The Flight Into Egypt
SIR.—In a book review in your issue of March 9th Wilson Harris writes: "It is highly doubtful whether there ever was a flight into Egypt ; to accept it means rejecting completely St. Luke's plain statement that after the purification in the Temple the parents, with the child, ' returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.'" But St. Matthew tells us, first that Herod carefully learned of the wise men what time the star appeared; and later, that he slew all the male children in Bethlehem " from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully learned of the wise men." This suggests that it was many months, perhaps about a year, after the birth of Jesus before the wise men reached Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Also, St. Luke says that Jesus's parents " went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover"; and, with the city crowded, as it would be, for the feast, it was more than likely that they would stay in Bethlehem, only six miles away, where they had ancient family connections. They may, therefore, have come back again from Nazareth to Bethlehem before the wise men arrived. So St. Luke and St. Matthew may both be right. It Is to our Joss rattler than our gain to suppose that they contradict one another, or that we know better than they. What are probably wrong are the pictures which show the wise men coming to the manger to worship.
Also, rather than suggest that St. Matthew has " misinterpreted" an Old Testament quotation, may it not be wiser to learn from his inspiration how to interpret scripture ? May it not be a significant sign that first the Israelites, and finally the infant Jesus, enjoyed some unique relation to God and His purposes that, when they were found in Egypt, He inter- vened to bring them back into the land of promise ?—Yours faithfully, Oak Hill College. N.14. A. M. STIBBS. [Mr. Wilson Harris writes: St. Luke's story is clear, straightforward and explicit. Joseph, with Mary, left his home and his work at Nazareth to go up to Bethlehem to be enrolled. At Bethlehem the child Jesus is born ; He is circumcised the eighth day, the rites of purification according to the Mosaic law are carried out, and " when they had accomplished all things that were according to the law of the Lord they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth." All this is just as might have been expected. The Lucan narrative may be accepted or rejected, but there is no possibility, on any normal interpretation of language, of fitting a flight to Egypt into it.]
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