Did the flight into Egypt really occur?

[jazzbass981]

I am in deacon formation and very devoted to our Lady. I pray the Chaplet of the Seven Dolors every day. I learned something that has disturbed me to the core! I learned that the Gospel of Matthew is a parallel to Moses in the Old Testament, which is fine and understandable. But what disturbs me greatly is that our instructor, a Catholic friar who has a Ph.D. as a biblicist, stated that the story of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt is a story meant for the Jews to hear that represents the parallel of Moses leaving Egypt, meaning that the Jews needed to recognize that Jesus is the savior of the world and that the law of Moses should no longer be followed.

Our instructor said that there is absoutely no biblical evidence that the flight into Egypt ever occurred and most likely never did. If this is the case, is the apparition of our Lady to St. Bridget of Sweden a big fat lie? Mary revealed to St. Bridget her seven greatest sorrows. The flight into Egypt was one of them. I am confused and disturbed. What really did happen regarding the flight into Egypt?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

To say that certain elements of the Gospels parallel Old Testament events and that the Gospel writers chose material they included in the Gospels for didactic purposes is one thing. All of that is very true. But it is a leap unsupported by logic to say that means that the events of the Gospels never happened. As an analogy, the movie The King’s Speech supported a certain view of the events leading up to and immediately following King Edward VIII’s abdication. It was a very positive portrayal of Edward’s younger brother, Prince Albert, and his struggle to overcome his speech impediment; and it was also a pointed critique of Edward’s selfishness and hedonism in abandoning his responsibilities to his country to marry a divorced woman. Does that therefore mean that Edward VIII never abdicated his throne?

I’m afraid your instructor is taking an either/or view of biblical history. Either events recorded in the Bible are historically accurate or they are “merely” teaching stories. Catholic theology though usually supports a both/and understanding that both biblical documents intended to be written as history are true history and that such histories can be written for our instruction and edification. Since the flight into Egypt is included in a book of the Bible generally regarded by biblical scholars as intending to record actual historical events, there is no reason to doubt it occurred and it is your instructor’s responsibility to prove his assertion it did not (and not merely to state such an assertion without proof).

That said, it would probably be unwise to challenge your instructor at this point. Just do the work you need to do to get through the class and through diaconal formation, find answers on your own to settle your own concerns about what you are being taught, smile a lot, and keep quiet. Perhaps the time will come when you will have an amusing story to tell during a homily as an illustration of why even those with doctoral degrees can be illogical at times.