Christmas Bible Verses: Short Scripture for Cards
Scripture for Christmas cards, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning: the Nativity story, the prophecies, the four Christmas Masses and Emmanuel, God with us.
The best-known Christmas Bible verse is Luke 2:11, the angel’s news to the shepherds keeping watch near Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born: “For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Isaiah 9:6 and John 1:14, both read at the Christmas Masses, come close behind, and the whole story is in Luke 2:1–20 and Matthew 1–2. AngelGuard gathers them below with short verses for cards, the prophecies and the readings of the four Christmas Masses, all in AngelGuard’s English text based on the World English Bible, Catholic Edition.
All verses below are quoted from the AngelGuard English text based on the public-domain World English Bible (Catholic Edition), with key terms revised to the Latin Vulgate.
Christmas has a great deal of Scripture behind it, and most of it is short enough to read at the table or write inside a card. The story itself is told twice. St. Luke tells it with Mary and the shepherds at the center: the journey to Bethlehem, the birth, the manger, the angels in the night. St. Matthew tells it with Joseph and the wise men at the center: the dream, the name, the star. St. John does not tell the story at all. He says what it means, in one line: “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Behind all three stand the prophets, who waited centuries for this child, and the Church still reads them at Christmas. The verses below are grouped the way people look for them: the best-known first, then short ones for cards, the Nativity story, the prophecies, the readings of the four Christmas Masses, the verses about Emmanuel, and two for anyone who is grieving this Christmas. Each one has a line on why it matters.
Luke 2:11
For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
The angel’s news to the shepherds, and the line the Church sings as the psalm refrain at Midnight Mass, the Mass during the Night: “Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.” Notice “to you” and “today”: the news is addressed to ordinary people, and it never becomes old news.
Isaiah 9:6
For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Four titles for one child, written centuries before Bethlehem and read at the Mass during the Night. Christians have always heard in them the child born there.
John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
St. John’s whole Christmas story in one sentence, from the Gospel of the Mass during the Day. The Church calls this the Incarnation: the Son of God took a human nature to save us in it (CCC 461).
Luke 2:14
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.”
The angels’ song over the shepherds’ field, and the first words of the Gloria, which the Church leaves out of Sunday Mass through Advent so that it rings out again at Christmas.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Not a Christmas story, but the reason for one. The Catechism quotes it to say why the Word became flesh: so that we might know God’s love (CCC 458).
1 John 4:9
By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.
St. John again, saying plainly what Christmas shows: God’s love made visible in a Son sent into the world. The Catechism sets this verse beside John 3:16 (CCC 458).
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children.
St. Paul never tells the Christmas story, but he gives its meaning in two lines: born to a woman, at the time God chose, so that we could become God’s children.
Titus 2:11
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
From the second reading at the Mass during the Night. The grace of God appeared in a child, and it is meant for everyone.
Short Christmas Bible verses for cards
A verse for a Christmas card has to fit under your greeting and make sense without an explanation. Each of these is under twenty words; write the reference under it so the person can look it up. Luke 2:11 and Luke 2:14, above, are the two most often chosen, and these are the next best.
John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
For a friend who has had a dark year. It does not say the darkness is gone; it says the darkness has not won.
John 1:16
From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
One short sentence, and the whole of Christmas: a gift given on top of a gift.
Matthew 2:10
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
The wise men at the end of a long road. A good line for a card that travels a long way too.
Matthew 1:21
You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.
The angel tells Joseph what the name means. For a card that wants to say what Christmas is for.
Isaiah 60:1
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the LORD’s glory has risen on you!
From the first reading of the Epiphany, and bright enough for any card sent between Christmas and January 6.
Psalm 96:11
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.
From the psalm of the Mass during the Night. The joy is too big for people alone, so heaven and earth are asked to join in.
Psalm 97:11
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
From the psalm of the Mass at Dawn. For a card to a new family, a newly married couple, or anyone starting again.
Psalm 98:3
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
From the psalm of the Mass during the Day. For a card to someone who lives far away.
