Bible Lesson 3

La Noticia del Nacimiento

The Birth Announcement

Now comes the beginning of the literal narration of the birth of Jesus. Behind the scandal and messy confusion that Joseph and Mary experienced on the surface of this account, we can see God working out several miracles:

A virgin becomes pregnant
God, who has existed eternally as spirit, is conceived in flesh in a womb
An angel appears to a man, giving him specific instructions from God
A prophecy, made by Isaiah about 600 years previously, is fulfilled

¡Increíble!

How to Use This Page:

1. Listen to the audio as you read along with the Spanish on the left.

2. Open the English translation, and read the two side-by-side, making sure you understand the Spanish.

3. Close the English, and listen to the audio again, reading along in Spanish.

4. Close the Spanish, and listen once more. Maybe shut your eyes, and just try to catch as much as you can.

El nacimiento de Jesús, el Cristo, fue así: Su madre, María, estaba comprometida para casarse con José, pero antes de unirse a él, resultó que estaba encinta por obra del Espíritu Santo. Como José, su esposo, era un hombre justo y no quería exponerla a vergüenza pública, resolvió divorciarse de ella en secreto.

Pero cuando él estaba considerando hacerlo, se le apareció en sueños un ángel del Señor y le dijo: «José, hijo de David, no temas recibir a María por esposa, porque ella ha concebido por obra del Espíritu Santo. Dará a luz un hijo, y le pondrás por nombre Jesús,porque él salvará a su pueblo de sus pecados.»

Todo esto sucedió para que se cumpliera lo que el Señor había dicho por medio del profeta: «La virgen concebirá y dará a luz un hijo, y lo llamarán Emanuel» (que significa «Dios con nosotros»).

Cuando José se despertó, hizo lo que el ángel del Señor le había mandado y recibió a María por esposa. Pero no tuvo relaciones conyugales con ella hasta que dio a luz un hijo, a quien le puso por nombre Jesús.

The birth of Jesus, the Christ, was like this: His mother, Mary, was engaged to get married to Joseph, but before uniting with him, it turned out that she was pregnant by a work of the Holy Spirit. As Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public shame, he resolved to divorce her in secret.

But when he was considering doing it, there appeared to him in dreams an angel of the Lord and said to him, “Joseph, son of David, don’t fear to receive Mary as your wife, because she has conceived by a work of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.

All of this happened so that would be fulfilled that which the Lord had said by means of the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and received Mary as his wife. But he had no conjugal relations with her until she gave birth to a son, to whom he gave the name Jesus.

An Angel Appears to Joseph in a Dream, by Gaetano Gandolfi, c. 1790. Church tradition holds that Joseph was an older man.