Jesus was a refugee, a claim we hear a lot from in liberal Christiandom and groves of unbelievers simply to push a political agenda of open borders. The only reason this is even questioned is because of the immigration debate going on in the U.S. and Europe at this moment. When anyone asserts that Jesus was a refugee, they're doing so to paint their opponents as un-Christian.
The idea that Jesus was a refugee is taken from Matthew chapter 2. We don't know anything about their time in Eygpt. Still, we know from history that there was a considerable Jewish population in Egypt, especially in Alexandria. Hence, it's not unreasonable to think the Holy Family would have stayed amongst their own kindred while in Eygpt.
It's incorrect to think of Judea and Eygpt as different countries separated by an international border in the 1st century AD. Today Isreal and Egypt are different sovereign countries. Still, in the 1st century, that wasn't the case because both Judea and Egypt were providences of the Romas Empire. Under Roman law, the Holy Family would have been a "Peregrine," which most of the citizens of the Roman Empire were and every class within the Empire had free rights to travel and cross provincial borders.
Jesus said, "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars' (Mathew 21). God has ordained civil government and given "Caesar" the authority to make laws for the express purpose of keeping the peace, protecting its citizens, and punishing the wrongdoer. St. Paul lays this out all in Romans chapter 13."
-Pr. Joshua Sullivan
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