New Testament History

The childhoods of John the Baptist and Christ

 
The annunciation of John the Baptist
The conception and birth of John the Baptist
The betrothal of Joseph and the Holy Virgin
The incarnation of Christ
The visit of the Holy Virgin to Elizabeth
The birth of Christ
The presentation of Christ in the Temple
The flight of the Holy Family to Egypt
The massacre of the Holy Innocents
The deaths of Zechariah and Elizabeth
The return to Nazareth
The Passovers of 8 AD and 12 AD
 
Abbreviations and bibliography
 
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The flight of the Holy Family to Egypt

The Holy Family left Jerusalem for Nazareth (Luke 2:39) on the day of the presentation,[1] on Sunday factual Julian 8 January 1 AD = 24 Tevet. From Nazareth they fled to Egypt. They fled on an evening (Matt 2:14) and when Herod was still alive (Matt 2:15). A.C.E. saw the angel appearing to Joseph and the Holy Family leaving (Matt 2:13-14) before the midnight of Thursday/Friday 1/2 March 1821.[2] They left on the night of Thursday/Friday factual Julian 2/3 March 1 AD = actual 28 February/1 March = 19 Adar I. The flight took place on a 29 February;[3] in a leap year (though 1 AD was not a leap year), the date of actual 28 February/1 March corresponds to 29 February. The flight thus took place on 28 February/1 March. On Monday factual Julian 27 February 1 AD Herod the Great had assembled soldiers,[4] and on Tuesday 28 February he had sent them out.[5] He was extremely agitated on that day.[6]

The Holy Family spent the Sabbath of Saturday factual Julian 4 March in Nazara.[7] On Sunday 5 March they continued their voyage.[8] On that day Augustus granted Herod the right over the life of his son Antipater, and Antipater was immediately killed.[9] On the night of Sunday/Monday 5/6 March the Holy Family passed through the city of Gaza.[10] On Monday 6 March[11] Elizabeth brought John to the desert. Herod summoned the children until two years old on that day (Matt 2:16).[12] On Tuesday 7 March the Holy Family came in a desert region.[13] On Wednesday 8 March a spring of water appeared.[14] On Thursday 9 March = 25 Adar I, another spring of water appeared.[15] Herod died on that day.[16] On the night of Thursday/Friday 9/10 March and on Friday 10 March the Holy Family travelled amongst wild animals.[17] On the night of Friday/Saturday 10/11 March they were staying with robbers.[18] On Sunday 12 March the Holy Family was nourished by a date palm.[19] By then they had been travelling for ten days in the Jewish country and for ten days in the desert.[20] In reality, there were ten days in all: from Thursday 2 until Sunday 12 March. Between the night with the robbers and the event with the date palm, the Holy Family went into a shed.[21] This was in order to spend the Sabbath of Saturday 11 March.[22] On Tuesday 14 March = 30 Adar I, the Holy Family reached Heliopolis.[23]

There is some confusion in the visions of A.C.E. about the age of Christ at the time of the flight. Christ is first given almost two years or nine months (¾ of a year) but finally three times four weeks.[24] Since four weeks represent one month, Christ was three months old at the flight on 2/3 March 1 AD (factual Julian 26/27 November 1 BC-factual Julian 2/3 March 1 AD = three months). Hence, when Christ was about two years old, the Holy Family had been staying in Egypt for 1½ year.[25] The confusion explains why, at the time of the killing of the Holy Innocents, Christ is supposed to have been in His second year[26] or nearly 18 months old and John the Baptist about two years,[27] whereas the massacre occurred on Friday factual Julian 11 March 1 AD, i.e. three months and a half after the birth of Christ. The confusion even caused the flight of John to the desert to be split into two: a first flight would have taken place at the time of the departure of the Holy Family for Egypt and a second at the time of the massacre of the Holy Innocents.[28] Yet the departure and the massacre both took place in early March 1 AD, such that there was but one flight of John the Baptist. That Christ was three months old when He went to Egypt is further evidenced by the analogy that Moses was hidden for three months after his birth (Exod 2:2; Acts 7:20), before being discovered by the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh.

The Holy Family fled before the war of Pentecost 1 AD broke out.[29] During this war the Romans also made an expedition against Galilee. The inhabitants of Sepphoris (a city near Nazareth) were made slaves, and the city was burnt.[30]


[1] A.C.E., Mary, 288.

[2] A.C.E., Mary, 299, 301.

[3] A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1821, 87; A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 2; A.C.E., Mary, 295.

[4] A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1821, 202 (the vision of Monday 26 February 1821).

[5] A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1821, 209 (the vision of Tuesday 27 February 1821).

[6] A.C.E., Mary, 296.

[7] A.C.E., Mary, 302.

[8] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 14. A.C.E. (Mary, 303) spreads the events of Sunday factual Julian 5 March 1 AD over two days, Sunday 4 March 1821 and Monday 5 March 1821. Cf. A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 14 (the vision of Sunday 4 March 1821): “Am Morgen habe die heilige Familie an einen Balsamstrauch und Wässerchen sich erquickt, das Kind Jesus mit bloßen Füßen auf Mariä Schoß. Jerusalem habe man rückwärts zu ihrer Linken in der Höhe liegen sehen, fern”; A.C.E., Mary, 303: “[Sunday, March 4th:] Yesterday, Saturday evening, at the close of the Sabbath, the Holy Family travelled on from Nazara through the night, and during the whole of Sunday and the following night I saw them in hiding […]. [March 5th:] This morning I saw the Holy Family resting in a fertile part of the country and refreshing themselves beside a little stream where there was a balsam bush. The Infant Jesus lay on the Blessed Virgin’s knees with His little feet bare. […] On their left I saw Jerusalem high up in the distance” (square brackets by Palairet). The passage is also described in A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1820, 63 (the vision of Friday 11 February 1820).

