2:13-18 (KJV) Joseph is forewarned by an angel in a dream to flee with Jesus and Mary to Egypt in order to avoid King Herod's vengeance (see3onMap 4). Im not saying he sinned. Joseph with Mary and Jesus remains in Egypt till he hears through Matt. He is whiter than me and I am of English/Irish/European descent. Luke 2:1-21. two years old or . Perhaps I have misinterpreted your explanation, can you please clarify? Like this post? (LogOut/ Jesus did not die at 33 because he never lived. Oral traditions were the norm. At this site the Church of Abi Serja, within the walls of the Fortress of Babylon, was built years later. This was before news, media, and the web. When the Israelites fled Egypt, after over four hundred years of slavery, they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. 2:15 He stayed there . Can a man from another planet not set foot on earth except he be born of a woman on this earth? Why is it that people west of the Atlantic pay no heed to the Egyptian Christians account of our Lords sojourn of THREE YEARS AND A HALF in Egypt to which He was taken when two years of age, and thereby see that contrary to all Western Christians theories He had to have been born in 9 B.C? Remember they were hiding in Egypt! This is only a guess, but there was a thriving Jewish community in Alexandria. they love Him, too! Learn how your comment data is processed. Did they stay in Bethlehem long or return back? The best way to view our articles and Q&A. Do you think 430 days could work? How can believers in Jesus do even greater things than hedid? So they went to Egypt and stayed there till Herod died. This view strikes me as being very close to the so-called Docetic idea, held by some in the early centuries of the Christian era, that Jesus was not really human (as he would have to have been born of a woman to be), but only appeared human. Ultimately through his death and resurrection, Jesus inaugurated a new Israel composed of those people from every nation who put their faith and trust in him. 50-53), however, took place more than five weeks later (see Acts 1:1-12). Luke 4:1-3; Matthew 4:1-11). in Christs triumphal procession, portraying Jesus work as a victory over our spiritual enemies. View all posts by Christopher R Smith. Joseph and Mary did not actually flee to Egypt until two years after Jesus was born. He is predicted to return in the End Times and there is no suggestion in the scriptures that he is going to do so by being born of a woman then, so why should it have been any different when he came originally? If so, wont white supremacists who claim to be Christian be surprised! For example, its specified that Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, recapitulating Israels 40 years there, and that he chose 12 apostles, mirroring the 12 tribes of Israel. 2:19-23 says that Joseph Mary and Jesus returned from Egypt around that same time. Do you know how long it would take to travel from Bethlehem to Egypt by foot? Towns has given theological lectures and taught intensive seminars at over 50 theological seminaries in America and abroad. The idea that the Lord might have been up to 2 years old when the Magi visited comes from the fact that Herod had all the male babies under 2 years of age in Bethlehem killed in an effort to kill Jesus. They remained in Egypt, probably for several years . Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.". He holds visiting professorship rank in five seminaries. Tormented by a demon and on the run from a Roman centurion, a 7-year-old Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, flee Egypt for Nazareth. (Image credit: Werner Forman Archive/Alamy) In 609 B.C., a confrontation was brewing between Egypt (led by Pharaoh Necho II) and the Babylonians (led by King Nabopolassar) who . 19-23. an angelic messenger of Herod's . Not that there would be anything wrong with that but you wouldnt be lying on Jesus if you depicted Him as he probably waslight skinned. It seems to me that the most likely scenario is that Jesus was born around 6 B.C., the wise men (by their own account) arrived in Jerusalem two years later in 4 B.C., and in that same year . How was he born 6 years before he was born?? The Young Messiah. According to local traditions, the first stop for the Holy Family was Farma, east of the Nile river. The biblical text does not tell us. The aforementioned art work is interesting. This was when Jesus was three years old. And that reminds us in this season when we are anticipating the Feast of the Incarnation (Christmas) that he truly did come to earthas you say, to save us. I was just thinking of that. Rather, just as we oftentimes tell stories today and include certain details that others omit, so did the inspired writers of Scripture. However, it is also very possible, and perhaps more likely, that Luke simply omitted Joseph, Mary, and Jesus trip to Egypt, which sequentially could be placed between Luke 2:38 and 2:39. We dont always see immediately what feels like fitting retribution for atrocities like this one that he committed, but in this case it seems that the perpetrator very quickly joined his victims in death and had to answer for his crimes. The events that Luke recorded in the first 43 verses of chapter 24 all took place on the very day of Jesus resurrection. Perhaps you were brought here by a search engine or by a link to one of the posts. Luke 2:39; Matthew 2: 15, 19-23 ii. 