Jesus in Egypt
Jesus in Egypt
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King Herod
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of King Herod.
Image by Rıdvan Selli from Pixabay
Jesus was born toward the end of the reign of Herod the Great during the Second Temple Period of Israel’s history. Herod was an Idumean (Edomite) vassal king who ruled over several Roman provinces, including Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Though not Jewish, he adopted Jewish religious and cultural practices. He also completely renovated the Second Temple. Yet most Jews despised him and considered him a foreign usurper.
With the support of Rome, Herod maintained peace for most of his reign. But late in life, he lost his mind and became a paranoid tyrant. The refusal of the Jews to accept him as their legitimate king infuriated him. He dealt severely with any perceived threat to his power, even executing several of his own sons.1 His extreme responses created fear and turmoil throughout his realm.
While the false king of the Jews reigned in Jerusalem, the true King of the Jews entered the world in the small town of Bethlehem. Only six miles from the capital city lay Herod’s worst nightmare—an heir who could claim David’s throne.
The Diviners
Then diviners from the east arrived in Jerusalem. “Where’s the one born King of the Jews? We saw his star rise, so we’ve come to worship him.”
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In the ancient Near East, most kings consulted a priestly class of advisors skilled in magic and divination.2 Diviners predicted the future through methods such as dream interpretation, astrology, and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. The Greek Septuagint translation of Daniel 2:2 and 2:10 calls these diviners magoi, the root of the English term “magi.” Non-Jews held skilled diviners in high esteem, but Jews viewed them with disdain because the Law condemned divination in the strongest terms.3
At the time of Jesus’s birth, a group of magoi living in the east saw a certain star rise over the horizon.4 Using their understanding of astrology, they divined that the King of the Jews had just been born. Matthew doesn’t describe the star or explain how the diviners recognized this sign. It wasn’t a new star since the sign involved its rising, not its appearing. Nor was it particularly big and bright since no one else noticed it. But it motivated the diviners to leave their home and travel hundreds of miles just to worship this newborn King.
In the Old Testament, traveling to the east symbolizes movement away from God.5 By traveling from the east, the diviners moved toward God. They became the first among the nations blessed by the coming of the Son of Abraham. So the coming of the diviners fulfilled the first part of Matthew’s genealogy.6
Bethlehem
Hearing this alarmed King Herod, and all of Jerusalem with him. So he summoned all the chief priests and teachers of the law to question them about where the Messiah would be born. “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they answered. “This is what is written through the prophet:
“‘You, Bethlehem of the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.
From you will come a ruler
who’ll shepherd my people, Israel.’”
Then Herod secretly summoned the diviners to determine from them the precise time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem. “Go search thoroughly for the child. When you find him, let me know so I can go worship him too.”
After hearing what the king said, they left.
Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
By the time the diviners arrived in Israel, the star had slipped back below the horizon. They didn’t know where to go, so they went to the most logical place to find the King of the Jews—Jerusalem. The arrival of the opulent foreigners asking about a baby born as King caused quite a stir in the city. Herod considered himself king of the Jews, not some child. A rival to Herod meant trouble for everyone.
Herod recognized the diviners were searching for the Messiah. So he summoned the Jewish leaders and asked them about his birthplace. They answered with a paraphrase of Micah 5:2, which says literally:
You, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are too small to be among the thousands of Judah.
Yet from you will come for me
a ruler over Israel.7
The larger context of Micah predicts the downfall and restoration of the Davidic line. The paraphrase also reflects 2 Samuel 5:2, where David’s told, “You’ll shepherd my people, Israel.” The arrival of the new King of the Jews fulfills the second part of Matthew’s genealogy.8
Then Herod summoned the diviners to find out when the star appeared. This told him how old the child was (between six months and two years). Then he sent them the six miles to Bethlehem. He instructed the diviners to return and inform him when they found the child, pretending he wanted to worship the Messiah too.
The diviners eagerly left on the last leg of their journey. But no one in Jerusalem went with them. The diviners had only a star to guide them, yet they recognized the sign and traveled hundreds of miles to worship the King of the Jews. The Jews had the Scriptures to guide them, yet they failed to recognize the signs or travel just six miles to see their long-awaited Savior.
