Did Elizabeth and her son John the Baptist flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Krisdun
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IIRC, in the writings of Ven. Mary of Agreda, St. Elizabeth stayed at her home but St. John the Baptist went into the desert. Idk if they went to Egypt.
 
St John would have been a baby less than three years old. Not likely that he went into the desert.
 
The killing of the innocent children ordered by Herodes was to be carried out where Jesus was born, this is why he wanted to find out from the Magi where the new king was born.
St John was born in a different town, therefore they were not in peril I think. I may be wrong! 😉
Peace!
 
If that was the case then why did Jesus and Mary not just go stay with Elizabeth her cousin rather than go to a strange foreign country?

If Herod was enforcing the killing of infants in the whole territory would Mary and Joseph not have warned Elizabeth to leave with them for Egypt as her son John would also have been at risk?
 
Krisdun said:
If that was the case then why did Jesus and Mary not just go stay with Elizabeth her cousin rather than go to a strange foreign country?
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Because the angel told them to go to Egypt, not to stay with Elizabeth.
 
Krisdun said:
If that was the case then why did Jesus and Mary not just go stay with Elizabeth her cousin rather than go to a strange foreign country?

If Herod was enforcing the killing of infants in the whole territory would Mary and Joseph not have warned Elizabeth to leave with them for Egypt as her son John would also have been at risk?
Click to expand...
Because Herod (who ruled the area where Elizabeth lived) was, given his actions and the warning of the angel,.hunting down any baby boys born in Bethlehem around the same time as Jesus. In which case if Zechariah and Elizabeth had sheltered them.they would.have put themselves at risk for.doing so.

But John himself was not born in Bethlehem, so didn’t fit the prophecy about the newborn King and so was not directly at risk.

Presumably the Holy Family were told to flee to Egypt because they were not aafe anywhere in Herod’s territories. Zechariah was not given the same message presumably because John was not a target.
 
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According to the Protoevangelium of James, Elizabeth was warned about the upcoming killing of the Innocents and took little John to the wilderness and hid him there.
 
LilyM said:
But John himself was not born in Bethlehem, so didn’t fit the prophecy about the newborn King and so was not directly at risk.
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Also, the killing was of boys under 2. If Jesus was at the upper end of that range John may have been over 2.
 
We have no idea. People lived in large, extended family groups. That is all we know.
 
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