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 (see 3 on Map 4). Return from Egypt Sometime after Herod had died, the holy family returns from Egypt . Dr. Elmer Towns is a college and seminary professor, an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of two encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Sunday school, and has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education.His personal education includes a B.S. Jesus name in Hebrew was Yeshua which translates to English as Joshua. Could it be that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth (Luke 2:39) before going to Egypt, and then after traveling to and from Egypt they returned to Nazareth again (Matthew 2:23)? An interesting question that also arises is, since Jesus did find shelter as a refugee in Egypt for some length of time, whether He still feels a debt of gratitude to his briefly adopted homeland, and whether this provides an even further incentive for God to want to see justice done for all sides in current Middle Eastern disputes. These commands make it compulsory for all Jewish males to journey to Jerusalem. All he had to do was to explain to us that we needed to repent and apologise for our sins, otherwise we would be killed. Soon after the visit by the Magi, 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. How long did he stay in Egypt this second time? Why did Jesus hide in Egypt? The book of Exodus describes their descent into slavery and miraculous rescue after some 430 years. Dont know that I agree. I think Joseph and Mary may have sought out friends-of-friends or extended relatives there. What year was Jesus Christ born? The nativity stories are generally accepted as myths and the arguments for this assertion are excellently presented in this article: http://www.religioustolerance.org/myths-about-jesus-birth.htm. God has a reason for everything that He does, even when it is not readily apparent. In unreserved obedience, Joseph "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'" (2:14-15). Reconciliation, forgiveness, victory, new creation, substitution, redemption, adoptionthese are some, but not all, of the ways that the New Testament writers and later Christian theologians would explain how Jesus death saves us. We have a better idea of when the sojourn in Egypt ended. Battle of Megiddo. If success makes us feel that God loves us, does that mean God does not love those whofail? Here we are discussing the origin of Christ while trying to change the colors of a rainbow. The reference to revelation 12:1-6 could be highly symbolic. I say in this post that Jesus parents took him to Egypt no more than two years after Jesus was born. So he was no more than two years old, and as I suggest in the post, the family was there no more than two years, and perhaps as little as a few weeks or months, so they would have returned by the time he was four. Perhaps Matthew is shielding the identity of a community that sheltered Jesus and his family to protect them from potential reprisals even so many years after the events. Including photos each week from our outreaches and the weekly review. Egyptian Christians date their first bishop to the days of Mark the Evangelist.. Nicolas Poussin, The Holy Family in Egypt. I would be afraid to lie on Jesus and his family. Matthew. . Would He make an exception now? So when Mary and Joseph are running from another crazy ruler, where does God send them, well He has a great sense of humor, right back to the place that first tries to wipe out Christs family line in the beginning. I read one article from (another website) stating that our Lord Jesus was probably 2 years old or at least near to that age when the Wise Men arrived. I believe that this is how Jesus would have looked too. The whole area has become a place of pilgrimage for Egyptians and Christians from around the globe. Herrod did this after he met the th. If Jesus stayed one year or longer in Egypt he would not have been able to observe the day of atonement and various festivals commanded in the law of Moses. You say, And since Jesus was born around the time of the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, his birth occurred some time between 6 B.C. Most scholarship places the date of Herods death around 4 BCE. Why isnt the exact date recorded of Jesus birth? Later that night, Joseph had a frightening dream where an angel of God appeared to him. back to Jerusalem after they worship Jesus' birth, flies into a rage. They reached Egypt after a 65 kilometers journey where they lived for three years until after the death of Herod in 4 B.C. Jack Kelley published over 9,000 Bible Study resources here from 1999, until the Lord called him home in the fall of 2015. Why did Jesus tell the women of Jerusalem, "Weep for yourselves, not for me," when he was going to the cross? how old was jesus when they fled to egypt. Jesus could have arrived on earth, in the same way we arrived on the moon, or by such other, far more advanced forms of travel which must exist on one of Gods many mansions which Jesus himself has told us exist in His Kingdom. Upon learning that Herod Archelaus had succeeded his father in Judea, they continued on to Galilee. I believe Jesus was born of a virgin, both man and God. My brother-in-law recently had his DNA profiled. . Jesus the Refugee - Matthew 2:1-15 . 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was . Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Thank you for visiting my blog Good Question. I cant help but laugh at the thought. What is important is that he came to save us. The starting point for the journey that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus took down to Egypt is shortly after the end of the wise mens visit with them, before Herod realized, after a few days or a couple of weeks, that they werent coming back to his court as they had promised.