Genesis 1

¹In the beginning, God ^[+] created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

³God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” ⁷God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. ⁸God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

⁹God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good. ¹¹God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth;” and it was so. ¹²The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

¹⁴God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; ¹⁵and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. ¹⁶God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, ¹⁸and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. ¹⁹There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

²⁰God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” ²¹God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. ²²God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

²⁴God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so. ²⁵God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

²⁶God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. ²⁸God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹God said, “Behold, ^[+] I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. ³⁰To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.

³¹God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Matthew 1

^1[+] The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,^[+] the son of David, the son of Abraham.

²Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers. ³Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram. ⁴Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon. ⁵Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse. ⁶Jesse became the father of King David. David the king^[+] became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife. ⁷Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa. ⁸Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah. ⁹Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah. ¹⁰Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah. ¹¹Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

¹²After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. ¹³Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor. ¹⁴Azor became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud. ¹⁵Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob. ¹⁶Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus,^[+] who is called Christ.

¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. ²⁰But when he thought about these things, behold,^[+] an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus,^[+] for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”

²²Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ²³“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”

²⁴Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; ²⁵and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.

Ezra 1

¹Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the LORD’s ^[+] word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

²“Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘The LORD, the God ^[+] of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³Whoever there 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 build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem. ⁴Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’”

⁵Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up, rose up to build the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem. ⁶All those who were around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things, in addition to all that was willingly offered. ⁷Also Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; ⁸even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. ⁹This is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty-nine knives, ¹⁰thirty bowls of gold, four hundred ten silver bowls of a second kind, and one thousand other vessels. ¹¹All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Acts 1

¹The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, ²until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. ³To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about God’s Kingdom. ⁴Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. ⁵For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

⁹When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. ¹⁰While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold,^[+] two men stood by them in white clothing, ¹¹who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³When they had come in, they went up into the upper room where they were staying, that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

¹⁵In these days, Peter stood up in the middle of the disciples (and the number of names was about one hundred twenty), and said, ¹⁶“Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus. ¹⁷For he was counted with us, and received his portion in this ministry. ¹⁸Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness; and falling headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines gushed out. ¹⁹It became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem that in their language that field was called ‘Akeldama,’ that is, ‘The field of blood.’ ²⁰For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his habitation be made desolate. Let no one dwell in it;’and, ‘Let another take his office.’

²¹“Of the men therefore who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²²beginning from the baptism of John to the day that he was received up from us, of these one must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

²³They put forward two: Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴They prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.” ²⁶They drew lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was counted with the eleven apostles.