Luke 1:68
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
The first line of the Benedictus, the song Zechariah sang when his son John was named. He has visited his people: a Christmas greeting from the Bible itself.
Romans 15:13
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
Not about the manger, but a blessing to write under it, for someone who needs hope more than cheer this year.
2 Corinthians 9:15
Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!
Nine words of thanks for a gift too great to describe. On a Christmas card it needs no explanation.
The Christmas story in the Bible: Luke 2 and Matthew 1–2
The birth of Jesus is told in two Gospels, St. Matthew 1:18 to 2:12 and St. Luke 2:1–20. The verses below follow the story from Joseph’s dream to the gifts of the wise men. On Christmas Eve, Luke 2:1–20 is the passage to read aloud before the Christ Child is laid in the manger: it takes about three minutes.
Matthew 1:20
But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
Joseph had decided to separate from Mary quietly (Matthew 1:19). A dream changed his mind, and the angel’s first words to him are the ones the shepherds hear too: don’t be afraid.
Matthew 1:24
Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself;
Joseph never speaks a word in the Gospels. He does what he is asked, and that is his whole part in Christmas.
Luke 2:4-5
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant.
Joseph goes to Bethlehem because he belongs to the family of David, and so the Son of David is born in David’s city, as the prophet Micah had said.
Luke 2:6-7
While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The birth itself takes one verse. The feeding trough is the manger of every Nativity scene, and “no room for them in the inn” is a question Christmas puts to every one of us.
Luke 2:8-9
There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
The first people told were shepherds working the night shift. The Catechism puts it simply: “Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event” (CCC 525).
Luke 2:10
Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.
“Don’t be afraid” comes before the good news, as it did for Zechariah, for Mary and for Joseph. Christmas begins by taking fear away.
Luke 2:12
This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.
The sign is not a light in the sky but a baby in a feeding trough. God chose to be recognized by how small he was.
Luke 2:16
They came with haste and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough.
They came with haste. Every Nativity scene is this verse: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the child in the manger.
Luke 2:19
But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
When the visitors had gone, Mary kept everything and turned it over in her heart. A verse for the quiet at the end of Christmas Day.
Luke 2:20
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.
The shepherds go back to the same fields and the same sheep, but praising God. Christmas does not take anyone out of ordinary life; it changes how that life is lived.
Matthew 2:1-2
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him.”
The wise men are the first people from outside Israel to come looking for Jesus. The Church sees in them the first of all the nations who welcome him, and keeps their coming at the Epiphany (CCC 528).
Matthew 2:11
They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew never says how many wise men came; the three gifts gave us the three kings. St. Irenaeus read the gifts as a confession: gold for a king, frankincense for God, myrrh for one who would die for us.
On Christmas morning, our Christmas Day prayer reads the Nativity from St. Luke and St. John aloud, in the Douay-Rheims, with a prayer for the whole house. The wise men reach the manger at the Epiphany.
Old Testament prophecies of the birth of Jesus
Christians have always read the Old Testament as a long wait for this child, and the Church reads these prophecies through Advent and at Christmas itself. One note for anyone checking them in the New American Bible, the translation read at Mass in the United States: it numbers two of them one verse lower, Isaiah 9:6 as 9:5 and Micah 5:2 as 5:1. They are the same verses.
Genesis 3:15
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. She shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel.
The Church calls it the Protoevangelium, the “first gospel”: right after the Fall, God promises that a descendant of the woman will win, and many Fathers of the Church saw the woman as Mary (CCC 410–411). Here the verse follows the Latin Vulgate, “she shall crush”; Bibles translated from the Hebrew, like the one read at Mass, say “he” or “they”, the woman’s offspring. It is read on December 8, the Immaculate Conception.
Numbers 24:17
I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob.
A pagan seer, Balaam, sees a star rising out of Jacob. St. Irenaeus already connected it with the star the wise men followed.
Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
The sign given to King Ahaz, which St. Matthew quotes when he tells of the angel’s message to Joseph (Matthew 1:23). It is read on the Fourth Sunday of Advent in Year A.
Isaiah 9:2
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death.
