This one is a re-post from last December, slightly editted. Back-story is here. The collection is here. You can subscribe over there. >>>
I’m sure this one is on the poster somewhere, but I didn’t bother to look for it. I’ve heard this “contention” come up several times in the past few weeks – for obvious reasons – so I decided to skip ahead.
What happened to Joseph, Mary and Jesus after Jesus’ birth?
Matthew 2:13-15//
Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” 14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
Luke 2:21-22, 39-40//
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 22 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. 40 And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
It seems that Matthew records the family travelling to Egypt after the magi left, and Luke records them going to the temple in Jerusalem and then back to Nazareth. Which is it?
Both. 
Circumcision at Home
Luke tells us that Jesus was circumcised and named after eight days, according to the law. This probably happened at home. The next verse tells us that when Mary’s purification time was over, they went to the temple. According to Leviticus 12, that was 33 days. So there is a delay of at least a month between verses 21 and 22.
Moving to Egypt
Matthew, in his second chapter, records the magi ending their visit, deciding not to go back to Herod. “When they had gone,” Joseph was obedient to take the family to Egypt.
We’ve no reason to believe the magi stayed very long in Bethlehem – Joseph and Mary may have started putting together a home in Bethlehem by then, but surely didn’t have room to take in a company of magi and their servants. Further, Bethlehem isn’t far from Jerusalem. It would only have taken Herod a few days to realize that the magi weren’t coming back to him. With the infant slaughter imminent, Joseph packed Mary and the (circumcised) child and headed to Egypt.
We’re told, by Matthew, that they stayed there until the death of Herod. So how long was that?
There’s some disagreement about the date of Herod’s death, and the general consensus is that we don’t really know the exact date of Jesus’ birth. The best research I’ve found on the topic is by Professor Fredrick A. Larson, who has a great presentation and a lot of info on his website. He puts Christ’s birth at the end of 2 BC, and Herod’s death in 1 BC. Which ever date you like best for Herod’s death, scholars agree that it was one – maybe two – years after Jesus was born. So the family wasn’t in Egypt very long.
Homecoming in Nazareth
What happened next? This is where the skeptics need to just keep reading (again).
Matthew 2:19-23 tell us that after Herod’s death, an angel showed up to bring Joseph and the family back to Israel. They headed for Judah, but because Herod’s son was reigning there in his place, were sent to Galilee instead … to a city called Nazareth.
Judah and Galilee are regions. Jerusalem and Nazareth are cities. Jerusalem is in Judah, so they clearly didn’t travel from Egypt directly to the temple in Jerusalem to dedicate the child. They went to Nazareth, Galilee.
Dedication in Jerusalem
When we see the family in the Jerusalem temple, Luke uses the term “child” for Jesus (in verse 27). The Greek word there is “paidion” (Strongs #3813) which means a young child, general implying a child up to seven years old. Jesus may not have been as old as seven, but the point is He wasn’t an infant.
We don’t really know how long they waited to dedicate Jesus in the temple. Many families travelled to Jerusalem every year for the Passover, and Luke confirms their family did the same in 2:41. They may have waited until the Passover trip, and dedicated Him while they were there.
Luke finishes his account of this part of the story, in verse 39, by telling us that after all the action in the temple, they returned to their own city: Nazareth. Luke can call it “their” city, because they’d been living there already – not since Jesus was born, but since they returned from their exile in Egypt.
The timeline, between the two gospel accounts, then, looks like this:
- Born in Bethlehem
- Visited by magi in Bethlehem
- Moved to Egypt to avoid slaughter
- Stayed in Egypt for – probably – about a year
- Moved back to Nazareth
- Visited Jerusalem for dedication (and probably the Passover)
- Back to Nazareth for growing-up
Merry Christmas. God is with us. The Word made flesh – equally inerrant, or all is lost.
Your timeline sounds about right. That’s the great thing about the Word – it gives us every important piece of information we need with enough occasional ambiguity to keep ourselves entertained and pondering for hours. There’s plenty of room to imagine scenarios that are meaningful to us within a framework of Divine guidance and certainty.
Amen! People sometimes talk like they want scripture totally clear-cut, like an academic thesis, but, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”