A.

Reading from the Book of Genesis.

Chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, ' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness, He called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse, heaven. And there was evening and there was morning the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land Earth and the waters that were gathered together, He called seas. And God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth sprout.

Vegetation.

Plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the Earth. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be light in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the Earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the Earth to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, Let the water sworn with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the water sworn, according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas and let birds multiply on the Earth. ' And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. ' And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. ' And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. ' And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food. ' And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the Earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land. Land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a midst was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Paishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havala, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. Delium and Onyx Stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gaihan. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigeress, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam.

There was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and.

Flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

A reading from the Book of Psalm. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, He prosperes. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

A reading of the Gospel according to Matthew 1.

The Book.

Of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zira by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hesron, and Hesron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amenadab, and Amenadab the father of Nation, and Nation the father of Salman, and Salman the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed, by Ruth, and Obed, the father of Jesse, and Jesse, the father of David, the King, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, Abajah, and Solomon the father of Reuboam, and Reuboam, the father of Abajah, and Abajah, the father of Asaph, and Asaph, the father of Jehashifat, and Jehashifat, the father of Joram, and Joram, the father of Uziah, and Uzae, the father of Jotham, and Jotham, the father of Ahas, and Ahas, the father of Hezakiah, and Hezakiah, the father of Manassah, and Manassah, the father of Amos, and Amos, the father of Joseph. Josiah, and Josiah, the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Sheelteel, and Sheelteel, the father of Zarebabel, and Zarebabel, the fatherof Abayud, and Abayud, the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim, the father of Azor, the father of Zadok, and Zadok, the father of Aakim, and Aakim, the father of Eliud, and Eliud, the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar, the father of Matin, and Matin, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who was called Christ. So all the generations of from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the exploitation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother, Mary, had been betroth to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. ' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgins shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Jude and the days of Herod the King, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? ' For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled. In all with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the Prophet, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

Then Herod, summon the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and going into the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrh, and being warned in a dream not to returnto Herod. They departed to their own country by another way. Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt, I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men, then was fulfilled what was spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Arkaleus was reigning over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazaree.