The Flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:13-23) and in New Testament apocrypha. This episode is frequently shown in art, as the final episode of the Nativity of Jesus in art, and was a common component in cycles of the Life of the Virgin as well as the Life of Christ.
Fra Bartolomeo, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1509
The story of the birth of Christ is significant to Christians as this is where the story of Christmas begins, but what about the events leading up to His birth? The circumstances surrounding the time are not as widely known as the nativity story. Mary and Joseph had to travel far and under dangerous conditions to get from their home in Nazareth to the childhood home of Joseph in Bethlehem. Once they arrived in Bethlehem, they faced further challenges.
Why Did Mary and Joseph Go to Bethlehem?
Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to participate in a census ordered by Caesar Augustus. This was ultimately so that everyone could be accounted for and pay taxes.
"And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." - Luke 2:2 (NKJV)
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Everyone was to be registered in their own city, so Mary and Joseph had to return to Joseph's home city - Bethlehem in Judea. Bethlehem at the time was called David's city, and Joseph was of descent of David. Let us remember that all things happen the way they do as it is God's will. While Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census, there was a very particular reason that the decree was given when Mary was as close to childbirth as she was. A prophecy given in Micah 5:2-3 speaks of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem.
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
It is a powerful passage in our Gospel, as it states clearly where the one true Messiah will be born. It refers to Jesus and confirms the reason for Caesar Augustus issuing the census so close to the birth of Christ.
The Journey to Bethlehem
How Did Mary and Joseph Travel to Bethlehem?
We all know the traditional story of how Mary rode on a donkey while Joseph walked. However, this is down to speculation. Neither the Bible passage that accounts for their journey nor any documentation mentions the infamous donkey. The donkeys included in the Nativity Scene are presumed to be those residing in the manger Mary and Joseph arrived at, not any brought along from their journey.
The speculation does not come without reason, however, as the trip was far uphill, and Mary was heavily pregnant at the time and may very well have required assistance. While the assumption is not entirely far-fetched, it is essential to note that it is merely speculation.
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The Return of the Holy Family from Egypt by Jacob Jordaens (c. 1650s)
What Route Did Mary and Joseph Take?
Luke 2:4 (NKJV) states that Joseph went up from Galilee into Judea. This is because the city of Bethlehem is elevated at about 2543 feet above sea level (1493 feet higher than Nazareth). Bethlehem is also located in the Judean Mountains, making for rugged terrain during their journey. They had to navigate foothills in Jerusalem on their way, meaning they had to maneuver up and downhill throughout their journey. Mary and Joseph also took their journey during the beginning of winter, which meant they likely experienced rainfall along the way. To combat the elements, Mary and Joseph probably wore thick coats over their clothes, which added to the load they had to bear. In addition to these obstacles, they would have had to be careful of thieves along the road and dangerous animals in the surrounding woods.
While the exact time their journey would have taken is unknown, educated guesses place the number somewhere between four days and a week.
How God Protected Joseph, Mary, and Jesus: The Flight to Egypt
Arrival in Bethlehem
The relief of arriving at their destination as the city of Bethlehem was short-lived, as it was soon discovered that there was nowhere for the couple to stay. The town was filled with individuals who had come to be registered much as Mary and Joseph had. They made do with what was available and set up in the manger, where Mary immediately went into labor and gave birth to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
"And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7 (NKJV)
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Their stay in Bethlehem was short-lived, however, due to King Herod's fear of the promised power of Jesus. When the Magi came in search of Jesus, they went to Herod the Great in Jerusalem to ask where to find the newborn "King of the Jews". Herod became paranoid that the child would threaten his throne and sought to kill him (2:1-8). Herod initiated the Massacre of the Innocents in hopes of killing the child (Matthew 2:16).
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus since King Herod would seek the child to kill him. Matt. 2:13-18 Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to escape King Herod’s wrath.
The Flight into Egypt
After the wise men had departed, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: “Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell you; for it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy Him.”
Presentation at the Temple and Flight, Melchior Broederlam, Burgundy, c. 1399
Joseph and Mary's flight to Egypt would start a series of important events in the life of Jesus Christ. The ‘massacre of the innocents’ was typical of Herod’s extreme behaviour recorded independently by the Jewish historian Josephus. Herod was intensely jealous and chronically insecure. As recently as 7BC, Herod had executed his own sons Aristobulus and Alexander (whom he accused of plotting to take the throne) and the following year, around the time of Jesus’s birth, he tortured each of his slave-girls in turn to reveal any further threats to his authority.
When Joseph and Mary escaped with the baby Jesus to Egypt in 5 or 4BC, it was a friendly neighbour of Judaea with a large Jewish community. Its large Jewish community dated from the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 587BC.
Apocryphal Accounts and Traditions
What happened to the Holy Family on this perilous journey into Egypt? The Bible doesn’t say. Perhaps because of this omission, legends and lore soon sprouted up around the event.
