Q. Did They Return to Galilee or Flee into Egypt?

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Here the critic says that Luke contradicts Matthew in that Luke has the family going back to Nazareth, while Matthew has them going to Egypt.

LukeMatthew
(Luke 2:39 NKJV) So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. (Mat 2:14-15 NKJV) When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, {15} and was there until the death of Herod …

With any chronological telling, certain events may be left out when they do not pertain to what is being accomplished by the telling. This is not evidence that the "left out" events did not occur, nor is it a contradiction. Albert Barnes comments:

"They returned into Galilee. Not immediately, but after a time. Luke has omitted the flight into Egypt recorded by Matthew. But he has not denied it; nor are his words to be pressed as if he meant to affirm that they went immediately to Nazareth. A parallel case we have in the life of Paul. When he was converted, it is said that he came to Jerusalem – leaving us there to infer that he went directly,Acts ix. 26. Yet we learn, in another place, that this was after an interval of three years, Gal. i. 17, 18. In the case before us, there is no improbability in supposing that they returned to Bethlehem, then went to Egypt, and then to Galilee."4

4 Albert Barnes, Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament, Kregel Publications, p. 192, comments on Luke 2:39

-- David A. Duncan

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