The Shepherd, December 2004
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT, 3
Thus far we have told of the sojourn of the All-pure Mother of God there with Christ, where they stayed several years. There is no conclusive evidence regarding the number of years the Lord tarried in Egypt. Saint Epiphanius says two years; Nicephorus suggests three. However, George, who is surnamed Cedrinus, says five years, and yet another, Ammonius of Alexandria, announces seven years. However, one thing is clear, it was until the decease of Herod, for it says in the Gospel: “And was there until the death of Herod.”
After the slaying of the infants of Bethlehem, and when the accursed Herod had perished by a most evil death, the Angel of the Lord appeared again in his sleep unto Joseph, telling him to return from the land of Egypt to the land of Israel, “for they are dead,” said he, “that sought the young Child’s life.” He then arose and took the young Child and His Mother, and came into Judaea, which was then the greater and most renowned region of Israel. Hearing however, that Archelaus reigned in the room of his father, Herod, he was fearful of going there. Herod had left three sons; the first was Archelaus, the second was called Herod Antipas, and the third, the youngest, was Philip; and after the death of their father they appealed to Rome, to Caesar, for each of them wished to be granted their father’s kingdom. Caesar, however, refused to grant any one of them the royal honour, and he divided the kingdom into four, which we call tetrarchies. To Archelaus the eldest, he granted Judaea; to Herod Antipas he gave Galilee, and to the youngest, Philip, he granted the land of Trachonitas, and Abiline he gave to Lysanias, the youngest son of the great Lysanias, who had once been the ally of Herod but out of envy had been slain by him. When he dismissed them from Rome, Caesar promised to grant Archelaus royal status, on condition he showed his good intent through his application and zeal. But he, who in no wise deviated from the evil ways of his father, who had tortured and killed many, came to Jerusalem and three thousand people were slain immediately, and many of the citizens were tortured in the midst of the Temple on a day of festival before the whole company of the Jews. After some years he was reported to Caesar for such atrocities, and was deposed from power and sent into exile. It was because Joseph heard that the evil Archelaus was reigning, even though he did not have the royal title, that he feared to go there. Being instructed of the Angel that had first appeared to him, in a dream, he departed into the borders of Galilee, within the fief of Herod Antipas, the brother of Archelaus, who ruled over the people more amenably, and he came to dwell in the town called Nazareth, in the house where he had formerly lived, that it might be fulfiled which was spoken of Christ the Lord, by the Prophets: He shall be called a Nazarene. To Him be glory unto the ages. Amen.
Translated from the 1988 “Trinity Russian Orthodox Calendar,” Jordanville, New York.
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