they made known the word which was spoken to them concerning this little child.

And all those who heard marveled at the things spoken to them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things which they had heard and seen, even as it was spoken to them.

And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise Him, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

(Even as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”)

And to give a sacrifice according to what is said in the  ¹law of the Lord:  ²A pair of turtledoves or two young doves.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was  ¹righteous and devout, waiting for the  ²consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

And it had been divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the little child Jesus for them to do according to the custom of the law concerning Him,

He received Him into his arms and blessed God and said,

Now You release Your slave, Master, according to Your word, in peace;

For my eyes have seen Your  ¹salvation,

Which You have prepared before the face of all the peoples,

A  ¹light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel.

And His father and mother marveled at the things being spoken about Him.

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, Behold, this One is  ¹appointed for the falling and rising up of many in Israel and for a  ²sign spoken against —

And a  ¹sword will pierce through your own soul also — so that the reasonings of many hearts may be  ²revealed.

And there was one Anna, a prophetess, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity,

 ¹And she was a widow up to the age of eighty-four, who did not depart from the temple,  ²serving God with fastings and petitions night and day.

And at that very hour she came up and returned thanks to God, and spoke concerning Him to all those waiting for the  ¹redemption  ²of Jerusalem.

And when they had finished all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city,  ¹Nazareth.

And the little child  ¹grew and became strong, being filled with  ²wisdom, and the  ³grace of God was upon Him.

And His parents went year by year to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover.

And when He became  ¹twelve years old, they went up according to the  ²custom of the feast.

And when they had completed the days, while they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it.

But supposing that He was in the company, they went a day's journey and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances.

And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him.

And after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them and questioning them.

And all those who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.

And when they saw Him, they were astounded; and His mother said to Him, Child, why have You treated us like this? Behold, Your father and I, being  ¹greatly distressed, have been seeking You.

And He said to them, Why is it that you were seeking Me? Did you not know that I  ¹must be  ²in the things of  ³My Father?

And they did not understand the word which He spoke to them.

And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was  ¹subject to them. And His mother carefully kept all these things in her heart.

And Jesus advanced in wisdom and  ¹stature and in the  ²grace manifested in Him before God and men.