The Diviners’ Gifts
The star [the diviners had] seen rise led them until it settled over the place where the child was. Seeing the star filled them with overwhelming joy! When they entered the house, they found the child with Mary, his mother. They bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their bags of valuables and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In a dream, they’d been instructed not to return to Herod, so they returned to their own land by a different road.
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As the diviners left Jerusalem, the star rose once again, this time settling over Bethlehem. They rejoiced to see confirmation they were headed in the right direction. They found Jesus with his mother inside the house where they were staying. Despite the humble surroundings of the small town, the diviners didn’t doubt they’d found the King of the Jews. They bowed down to worship the child.
The diviners presented Jesus with valuable gifts. Gold is among the greatest treasures of the earth and may represent Jesus’s royalty. Frankincense is a fragrant resin used in the holy incense burned in the tent of meeting and the temple.9 It may represent Jesus’s priesthood. Myrrh is a fragrant resin used in the holy anointing oil and in burial practices.10 It may represent Jesus’s status as the Messiah or his sacrificial death. Though the diviners likely wouldn’t have seen any significance in these gifts, Matthew and his readers certainly could have.
Herod had told the diviners to return to him, and all main roads heading east passed through Jerusalem. But God sent them a dream to warn them against returning there. So they had to take the long way around, likely traveling south first before joining either the King’s Highway east of the Jordan or the Way of the Sea along the Mediterranean coast.
Exile to Egypt
After [the diviners] left, one of the Lord’s angels appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Wake up. Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother and stay there until I tell you. Herod will soon search for the child to kill him.”
So Joseph woke up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother. He stayed there until Herod died to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet: “Out from Egypt I called my son.”
Though the diviners had avoided Jerusalem as they returned home, that would stall Herod for only a short time. He knew a child who might one day claim the throne had been born and lived in Bethlehem. He would soon try to hunt down his young rival. So an angel appeared to Joseph while he slept and commanded him to flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary.
Joseph wasted no time obeying the angelic messenger. He didn’t even risk waiting for sunrise. Immediately, he rose, woke his family up, and left in the night. In Egypt, they would live safely outside Herod’s territory. But they wouldn’t stay there long. The angel promised to tell Joseph when he could return to Israel. Once Herod died, God would call his Son home.
Jesus’s exile in Egypt fulfilled the third part of Matthew’s genealogy.11 Matthew quotes part of Hosea 11:1, “In Israel’s youth, I loved him. Out from Egypt I called my son.” Hosea uses the exodus as a model for the promised return of the exiles of the Northern Kingdom in Assyria.12 Matthew uses it to show how even in his youth, Jesus’s life paralleled the history of Israel. The departure to Egypt begins a series of events showing Jesus as the true Israel and the prophet like Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15–19.
The Massacre of the Innocents
Then Herod realized the diviners had fooled him. Furious, he had all the boys two years old and under killed in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. This agreed with the timing he’d learned from the diviners. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice in Ramah was heard.
Mourning and bitter weeping!
Rachel weeping over her children.
She refused to be comforted
because they are no more.”
Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay
Herod soon realized the diviners had left without obeying his command to return to Jerusalem, making him look like a fool. Without their report, he could not get rid of his rival quietly. But that wouldn’t stop the mad tyrant. He simply ordered his soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem younger than two, based on the diviners’ report that the star appeared less than two years prior.
Dr. William F. Albright, an archaeologist with the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, estimated the population of first-century Bethlehem to be around three hundred people. Other estimates range as high as a thousand. Such a small town likely had no more than twenty boys under two.13 Though not a widespread tragedy, it certainly devastated the area.
Because Joseph had taken his family to Egypt, Jesus survived the massacre of the Israelite boys in Bethlehem. This clearly parallels the way baby Moses survived the massacre of the Israelite boys in Egypt.14 But Matthew takes the imagery much further by quoting Jeremiah 31:15. On the surface, this verse seems an odd choice since the majority of the people of Bethlehem were descendants of Leah, not Rachel.15 But even in Jeremiah, the verse doesn’t literally refer to Rachel.
During the exile, the Babylonians gathered captives from all tribes in Ramah, a town in the territory of Benjamin, before taking them to Babylon.16 As Benjamin’s mother, Rachel represents all Israelite mothers grieving their lost children, just like the mothers of Bethlehem. But despite the tragic context, Jeremiah 31 presents a message of hope. In verse 16, Yahweh says:
“Hold back the wailing in your voice
and the tears in your eyes
because your work will be rewarded.”
