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

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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.

I've just completed reading "Jesus in Egypt" (as of 11/24/2003). I found it to be well written, easy to read, interesting, and informative. I also found it to be objective, because the author presents many points of view and does not attempt to convince his audience that the material he presents is "gospel." Though I believe that Joseph and Mary and Jesus did indeed travel to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod, I personally believe that the apocryphal stories of the miracles performed by the infant Jesus in Egypt to be myths. Paul Perry, however, reveals when these stories started and how much they are revered to this day by the Coptic Christians. That was an eye opener. I actually found more value in the book when Perry reveals a social landscape in Egypt that is obscure to most Americans and the world. It was interesting to learn how the Egyptians believe, how they feel about Americans, that there are conflicts in beliefs even among the Copts, and that many Egyptians are struggling to make a living like most people in the world. It was sad to learn that the Egyptians as well as Americans suffered economically after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, because American tourism virtually came to a standstill. Perry is to be commended for taking the risks he did to research his book in a precarious part of the world. Once you read his book, you'll see what I mean. Fortunately, Perry also tells us that most Egyptians love Americans. Let's all pray and strive for peace, be it through Jesus or Mohammed or any prophet whom we may revere. No prophet would ever approve of the atrocious acts of terrorism taking place in the world today.

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.

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 a placebo? Can oral traditions be trusted? How? In the course of thinking about these answers, you will probably (like me) find yourself finding new pathways to increasing your faith. That's a wonderful gift!

Fifth, Mr. Perry describes the effects of faith on the Egyptian people. Theirs often seems to be a purer, deeper and more powerful faith than we usually observe in the United States. Simple aspects of experiencing faith can bring them enormous joy, even amid great poverty and problems. Learning about those dimensions made me interested in deepening my faith.

Sixth, Mr. Perry describes contemporary relations between Muslim and Christian Egyptians that is far more peaceful than one would imagine from our rhetoric about fundamentalist terror threatening non-Muslims from all sides. As an American, he found himself welcome almost everywhere . . . even though the security police felt like he needed an armed escort when he went into the areas where the deepest Muslim fundamentalists live. He also found himself learning to trust Egyptians of all faiths as people of good will.

I won't reveal more about the book because it would spoil nice surprises for you, but there is a remarkable ending experience that Mr. Perry had which underscores the whole message of following the steps of Jesus to find Him.

Interestingly, the day before I found this book, I found myself praying that I could find ways to more closely follow the path of Jesus. Perhaps the book is the literal answer to that prayer. I tend to believe that to be true.

May God bless you!

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.

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.

Kudos to author PAUL PERRY for his fresh insights into a centuries' old narrative. He relies not only on the ancient Infancy Gospels and other apocryphal texts, but on the living traditions and folklore of modern Egyptians-Christian and Muslim, leaders and everyday believers alike. With Perry, we embark on a fascinating journey of spiritual discovery recorded firsthand during the tense days and weeks just after 9/11. A must read for believers and non-believers alike!

Paul Perry tells the fascinating story of his search through Egypt for evidence of the period Jesus spent there, to escape the death sentence of Herod. The story and information about this unknown period of Jesus' life is interesting, but the best thing about the book is the detective story that enfolds as Paul Perry, like a Raymond Chandler character, goes down endless dark alleys on tips from shady figures. If I hadn't known he survived (because he wrote the book) I would have even been more terrifed for him--there are times when, as reader, you are like the viewer of the typical horror movie; you want to yell at the book--"don't go in there, Paul, do not go in there."

