Jesus in Egypt: Discovering the Secrets of Christ's Childhood Years

Author Paul Perry went on a sort of pilgrimage and journalistic quest to find the path of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) through Egypt. When Jesus was a baby, Herod commanded that all male infants under the age of two were to be killed, a Draconian plan to find the prophesied King of Kings. Joseph is directed in a dream to take his family to safety in Egypt, and we learn little else that he went, taking Mary and Jesus, and subsequently returned.What happened during the time the family dwelt Egypt is not part of the official Gospels. There are the secret "Infancy Gospels"-- and some of the books of Apocrypha that deal with Jesus' childhood--not officially Biblical truth. What Perry finds out is that the process of creating and transmitting oral legends, some of which were written into the Apocrypha, is still a process going on today. Visit any town along the path the Holy Family took through Egypt and those who are Christians are still telling those legends--and creating them. This process amazes the author. Among the Coptic Christians, truth seems to be a matter of possibilities --and impossibilities. If a bishop has a dream about what happened to Jesus as an infant in Egypt, this becomes a new legend. Some of the legends told by the locals sound more like Semitic tales of wisdom or riddles such as Solomon would have faced. Other tales are of miracles that remind one of the wedding of Cana or tell of the raising of the dead. The fact that Jesus didn't start his ministry until Cana and until he was well into adulthood is irrelevant to these legends. Which gives insight into how legends are formed and passed on. And also insight into why officially, some books of scriptural writing are included the Gospel and others were rejected. But Perry isn't really writing about Biblical truth; he is writing about people and their sacred traditions. And at the end, he finds a holy family of his own; he takes care of a pair of widows in a truly Christian manner. This story is about his quest and about the culture of the people in Egypt. It's beautifully written, and of interest to anyone who loves travel, legends, and meeting people in a culture different than ours. Highly recommended.

When I decided to read this book, all I could remember about Jesus' life in Egypt was summed up by Matthew 2:13: "Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him." It turns out that this is only one of two passages in the New Testament that refer to Jesus spending time in Egypt. The other is when Joseph is called to return to Palestine.According to the New Testament, Herod feared Jesus after meeting the three magi and decided to kill all of the young children to avoid having a challenger for his throne. Fascinated by that story, author Paul Perry found himself in Egypt working on another project. He decided to visit all of the sites where Jesus is supposed to have passed. In doing so, he sought to bring both his perspective as a Western journalist and as a believer. Over the course of two trips, he was able to follow this ambition. Jesus in Egypt is the story of his travels and what he learned. There are many unexpected aspects to the story.First, if you are like me, you don't know much about Coptic Christians and their lives in Egypt. This book will tell you much. A major source of inspiration for these Christians comes from the heritage of Jesus' travels in Egypt. Although they comprise only about 5 percent of the Egyptian population, they feel especially blessed by these historical sites. You will meet many of them, both clergy and laity, as they describe their faith. As Egyptians, they experience their religion differently than many people do in the United States . . . drawing great strength from oral traditions that may date as far back as the time of Jesus.Second, the Bible is almost silent about Jesus as a child. What was He like? What did He experience? The various sources (texts that were excluded from the Bible, oral tradition, visions and dreams) reveal wondrous tales that many will find inspirational. Water was drawn from the sand. Wells rose mysteriously to the top. Idols were toppled all around. Spiders and trees dropped down to hide the Holy Family. Dangerous animals left the Holy Family alone.Third, many of these sites have large impacts on the believers today. In one location, an apparition of the Virgin Mary is shown photographed amid mysterious lights on the domed church of Zeitoun. Other sightings of the Virgin have been seen in recent years and have had profound impact on those who have viewed Her. In addition, many miracles have followed in some of the sites . . . often from drinking the water in wells that are attributed to the hand of Jesus. Fourth, Mr. Perry asked those he met what they thought about Jesus in Egypt. When is a dream a dream, and when is it a message from God? Without archeological evidence, how can we know what the Holy Family did? When is a medical miracle a miracle, and when is it a reaction to

My tastes in literature now focus on the search for the female and male dieties from ancestral and contemporary perspectives, so I was truly pleased to read this book of Paul Perry's that follows the path of the infant Jesus through Egypt. He struck a universal chord with this reader as he searched for the true source of Jesus' presence and was alternately thrilled and frustrated. I enjoyed as well the travel and mystery aspects of this book in addition to his clarification of the status of the early books of the Bible. I was with him as he traveled dangerous dark roads through the awe-inspiring Sinai and Sahara Deserts, walked down back alleys with strangers he was quite sure about but had to trust, and responded to the exotic terrain of the Nile Delta. I am glad to see that more books are being published that demonstrate the quest by an individual to find spiritual meaning in today's society in a time when a kind of emptiness can prevail in the psyche. This book is one place for many to turn, and it was further bolstered by the author's commitment to research and scholarship, particularly around the nature of the Coptic Church in Egypt. Kudos to him for still pursuing this course after 9/11 and helping us to remember that there is no "Other," only "others" trying to make sense of our universal existence.

This is really a great book. The subject matter is fascinating and the writing style is fresh and easy-going. Increasingly for most of us in the world, and for a variety of reasons, our travel to such holy places in the Mideast is going to be restricted. So we will learn to depend on authors like Paul Perry. In this case, we are in good hands. I enjoyed his insights and his honesty.

This firsthand travel narrative is as fresh as tomorrow's headlines and as timeless as the eternal mysteries of Egypt. Author Paul Perry seeks to understand the meaning of 2,000 years of extra-Biblical oral and written stories of the infant Jesus. In the process, he takes us to holy places venerated by many faiths, yet still untainted by souvenir vendors and commercial hucksters. Would that such sites always remain so.