Yahweh sent the Israelites to Babylon to discipline them. Once they repented, they would return.17 Then their suffering would be rewarded with a new covenant unlike the covenant established by Moses, which they failed to keep.18 Likewise, God brought hope out of the suffering of the mothers in Bethlehem because the mediator of the promised new covenant survived Herod’s wrath.19
Herod’s Death
After Herod died, one of the Lord’s angels appeared to Joseph in a dream while he was in Egypt. “Wake up. Go to the land of Israel with the child and his mother. Those who wanted to kill the child have died.”
So Joseph woke up and returned to the land of Israel with the child and his mother. But he heard Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, in reigning over Judea. So he was afraid to go there. Having been instructed in a dream, he departed to the region of Galilee instead.
Image by Alorkezas from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
While the child Herod sought survived, Herod himself did not. He died of a painful illness in 4 BC.20 An angel again appeared to Joseph in a dream to tell him it was safe to return to Israel because “those who wanted to kill the child have died.” The use of the plural “those” to refer to Herod doesn’t indicate that others wanted to kill Jesus. Rather, the wording brings to mind Exodus 4:19, where Yahweh tells Moses, “Everyone [literally “all those”] who wanted to kill you has died.”21
Joseph apparently intended to return to Bethlehem, but as they traveled, he was surprised to learn Herod’s son Archelaus reigned over Judea. Shortly before his death, Herod executed his firstborn, Antipater, on a charge of treason. He then changed his will to divide his kingdom between three of his other sons.22 Archelaus inherited Judea, Idumea, and Samaria. Antipas inherited Galilee and Perea (east of the Jordan). Philip inherited Gaulanitis, Batanea, Auranitis, and Trachonitus (all northeast of the Sea of Galilee).23
Joseph feared living under Archelaus. God confirmed his instinct in a dream and told him to go to Galilee. This placed Joseph and his family under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist and participated in Jesus’s trial. But despite these later acts, Antipas proved wiser than his brother Archelaus in dealing his Jewish subjects. Complaints about the oppressive reign of Archelaus led Augustus Caesar to exile him in AD 6.24
- World History Encyclopedia, “Herod the Great,” by Mark Cartwright, September 12, 2016, Later Reign, https://www.worldhistory.org/Herod_the_Great/.
- Genesis 41:8; Exodus 7:11; Daniel 2:1–2.
- Deuteronomy 18:10–12.
- Scholars debate where the diviners came from, with most favoring the Parthian Empire, which included ancient Babylon and Persia.
- Genesis 3:24; 4:16; 11:2; 13:11; 25:6; Isaiah 2:6; Jonah 4:5.
- See The Son of Abraham.
- During Second Temple Judaism, Jewish biblical scholars sometimes translated the Hebrew, sometimes paraphrased it, and sometimes quoted the Greek Septuagint. All three citation methods are used in the New Testament.
- See Son of David.
- Exodus 30:34–36.
- Exodus 30:23–25; John 19:39–40.
- See Son of the Exile.
- Hosea 11:8–11.
- France, Gospel of Matthew, 85; Hagner, Matthew 1–13, 37; Bible Archaeology Report, “Herod the Great: An Archaeological Biography,” by Bryan Windle, December 11, 2020, Herod’s Cruelty, https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2020/12/11/herod-the-great-an-archaeological-biography/.
- Exodus 1:22–2:10.
- Genesis 29:35.
- Jeremiah 40:1.
- Jeremiah 31:18–19.
- Jeremiah 31:31–34.
- Hebrews 9:15.
- World History Encyclopedia, “Herod the Great,” by Mark Cartwright, September 12, 2016, Later Reign, https://www.worldhistory.org/Herod_the_Great/.
- France, Gospel of Matthew, 89; Keener, Bible Background Commentary, Matthew 2:20–21.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Herod (King of Judaea),” by Stewart Henry Perowne, last modified April 29, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herod-king-of-Judaea.
- World History Encyclopedia, “Herodian Tetrarchy in the Levant, c. 5 CE,” by Simeon Netchev, March 28, 2024, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/18751/herodian-tetrarchy-in-the-levant--c-5-ce/.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Herod Archelaus (King of Judaea),” last modified January 1, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herod-Archelaus.