HOLY MAN

In his new book Jesus in Egypt, Paul Perry confronts the expansive countryside and stultifying heat of the Nile River Valley in search of places Jesus, Joseph and Mary may have stopped when they fled the wrath of Herod two thousand years ago.
As the Gospel of Matthew tells it, Joseph was warned of Herod's murderous jealousy by an angel in a dream. The Governor of Galilee feared the prophetic challenge of the new Christ child, who was purported to be a celestial king. Herod ordered the slaughter of every child in Bethlehem under the age of two, hoping Jesus would be among the victims. Following the angel's advice Joseph took the Holy Family to safety in Egypt until, after about four years, when Herod finally died, the angel reappeared to recall them to Israel.
Ostensibly, Perry's book asks "What did Jesus do in Egypt?" The question is a compelling one. After all, except for Mathew's mention of the exile, the Bible reveals nothing of what Jesus did or where he went for those four years. For answers Perry first turns to the apocrypha, unauthorized Gospels, books left out of the original selections now found in the Bible and considered by most denominational scholars to be "legendary," "spurious," "inferior," or even "nonsensical."
From these sources, Perry conjures a map. The problem of the Holy Family's journey seems mostly logistical, and he goes to Egypt for his answers. This adventure alone would have been an intriguing saga for the writer and his reader, enough to constitute an exotic detective story following leads down dusty, hot, windy, pot-holed North African roads with the evidence piling up neatly like a pyramid rising from the horizon.
But once Perry arrives in Egypt supposedly self-evident oral traditions, the enrapt sermons of local Coptic priests, and the popularly beatified vision of an obscure Egyptian Pope (circa, 385 C.E.) are added to the investigation. According to legend, Jesus in Egypt was not acting very much like a babe in his mother's arms. He summoned wells of healing water from the desert floor, raised the dead, protected the meek and the just, cast down huge stone idols, and left a handprint and a footprint in solid stone. He performed a miracle at a wedding; he cursed an entire city. Jesus appeared to spend his childhood honing his skills for the New Testament like a major league baseball in spring training. Like spring training, nobody bothered to write down his stats.
Happily and repeatedly, Perry is told that the proof of Christ's presence in specific locations comes from modern visions and the ongoing occurrence of miracles and healings at the sites-none of which he is able to corroborate, witness or verify. It's as though he were presented with an apple tree near an unexpected well in the Sonora desert and told of the little known fact that Johnny Appleseed had ventured far west of the Mississippi, and the taste of the apples (so similar to apples in Ohio) proves it. Happily and repeatedly he is asked to ignore the dearth of written or otherwise recorded evidence and believe that the modest, sometimes homely churches and wells he visits were the setting for Christ's earliest and ongoing miracles.
Bombarded with the fervor and recurring folklore of Coptic faith, Perry gives in. As he puts it, "...I stepped into the river of faith and let it sweep me downstream." His planned travelogue becomes a compelling, colorful, sometimes dangerous, often humorous pilgrimage. His willingness to listen and his receptiveness to baffling sophistry opens the door to the hardy and wholesome character of the Coptic faithful, who survive in a country that is 90% Muslim and until the modernizing religious reforms of Sadat were threatened with official hostility and open violence.
Perry reports that many Christian churches in Egypt are still protected by armed guards, and in the second half of his journey he and his driver were often escorted by local police. But even in a post 9/11 climate, he found friendly and informed traveling companions to play Sancho to his Don Quixote, and he recalls warmly, "Almost everywhere I went I was treated like a cousin rather than an enemy."
Still, Perry is Perry and Egypt is Egypt, and he finds himself constantly, curiously asking: How can anyone really know what Jesus did in Egypt? The genius of Jesus in Egypt is in the alluring tension of doubt and conviction. With a style that is an amiable blend of action, scholarship, interviews and narrative, Perry has crafted a story that oscillates in his own belief and skepticism. The reader waivers too, constantly forced to ask: How can anyone really know what Jesus did in Egypt?
When Perry finally stumbles on what seems to be hard, physical evidence that ought to convince the skeptic in him to believe what cryptic legends and semi-secret books say, his readers will have to decide, as he did, whether to step into the river of faith and let it sweep them downstream.

--Wayne Sheldrake

Paul Perry's Jesus in Egypt takes the reader on a tour through a mystical land of miracles and myth. Tourists and pilgrims regularly flock to Egypt's sacred sites to gaze upon remains and relics up and down the Nile, which pumps the life blood into the desert country. Perry's trek followed the controversial trail of the Holy Family's short stint in Egypt has they fled Herod's soldiers. Not the standard traveler's trip to the Giza Plateau outside of Cairo or the Valley of the Kings on the Western banks of Luxor, Perry journeyed through darkened alleys, deserted rutted roads and into the heart of the most extreme Islam fundamentals in the world. Even more interesting, Perry, an American, made this voyage not long after September 11, 2001.

Tracing the exact route of Joseph, Mary and Jesus proved problematic. Not all the canonized Gospels give an account of this journey, and Matthew's version is short and vague at best. Even Coptic monks within Egypt can't agree on the authenticity of many of the sites that proclaim to have provided shelter for the family or experienced a miracle performed by the baby Jesus while passing through. Moreover, not much in the way of tangible evidence exists that would even begin to sway the opinion of a western archeologist.

Perry's voyage relies on roughly two thousand years of oral tradition, divine visions, two or three lines from the book of Isaiah and accounts from apocryphal books. Remote villages claim celebrity status related to the handy work of the divine infant such as creating water wells, various healings and toppling pharonic monuments. Slim empirical evidence exists, but a handprint, visions, light spray sightings, remains of the first icon of the Virgin Mary and a stone slab in the so-called world's first Christian church are all parts of this mosaic.

It remains unclear exactly where Jesus and his parents visited on their refuge into Egypt, if they ever entered the country at all. Believer or not, this book reads like a hybrid of a personal spiritual journal, travel guide and Holy Family Trail map, making it a priceless resource for those who seek to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.