Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - NAZARETH? EGYPT?

 NAZARETH? EGYPT?

Before we leave the season completely let us examine one more aspect of what happened just after the birth of Jesus. If you look at the Gospels carefully, it’s difficult not to consider the possible conflict of events that seemed to evolve between the writing of Matthew and Luke. Matthew apparently has Mary, Joseph, and Jesus heading to Egypt just after the birth; where Luke has the family going to the Temple in Jerusalem, from where “…they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth” (Luke 2:39).  So which really happened? Did they go to Nazareth or to Egypt? 

Part of the apparent difficulty may occur because the Bible does not give times for many events and the Church, and ourselves, often make an assumption about what happened rather than looking carefully at the whole possible scenario. For example, there is nothing in the Bible that states the Magi came to the manger in spite of what we talk and sing about at Christmas. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence that Jesus was even born at or around the time of Christmas.

So how is this apparent discrepancy to be resolved? Part of the difficulty stems from the lack of timelines in the story, so we don’t really know exactly when certain events took place. We always picture the Magi as coming to the manger along with the shepherds, but the Bible states that “…they had come into the house…[where] they saw the young child with Mary His mother” (Matthew 2:11). They saw the Child, not an infant. Likewise, the angel told Joseph to “…‘Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt’…” (Matthew 2:13).

Luke, on the other hand, is quite precise, stating that when Jesus was eight days old, He was taken to Jerusalem to be circumcised according to the Law. They then “…returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth” (Luke 2:39), traveling “…to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover” (Luke 2:41).

Is it possible that Jesus may really have been born around the time of Passover, was circumcised on the eighth day, met with Simeon and Anna, and then returned with His parents to Nazareth just as Luke reports? Is it possible that it was during a subsequent visit to Jerusalem, and while staying in a house, that the wise men visited with their gifts; after which at some time, the angel warned Joseph in a dream and the family fled to Egypt? Jesus, at that time, would have been perhaps two years old. Joseph may even have been back in Nazareth when he received the warning to flee to Egypt from the angel regarding Herod for shortly thereafter Herod “sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under old and under…”(Matthew 2:16).

While it is impossible to accurately know the sequence of events of these two stories, in order to correlate both Gospels, something other than what we commonly portray at Christmas must have taken place. It’s hard to be sure that what is suggested here is what actually took place or not, but it does give one something to think about.