When Jesus came to earth, it meant that he first left his heavenly dwelling[i] to live in our world as a guest and stranger.[ii] As a newborn, Jesus is welcomed to earth by both Jews[iii] and Gentiles[iv], but is soon forced to flee to escape King Herod:
“13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.””
(Mt 2:13-15)
At the time of Jesus’ birth, nearly a million Jews lived in Alexandria, one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. Located in the northern part of Israel’s neighbor Egypt, it had often served as a natural refuge for Jewish refugees. [v]
An interesting detail is that in the Greek text it says “magos” where in English it says “the wise men”. From “magos” we get the English word “magician”. These Magos from the East were the most highly educated scientists from Iraq/Iran at the time. They were astronomers, historians, religious scholars, astrologers, etc., and acted as advisors to the king.
In the Old Testament, we see that the main character of the last chapter, the prophet Daniel, was appointed the foremost of these Magos when the Jewish people were living in captivity in Babylon.[vi] It is quite possible that Daniel taught the Magos the Bible and its prophecies about the coming Jewish Messiah. If so, Daniel probably instructed them that once the Messiah came, they should visit him and give him gifts, because he will not only be the king of the Jews, but of the whole world.
After the wise men hand over their gifts to Jesus, they return home to their country. An angel appears to Joseph and urges him to flee to Egypt because King Herod will try to assassinate Jesus, whom he sees as a rival to the throne.
It is almost ironic that foreign Gentiles come to worship Jesus, while the Jewish king behaves like an Egyptian pharaoh when he murders Hebrew boys.[vii]
Thanks to foreign aid, in the form of the very valuable gifts of the wise men,[viii] Joseph is able to flee with his family to the nearest neighboring country and stay there until the political situation in his home country has changed enough for him to return home with his family.
The word for “flee” used in the original Greek text is “pheugo”, from which the English word “refugee” is derived. The meaning of the word pheugo has not changed much in the last two thousand years. Its original meaning is “to run away”, “to escape”, “to flee”. In other words, the same meaning as today.
The word is also used in the New Testament when Jesus urges his disciples to flee from persecution[ix] and to flee from Judea when they see “the abomination of desolation“[x] . Paul uses the word when he urges Christians to flee from sexual immorality,[xi] love of money[xii] and idolatry.[xiii] James uses the word when he says that the devil will flee from us when we submit to God.[xiv]
But how well does Jesus’ flight to Egypt fit with contemporary refugee policy? Would Jesus be considered a refugee today?
In the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951, the term “refugee” is defined as follows:
As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to wellfounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. (The Refugee Convention, article 1.A.2)
When Jesus was in Egypt, he was outside the country of which he was a citizen. Now someone might object that both Judea and Egypt were part of the Roman Empire and therefore one and the same country. But that is not the whole truth. Jesus was not a “citizen”[xv] of Rome, but was a Jew from Galilee under the power of King Herod.
A possible comparison with today would be if a Polish citizen fled to Sweden to escape his country’s police. Both Sweden and Poland are members of the European Union, but the police of one country do not have powers in the other.
The persecution from which Jesus and his family fled falls under both “religion” and “membership of a particular social group”. Herod wanted to murder Jesus because he was the Messiah,[xvi] and Jesus belonged to the social group of “male children in Bethlehem who were two years old or under”.[xvii]
Because Joseph and Mary felt a “wellfounded fear of being persecuted” by their own king, they could not, for obvious reasons, “avail themselves of the protection of that country”.
So yes, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Refugee Convention, Jesus was a refugee and if he had fled to our country, he should receive a residence permit.
In Hebrews it says that Jesus “in every respect” must “be made like his brothers”.[xviii] Having gone through all kinds of suffering himself, Jesus can empathize with those who are going through similar suffering today. Jesus knows on a personal level what it means to have to flee his homeland and live as a refugee in a foreign land. Because Jesus was a refugee, he feels for refugees today.
You have read a free chapter of my book Friend of Strangers. If you like this book, please consider purchasing the ebook through Amazon. Since English is not my native language, there may be some linguistic inaccuracies. Please contact me if you find any.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[i] Php 2:6–7
[ii] Jn 1:10, Mt 8:20
[iii] Lk 2:8–20
[iv] Mt 2:1–12
[v] 1Ki 11:40, 2Ki 25:26, Je 26:21
[vi] Dan 5:11–12
[vii] Ex 1:16–22, Mt 2:16
[viii] Mt 2:11
[ix] Mt 10:23
[x] Mt 24:15–16, Mk 13:14, Lk 21:21
[xi] 1Co 6:18
[xii] 1Ti 6:11
[xiii] 1Co 10:14
[xiv] Jas 4:7
[xv] See Chapter 29 for more on the concept of “citizenship”.
[xvi] Mt 2:1–8
[xvii] Mt 2:16
[xviii] Heb 2:17