Study Desk

To do kindness with our fathers, And to be mindful of His holy covenant,

And thou, child, Prophet of the Highest Shalt thou be called; For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, To prepare His ways.

To give knowledge of salvation to His people In remission of their sins,

And the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit, and he was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

and all were going to be enrolled, each to his proper city,

and Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, that is called Bethlehem, because of his being of the house and family of David,

to enroll himself with Mary his betrothed wife, being with child.

And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, then was his name called Jesus, having been so called by the messenger before his being conceived in the womb.

then he took him in his arms, and blessed God, and he said,

And Joseph and his mother were wondering at the things spoken concerning him,

and Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, `Lo, this [one] is set for the falling and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against --

And his parents were going yearly to Jerusalem, at the feast of the passover,

and having finished the days, in their returning the child Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother did not know,

and all those hearing him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

And, having seen him, they were amazed, and his mother said unto him, `Child, why didst thou thus to us? lo, thy father and I, sorrowing, were seeking thee.'

and he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and he was subject to them, and his mother was keeping all these sayings in her heart,

And in the fifteenth year of the government of Tiberius Caesar -- Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother, tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene --

as it hath been written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, `A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye His paths;

John answered, saying to all, `I indeed with water do baptise you, but he cometh who is mightier than I, of whom I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his sandals -- he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire;

whose winnowing shovel [is] in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and will gather the wheat to his storehouse, and the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.'