NATIVITY By Mike Herron

Now the Savior is fleeing to Egypt to escape death. The amount of time Jesus stayed in Egypt is uncertain with estimations ranging from six months to ‘seven years.’ 3 There are Rabbinical traditions stating that Jesus learned magical arts from the sorcerers in Egypt which enabled him to ‘lead Israel astray.’ 4 This would be impossible as he would have been a baby or young child when he supposedly learned the witchcraft. Matthew cites from the prophet Hosea 11:1 ‘When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.’ (NLT) Jesus is now the New Israel, God’s beloved Son and like Old Testament Israel, went down to Egypt and returned to the promise land. 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Herod’s slaughter of the male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem is a reflection of Pharaoh’s slaughter of the Hebrew male babies in Egypt: ‘If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.’ (Ex 1:16 NLT) The population of Bethlehem at this time was generally under a thousand so the number of male children up to two years old would be around twenty. ‘On the scale of atrocities known by Herod during his later years this would register very low.’ 5 These were the first Christian martyrs, ‘they shed their blood for him, who afterwards shed his for them.’ 6 Herod’s reign was so filled with murder that Caesar Augustus made a pun with the Greek words; ‘it was better to be Herod’s pig (hus) than his son (huios) for the pig had a better chance of life.’ 7 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,