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Jesus is born

18 This is how Jesus Christ was born. His mother's name was Mary. She had promised to marry a man called Joseph. Then she discovered that she was pregnant. This happened before they started to live together. It was the Holy Spirit that caused this to happen to her. 19 Joseph was a good man. He wanted to do what was right. He did not want her to become ashamed in front of people. So he decided to stop their marriage secretly.[a] 20 He thought about what he should do. Then an angel came from the Lord God to see him. The angel came to Joseph while he was dreaming. The angel said, ‘Joseph, you who are from the family of King David, take Mary home as your wife. Do not be afraid to do that. The baby that is growing inside her is from the Holy Spirit.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:19 Joseph thought that Mary had had sex with another man. When two Jewish people had promised to marry each other, it was not easy to stop the marriage. Joseph could have told people in a public place that Mary had done something wrong. This would stop the marriage. The law said that they should then kill Mary. But Joseph wanted to be kind to Mary. Then the angel told him that Mary had not done anything wrong, so he should marry her.