{"id":102,"date":"2014-05-26T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=102"},"modified":"2014-05-22T23:35:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T23:35:48","slug":"matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the time when the angel instructed Joseph to flee King Herod, Egypt had become a kind of safe haven for Jews forced to leave their home country.<\/p>\n<p>Egypt (like Herod\u2019s Judea) was under Roman control\u2014but was outside of King Herod\u2019s authority. Jewish philosopher, Philo (15 B.C\u201450 A.D.) lived during that time and reported that Alexandria, Egypt alone had about 1 million Jews living in relative safety there. Although Egypt wasn\u2019t exactly close to Joseph and Mary, it wasn\u2019t too far either. The border between Judea and Egypt was about 80 miles away from their home in Bethlehem\u2014a distance that could be covered within days.<\/p>\n<p>Because of its heavy Jewish population, accessible walking distance, and its peaceful coexistence with Judea as part of the Roman Empire, Egypt was the ideal place for Joseph to hide his family from Herod\u2019s murderous intent. And that\u2019s exactly what he did.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-251\" alt=\"Pyramid of Khafre ca. 2525 B.C. Giza, Egypt\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\" target=\"_self\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[ZB1, 17]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the time when the angel instructed Joseph to flee King Herod, Egypt had become a kind of safe haven for Jews forced to leave their home country. Egypt (like Herod\u2019s Judea) was under Roman control\u2014but was outside of King Herod\u2019s authority. Jewish philosopher, Philo (15 B.C\u201450 A.D.) lived during that time and reported that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[47,43,29,302,48],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geographicalbackgrounds","category-matthew","tag-egypt","tag-herod","tag-joseph","tag-matthew","tag-philo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the time when the angel instructed Joseph to flee King Herod, Egypt had become a kind of safe haven for Jews forced to leave their home country. Egypt (like Herod\u2019s Judea) was under Roman control\u2014but was outside of King Herod\u2019s authority. Jewish philosopher, Philo (15 B.C\u201450 A.D.) lived during that time and reported that&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-26T12:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-22T23:35:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"At the time when the angel instructed Joseph to flee King Herod, Egypt had become a kind of safe haven for Jews forced to leave their home country. Egypt (like Herod\u2019s Judea) was under Roman control\u2014but was outside of King Herod\u2019s authority. Jewish philosopher, Philo (15 B.C\u201450 A.D.) lived during that time and reported that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-05-26T12:00:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-22T23:35:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html","name":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-26T12:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-22T23:35:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/EgyptPyramid.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-geographical-backgrounds.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Geographical Backgrounds)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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