- According to one tale, Herod’s soldiers knew the Holy Family had escaped and so pursued them. As Mary, Joseph, and Jesus passed some peasants sowing wheat, Mary said to them, “If anyone should ask if we have been here, tell them that we indeed passed by while you were sowing this field of wheat.” Miraculously, the wheat sprouted and grew tall overnight. When Herod’s soldiers inquired of the peasants and learned that their prey had passed through the region at the time the wheat was planted, they figured that the Holy Family was many days ahead of them and so lost heart and returned to Judea.
- An ancient document, known as the Arabic Infancy Gospel, records another near escape. In this story, the Holy Family is held up by bandits on their way to Egypt. One of the highwaymen, however, feels a special sympathy for the fugitives and refuses to rob them. In fact, he tries to convince the other robber to let them go. The other refuses until the first robber agrees to pay him a girdle and forty coins. The kind-hearted thief does so and the other reluctantly allows the prisoners to depart. The baby Jesus predicts that he and the bandits will die on the same day in the same place. Sure enough, according to the Arabic Infancy Gospel, these men turn out to be the two thieves, the one remorseful and the other not, who were crucified alongside Jesus about thirty years later (Luke 23:93-43).
- Another tale, reports that the Holy Family passed through a forest on their long journey to Egypt. Every tree except the aspen bowed in reverence as they passed. Irritated by this lack of respect the baby Jesus then cursed the tree, which is why its leaves tremble in the wind till this day.
A local French tradition states that Saint Aphrodisius, an Egyptian saint who was venerated as the first bishop of Béziers, was the man who sheltered the Holy Family when they fled into Egypt.
Locations in Egypt
Although the route followed by the holy family is not recorded in the Bible, Coptic (Egyptian) Christians have identified about twenty five places where they believe that Mary, Joseph and Jesus stayed during their sojourn in Egypt. The ruins of an ancient church at Farma, and four monasteries in the Wadi Natrun are said to mark stages in their journey across the Nile Delta. In Old Cairo, tourists can visit the 5th century Coptic Orthodox Church of St Sergius and St Bacchus where the crypt beneath the church is believed to mark another spot where the holy family rested.
It is also held that the Holy family visited many areas in Egypt including Farama, Tel Basta, Wadi El Natrun, Samanoud, Bilbais, Samalout, Maadi, Al-Maṭariyyah and Asiut among others.
It is likewise tradition that the Holy Family visited Coptic Cairo and stayed at the site of Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga) and the place where the Church of the Holy Virgin (Babylon El-Darag) stands now.
At Al-Maṭariyyah, then in Heliopolis and now part of Cairo, there is a sycamore tree (and adjacent chapel) that is a 1672 planting replacing an earlier tree under which Mary was said to have rested, or in some versions hidden from pursuers in the hollow trunk, while pious spiders covered the entrance with dense webs.
The Return from Egypt
After a time, the holy family returned from Egypt. The text states that Herod had died. The land that the holy family return to is identified as Judah, the only place in the entire New Testament where Judah acts as a geographic description of the whole of Judah and Galilee (Matthew 2:20), rather than referring to a collection of religious people or the Jewish people in general. It is, however, to Judah that they are described as initially returning, although upon discovering that Archelaus had become the new king, they went instead to Galilee.
Matthew 2:15 cites Hosea 11:1 as prophetically fulfilled in the return of Joseph, Mary and Jesus from Egypt: "...out of Egypt I called my son."
Matthew's use of Hosea 11:1 has been explained in several ways. A sensus plenior approach states that the text in Hosea contains a meaning intended by God and acknowledged by Matthew, but unknown to Hosea. A typological reading interprets the fulfillment as found in the national history of Israel and the antitypical fulfillment as found in the personal history of Jesus.
The miracles of the palm tree and corn on the Flight, from a book of hours, c. 1500
Artistic Depictions
The Flight into Egypt was also a popular subject in art, showing Mary with the baby on a donkey, led by Joseph. From the 15th century in the Netherlands onwards, the non-Biblical subject of the Holy Family resting on the journey, the Rest on the Flight into Egypt became popular, by the late 16th century perhaps more common than the original traveling family. The background to these scenes usually (until the Council of Trent tightened up on such additions to scripture) included a number of apocryphal miracles, and gave an opportunity for the emerging genre of landscape painting.
During the 16th century, as interest in landscape painting grew, the subject became popular as an individual subject for paintings, often with the figures small in a large landscape. The subject was especially popular with German Romantic painters, and later in the 19th century was one of a number of New Testament subjects which lent themselves to Orientalist treatment.
Theological Interpretations
Cornelius a Lapide, commenting on the flight into Egypt wrote that, "tropologically, Christ fled into Egypt that He might teach us to despise exile, and that we, as pilgrims and exiles on the earth, might pant after and strive for heaven as our true country."
Justus Knecht notes that the flight shows The Omniscience of God, writing, "God knew that in the morning Herod would send soldiers to Bethlehem, to slay the little boys under two years old; therefore He ordered St. Joseph to flee in the middle of the night. The Lord God knew also the moment of Herod’s death, as well as the evil disposition of his son and successor, Archelaus. He therefore warned St.