[9] Josephus, A.J. 17.182-187. See Mahieu 2012: 292-293.

[10] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 16 (the vision of Sunday/Monday 4/5 March 1821).

[11] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 16 (the vision of Monday 5 March 1821). A.C.E., Mary, 303, situates the vision on Tuesday 6 March 1821.

[12] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 16.

[13] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 19 (the vision of Tuesday 6 March 1821).

[14] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 28 (the vision of Wednesday 7 March 1821); A.C.E., Mary, 305.

[15] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 34 (the vision of Thursday 8 March 1821); A.C.E., Mary, 306.

[16] Mahieu 2012: 293.

[17] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 39-40 (the vision of Thursday/Friday 8/9 March 1821); A.C.E., Mary, 308-309.

[18] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 49 (the vision of Friday/Saturday 9/10 March 1821); A.C.E., Mary, 310-312. The passage is also described in A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1820, 84-86 (the vision of Saturday/Sunday 12/13 February 1820).

[19] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 54-55 (the vision of Sunday 11 March 1821); A.C.E., Mary, 313.

[20] A.C.E., Mary, 313.

[21] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 62 (the vision of Monday 12 March 1821): “Sie meint eine Szene, welche sie voriges Jahr 14. – 15. Februar gesehen, wo die heilige Familie schmachtend in einem Schoppen Zuflucht nimmt, und wo Götzenbilder in der Gegend an Bäumen verehrt werden, sei nach der Räuberherberge und vor der gestern erzählten Überfuhr und dem Dattelbaumwunder geschehen.” See A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1820, 121-122 (the vision of Monday/Tuesday 14/15 February 1820).

[22] A.C.E., Mary, 313, inserts the shelter (reported as a flashback) after the total of the ten days, which would make the ten days end before Saturday 11 March. Yet the shelter took place before the ten days had ended: the shelter occurred on the day before the event with the date palm, and the ten days were completed on the day of that latter event.

[23] A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 69-71; A.C.E., Mary, 314. The date of Tuesday 13 March 1821 is absent from the diary since it was mentioned on pages 63-64, which are missing in the preserved manuscript. The previous date in the diary is Monday 12 March 1821 (A.C.E., Visionen März 1821, 59); the following date is Wednesday 14 March 1821 (ibid., 71).

[24] A.C.E., Visionen Januar 1821, 10: “Daß das Kind Jesu bei der Flucht drei Viertel Jahr alt war, weiß ich nun gewiß, aber es war stark und konnte wohl eine kleine Strecke zwischen den Eltern an der Hand laufen; darum habe ich gemeint, es sei älter”; A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1821, 87-88: “Das Kind war zwölf Wochen alt. (Sie sagte nachher, sie habe sich mit den dreiviertel Jahren geirrt. Sie habe dreimal vier Wochen gesehen und habe es für dreiviertel Jahre gehalten. Die Idee, die sie wachend geäußert, als sei das Kind gegangen auf dem Weg, müsse aus einem anderen Bild sein, vielleicht von der Rückreise)”; 165: “Erst, das Kind Jesus sei bei der Flucht nach Ägypten beinahe zwei Jahre alt gewesen; dann, Joseph habe ihr gesagt: dreiviertel Jahr; und dann die wahrscheinliche Erklärung im Schlaf: zwölf Wochen, mit der Tagbestimmung 29. Februar, wo die dreiviertel in dreimal vier Wochen erklärt wurden”; A.C.E., Visionen November 1821, 178: “im dreiviertel Jahr Christi”; A.C.E., Life, 1:292: “The Child Jesus was twelve weeks old. I had seen three times four weeks.”

[25] A.C.E., Mary, 323. A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1820, 206 (concerning the sojourn in Heliopolis): “Das Kind Jesus konnte schon artig sprechen und war viel mit Joseph, ging auch oft mit ihm, wo er arbeitete; es mochte wohl gegen drei Jahre alt sein; es hatte ein Röckchen wie ein Hemdchen aus einem Stück wie gestrickt oder gewebt an.”

[26] A.C.E., Visionen Dezember 1820, 292: “Die Kinder waren wohl bis ins zweite Jahr alt, und auch Jesus war schon so, daß Er ein gestricktes Röckchen anhatte und laufen konnte”; A.C.E., Visionen November 1821, 178: “im zweiten Jahr Christi”; A.C.E., Visionen Dezember 1821, 87: “ein und Dreiviertel Jahr nach Christi Geburt”; A.C.E., Mary, 206.

[27] A.C.E., Mary, 318-319. A.C.E., Visionen Februar 1820, 76: “Dass er [i.e. Herod the Great] die Kinder, welche bis auf zwei Jahre alt waren, wollte töten lassen, zeigt schon dafür, daß er den Kindermord nicht gleich nach der Ankunft der Könige vollzog.”

[28] A.C.E., Mary, 304, 319, 322.

[29] Mahieu 2012: 298-299.

[30] Josephus, A.J. 17.289.