Chapter 1

1:1-17 Take some pieces of paper. On each piece, write 3 names from the list. They should be the names of the grandfather, father and son in a family. The examples below show how you could write them.

• On the first piece, the names would start with Abraham. So you would write, ‘grandfather Abraham, father Isaac, son Jacob’.
• On the second piece, the names would start with Isaac. So you would write, ‘grandfather Isaac, father Jacob, son Judah’. Then you could continue in a similar way with other names.
• Then people in a team could pick up the pieces in turn. One person could pick up the first piece. That person could read it to the audience and he/she could show it to them. Then another person could pick up the second piece, and so on.
• Make short dramatic stories about some people in the list.
• Write the people’s names with spaces between them. Draw lines between their names to show the relationships between them.

1:1 About whom is this record? Who is the main person? How does Matthew describe him? What do you know about the other two people that Matthew names?

1:2 Make a list of the fathers and their sons. Tell what you know about those people.

1:3-5 What do you know about Ruth and her relatives? (There is a book about her in the Old Testament.) Tell what you know about the other people.

1:6-11 What do you know about these people? What do you know about Babylon?

1:12-15 What do you know about any of these people?

1:16 Who is the person to whom Mary gave birth? What do you know about Joseph and Mary?

1:17 What is unusual about this part of the story? What might be the reason why Matthew mentions these people in this particular verse?

1:18-25; 2:1-12, 13-18, 19-23; 3:1-12, 13-17, 4:1-11, 12-17, 18-22, 23-25 Discuss these events with some young people. Help them to make this story into a dramatic play. Help them to work with some children to act the play. They could act it for other people in that neighbourhood.

Help some children to make pictures that show these events.

1:18 What happened in this family? What were the unusual things that happened? What do you think about that?

1:19 What do you learn about Joseph? What did he want to do? Why did he want to do that? What do you think about what he wanted to do?

1:20 What happened? What should Joseph do? Why should he do that? What was unusual about that?

1:21 What did the messenger tell Joseph? Why should Joseph call the baby ‘Jesus’? What does the name ‘Jesus’ mean?

1:22 Why did all those things happen? What do you think about that?

1:23 The prophet had said that something would happen. What would happen? Look at the verses in chapter 1. Which verse (or verses) are about the virgin that would have a baby? Which verses are about ‘a son’? Which verses are about his name?

1:24 What happened? What do you think about that?

1:25 What do you learn? What do you think about that?