Jesus in Egypt

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 till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him."

14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt,

15 and remained there until the death of Herod.

Matth. 2:13-15a.

Copts are the Christians of Egypt; the fact that Jesus spent the first two years of his life there has deeply impressed the early Christians in Egypt.

Matthew presents no details, but that has not prevented the creation of legends around his stay.

The legends describe the collapsing of heathen images when Jesus passed, and the hate this evoked in the priests serving these images.

And they tell about a tree in Belbees Mary sat under. When the soldiers of Napoleon much later wanted to cut it down the tree started to bleed. And about a source Mary used to wash the clothing of Jesus, Joseph and herself. Water of that source is still used for for ritual ceremonies.

Stories of the stay of Jesus are told of many more places. In later times churches and cloisters were founded there.

Like the famous Mary-cloister near Deir El Mouharrak, which has a chapel located on the site where Joseph built a hut in which the Holy Family stayed for half a year.

Of course we doubt these stories. How is it possible to reconstruct the path Jesus and his parents followed after 300 years?

And how is it possible that the gospel of Mark, who according to the Copts brought Christianity to Egypt, does not contain the story of the flight to Egypt?

The gouvernment does not have problems with these doubts. It created a touristic route along these places. If one follows it many beautiful churches and cloisters are encountered.

Muslims recognize Jesus as a great prophet. For them there is no problem.

WikiCommons devoted a category to them. The following images are derived from it.