some thoughts

did jesus fled to egypt after his birth? or did he move straight back to nazareth after his purification ceremony?
why did the nativity story of matthew and luke did not tie up...

well... i believe it can be reconcile like this... ( i am just testing it)

* clue to interpretation: sender-receiver relationship...

1) matthew is writing to Jews, therefore he would have emphasize on the escape to egypt ... cos this is to " illustrate
another fulfillment of messianic prophecy." look closely at matthew 2:15. Matthew hopes to highlight the silmilarity between Jesus and Moses, considering the jewish background of his audience... this "jesus is better than moses" comparison is evident in Sermon on The Mount ( in which Jesus has been compared to be giving the 10 commandments on mt sinai) Many other comparisons one can find matthew interlining with exodus... the reason being the 'OT' feel that the author wants to bring out...

on the other hand....

2) Luke is simply writing to convince his GENTILES audience... would not have impress them if he told them about the flight to egypt where his audience would not have noticed the connection between OT and the purpose of the flight. he simply highlighted the fact that Joseph and family obeyed Jewish traditional observation of purification laws (those mentioned in leviticus) , that Jesus is indeed the one promised as a revelation to the Gentiles (2:32) ... so (here's the problematic verse , the one i struggled the whole day: luke 2:39) why did they return to Galilee... why did luke leave out the account of the flight to egypt? well simply, he cut to the chase and hope not to confuse his gentiles audience any further...

-> am i satisfied with this explanation myself? i hope to find out more... ( hopefully from the IVP reference set i am aiming - hehe- got mac version lehz- wow....)


FACT from matthew : Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus did fled from Bethlehem to Eqypt to avoid Herod's killings... and they DID return to israel.. not to Judea(where Bethlehem and Jerusalem were based-southern israel)- BUT back to nazareth...

- another interesting question: did joseph come from Bethlehem or Nazarene? Matthew seems to suggest ?Jerusalem ... Luke 2:4 is clear that Joseph is from Nazareth...

so the Jesus story is something like that...

Birth of John Baptist foretold
Annunciation of the birth of Jesus
Mary visits Elizabeth
Birth of John the Baptist
Birth of Jesus Christ
The watching shepherds
The circumcision
Presentation in the temple
The wise men from the East
Flight into Egypt, and return to Nazareth

interesting to note that many ppl tot the wise men came on christmas night itself... some say they came on 6th jan , some say they came 2 years after jesus birth (possible - cos notice herod asked for the killing of all male children under 2 years old - could it be that the wise men said something of jesus' age to herod then?(see matt 2 :16) .

yea... blessed christmas to all... i wrote this well watching the clock passed 12... haha