The first line of the first reading at the Mass during the Night, where it is numbered Isaiah 9:1. The Church begins Christmas night, in the long dark of December, with a great light.
Isaiah 11:1
A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
Jesse was King David’s father. The family tree looked cut down to a stump, and from it a new shoot grows. The Jesse tree of Advent takes its name from this verse.
Micah 5:2
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.
The prophecy the chief priests and scribes quoted to Herod when the wise men asked where the king was to be born (Matthew 2:5–6). Bethlehem was small, and that was the point.
Jeremiah 23:5
“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch; and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
A righteous Branch for David: a king from David’s line who would reign with justice. The angel tells Mary that God will give her son “the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32).
The O Antiphons of December 17 to 23 pray the prophets’ titles for Christ, from Wisdom and the Root of Jesse to Emmanuel, one evening at a time, and the Jesse tree follows the promise from Creation to the manger, one ornament each evening of Advent.
Christmas Eve and Christmas morning readings: the Gospels of the four Masses
The Church celebrates Christmas with four Masses, each with its own readings, and any one of them fulfills the Christmas obligation, including the Vigil Mass on the evening of December 24. These are the readings in the Lectionary for Mass:
- The Vigil Mass, on Christmas Eve: Isaiah 62:1–5, Psalm 89, Acts 13:16–17, 22–25, and the Gospel, Matthew 1:1–25 (or the shorter 1:18–25).
- The Mass during the Night, often called Midnight Mass: Isaiah 9:1–6, Psalm 96, Titus 2:11–14, and Luke 2:1–14.
- The Mass at Dawn: Isaiah 62:11–12, Psalm 97, Titus 3:4–7, and Luke 2:15–20.
- The Mass during the Day: Isaiah 52:7–10, Psalm 98, Hebrews 1:1–6, and John 1:1–18 (or the shorter 1:1–5, 9–14).
The Lectionary numbers Isaiah 9 as the New American Bible does; in the translation quoted here, the same passage is Isaiah 9:2–7. Below is the first verse of each Gospel.
Matthew 1:18
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
The Vigil Gospel opens with Jesus’ family tree from Abraham, and its shorter form begins here. It is the Christmas story from Joseph’s side, told on the evening before.
Luke 2:1
Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.
The Gospel of the Mass during the Night begins with an emperor counting his people and ends with angels singing over a field.
Luke 2:15
When the angels went away from them into the sky, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
The Gospel of the Mass at Dawn picks up where the night left off, with the shepherds setting out to see. It is the shortest of the four Christmas Gospels, six verses for the early risers.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Gospel of the Mass during the Day has no shepherds and no manger, only the meaning: the child is the eternal Word, through whom all things were made.
For the prayers around these Masses, from a Christmas Eve prayer to a grace for the Christmas table and the blessing of the Nativity scene, see our Christmas prayers. The nine nights before, December 16 to 24, are the Christmas novena, and the season that follows runs to the Baptism of the Lord: see the Christmas season.
Bible verses about Emmanuel, God with us
Emmanuel is a Hebrew name, and St. Matthew translates it for his readers: God with us. Some modern Bibles spell it Immanuel; the Douay-Rheims, the Advent hymn and the verses on this page spell it Emmanuel. It is the heart of Christmas: God did not send help from a distance, he came himself. These verses follow the name from the prophet to the last pages of the Bible.
Matthew 1:23
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Emmanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 and adds the translation himself, so that no reader misses what the name means.
Philippians 2:6-7
who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
How God came to be with us: not by holding on to his greatness, but by emptying himself. The manger is what that looks like.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
God among his people, rejoicing over them with singing. The Church reads it on the Third Sunday of Advent in Year C.
Revelation 21:3
Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
The last pages of the Bible end where Christmas began: God living with his people, this time for good.
Matthew 28:20
Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
The last words of St. Matthew’s Gospel answer its first chapter. The child called God with us promises to stay.
Bible verses for anyone grieving at Christmas
For someone who has lost a person they love, Christmas can be the hardest day of the year, and the cheerful verses can sound far away. These two were written for the dark. Read them slowly, and leave the rest of this page for another year if you need to.
