The ancestry of Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, who was descended from Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, and Jacob of Judah and his brothers,

So the whole number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen, and from David to the Babylonian Exile, fourteen, and from the Babylonian Exile to the Christ, fourteen.

Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones!

And I tell you, many will come from the east and from the west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven,

'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of dead men but of living!"

But as to the dead being raised, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?

As he promised our forefathers To have mercy on Abraham and his descendants forever!"

"And the oath that he swore to our forefather Abraham,

Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you, God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones!

the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

And did not this woman, who is a descendant of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen years, have to be released from those bonds on the Sabbath day?"

There you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, while you are put outside.

And it came about that the beggar died and was carried away by the angels to the companionship of Abraham, and the rich man too died and was buried.

And in Hades he looked up, tormented as he was, and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus beside him.

And he called to him and said, 'Father Abraham! take pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in torment, here in the flames!'

And Abraham said, 'My child, remember that you received your blessings in your lifetime, and Lazarus had his misfortunes in his; and now he is being comforted here, while you are in anguish.

Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.'

But he said, 'No! Father Abraham, but if someone will go to them from the dead, they will repent!'

Jesus said to him, "Salvation has come to this house today, for he too is a descendant of Abraham.

But that the dead are raised to life, even Moses indicated in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

They answered, "We are descended from Abraham, and have never been anyone's slaves. How can you say to us, 'You will be set free'?"

I know that you are descended from Abraham, yet you want to kill me, because there is no room in your hearts for my teaching.

They answered, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, then do what Abraham did.

But instead you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth he has heard from God. Abraham would not have done that.

The Jews said to him, "Now we are sure that you are possessed! Abraham is dead and so are the prophets, and yet you say, 'If anyone observes my teaching, he will never know what death is!'

Are you a greater man than our forefather Abraham? Yet he is dead and the prophets are dead. What do you claim to be?"

Your forefather Abraham exulted at the thought of seeing my coming. He has seen it, and it has made him glad."

The Jews said to him, "You are not fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?"

Jesus said to them, "I tell you, I existed before Abraham was born!"

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has done this honor to his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to let him go.

You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the agreement that God made with your forefathers when he said to Abraham, 'Through your posterity all the families of the earth will be blessed.'

He answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The glorious God appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

And he made the agreement of circumcision with him, and so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

and they were carried back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

As the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise God had made to Abraham, the people became more and more numerous in Egypt,

'I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses was terrified and did not dare to look at it.

Brothers! Descendants of the house of Abraham, and those others among you who reverence God! It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

Then what are we to say about our ancestor Abraham?

for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.

That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us;

Abraham, hoping against hope, had faith, and so became the father of many nations, in fulfilment of the Scripture, "So countless shall your descendants be."

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants."

I ask then, has God repudiated his people? By no means. Why, I am an Israelite myself, I am descended from Abraham, and I belong to the tribe of Benjamin.

If they are Hebrews, so am I! If they are Israelites, so am I! If they are descended from Abraham, so am I!

Just as Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him as uprightness.

So you see, the real descendants of Abraham are the men of faith.

The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, "All the heathen will be blessed through you."

So the men of faith share the blessing of Abraham and his faith.

in order that the blessing given to Abraham might through Jesus Christ reach the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and his line. It does not say, "and to your lines," in the plural, but in the singular, "and to your line," that is, Christ.

If our inheritance rests on the Law, it has nothing to do with the promise. Yet it was as a promise that God bestowed it upon Abraham.

And if you belong to Christ, then you are true descendants of Abraham and his heirs under the promise.

For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman.

For of course it was not angels but the descendants of Abraham that he came to help.

For when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to make oath by, he did so by himself,

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing,

to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

Now see how great this man must have been to have the patriarch Abraham give him a tenth of the spoil.

Those of the descendants of Levi who are appointed to the priesthood are directed by the Law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers, although they are descended from Abraham like themselves.

But this man, whose ancestry is not connected with theirs, collected tithes from Abraham himself, and gave his blessing to the man who had received the promises from God.

In one way of putting it, Levi himself, the collector of the tithes, through Abraham paid him tithes,

for none of Abraham's posterity was yet begotten at the time of his meeting with Melchizedek.

Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going.

Faith enabled Abraham, when he was put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had accepted God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son,

Was not our forefather Abraham made upright for his good deeds, for offering his son Isaac on the altar?

and so the Scripture came true that says, "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness, and he was called God's friend."

like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham, and called him Master. You are true daughters of hers, if you do right and are unafraid.