Luke 1:78-79
because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Zechariah’s promise of a dawn for those who sit in the shadow of death. Christ was born into a dark world, and he comes to the people sitting in it, not only to the ones celebrating.
Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.
The promise Christmas begins to keep. The child born in Bethlehem is the one who will wipe away every tear.
For more Scripture to stay with a loss, see our Bible verses for grief, and our prayers for grief are written for days like this one.
Where is the Christmas story in the Bible?
In two Gospels. St. Luke tells it in Luke 2:1–20: the census, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth, the feeding trough, the angels and the shepherds. St. Matthew tells it in Matthew 1:18 to 2:12: the angel in Joseph’s dream, the name Jesus, the wise men, the star and the gifts. St. Mark begins with Jesus as a grown man, and St. John opens with what the birth means: “In the beginning was the Word.” Read side by side, Luke and Matthew give every person in the Nativity scene families set up in December.
Is Christmas in the Bible?
The birth of Jesus is; the word Christmas and the date December 25 are not. No verse names the day, and the Gospels care about the event, not the calendar. The English name comes from Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ. The earliest record of the feast on that date in Rome is a calendar compiled in 354, whose list of feasts marks December 25 as the day Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. The verse closest to Christmas Day itself is Luke 2:11, with its “today.”
What does Emmanuel mean?
God with us. The name comes from Isaiah 7:14, and St. Matthew translates it when he tells of Jesus’ birth (Matthew 1:23). It is not a second name Jesus answered to in Nazareth; it says who he is. In the Incarnation the Son of God took a human nature and lived a human life among us (CCC 461). That is why the Church sings the name through Advent in O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and the last of the O Antiphons, prayed on December 23, begins “O Emmanuel.”
Why do Luke and Matthew tell the Christmas story differently?
Because each tells it from a different side. In St. Luke the angel comes to Mary, the news goes first to shepherds, and Mary keeps it all in her heart (Luke 2:19, and again in 2:51). In St. Matthew the angel speaks to Joseph, who is guided in dreams four times (Matthew 1:20; 2:13; 2:19; 2:22), and the visitors are wise men from the east. The two accounts do not compete. Luke shows the poor who came first, Matthew the nations who came after, and the Church keeps both, at Christmas and at the Epiphany.
Why is Isaiah 9:6 numbered 9:5 at Mass and in some Catholic Bibles?
Because Bibles divide a few chapters differently. The New American Bible, the translation read at Mass in the United States, numbers “For a child is born to us” as Isaiah 9:5 and the Bethlehem prophecy as Micah 5:1. Most other English Bibles, including the one quoted on this page, have Isaiah 9:6 and Micah 5:2. It is the same verse either way. When a missalette lists Isaiah 9:1–6 for Midnight Mass, it is the passage this page calls Isaiah 9:2–7.
How to Pray with These Verses
Read the Christmas story aloud on Christmas Eve: Luke 2:1–20 takes about three minutes, and a child can read the angel’s part. Then let the youngest person lay the figure of the Christ Child in the manger. On Christmas morning, read John 1:1–14 before the presents; it opens the Gospel of the Mass during the Day. Through the twelve days of Christmas, take one verse a day from this page, read it slowly two or three times, and stop at the word that catches you. And when you write a verse in a card, say a short prayer for the person who will open it. That turns a card into a prayer.
From the Catechism
- CCC 410-411: Genesis 3:15 is the Protoevangelium, the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, and many Fathers and Doctors of the Church saw in its woman Mary, the new Eve.
- CCC 458: The Word became flesh so that we might know God’s love, in the words of 1 John 4:9 and John 3:16.
- CCC 461: The Church calls Incarnation the fact that the Son of God took a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it.
- CCC 525: Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family, and simple shepherds were the first witnesses.
- CCC 526: Christmas is the mystery of a marvellous exchange: the Creator became man so that we might share in his divinity.
- CCC 528: In the wise men the Gospel sees the first-fruits of the nations who welcome the good news of salvation.
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