Talk:Flight into Egypt

Children's misunderstandings
This section is, naturally, uncited, and I thought I would avoid the hassle of asking for citations and simply delete it, but I guess I can't do that...so what shall we discuss? Can anyone provide any drawings of flying Jesus? Is Jesus Pontius' co-Pilate? Adam Bishop 22:54, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * That section is really just the butt of a joke I have heard:
 * Some children were asked by their Sunday school teacher to draw pictures of the Christ child and his parents' flight into Egypt. As the teacher was walking around the classroom viewing the works in progress, she noticed that little Johnny's drawing was of an airplane. Immediately assuming that Johnny was just playing around, she asked him, "What that's supposed to be?" He responded, "Why, that's Jesus and May and Joseph on the flight into Egypt waving out the window." Sure enough, there were three figures waving from the airliner's windows. The teacher, just to be clever, then asked, "Who's that?" pointing towards the man in the cockpit window. Not missing a beat, the child said, "That's Pontius Pilot."
 * For this reason, I can hardly think that the section need be taken seriously. Srnec 05:09, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


 * It may be described humorously in a jokebook, but it is also a common real notable nuisance in school religion classes. For example, a school teacher at the village school at Buxworth near Whaley Bridge in England told me that they got an average of two aeroplanes a year when the time came for the children to make a drawing of the Flight to Egypt. Ask a few school religion teachers. Anthony Appleyard 05:14, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, there are lots of possibilities here. Are the teachers pulling your leg? Why would kids be asked to draw that?  Why would anyone be asked to draw that?  Are the teachers trying to amuse themselves by seeing how many pictures of airplanes they can get?  And if kids really are being asked to draw this, which I find bizarre, perhaps some of them are trying to be funny?  Do you have anything better than "friend of a friend" evidence?  Adam Bishop 06:53, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * NO! The teacher asks the pupils to draw the Flight to Egypt. The pupils should draw the Holy Family using some transport appropriate to the time, such as donkeys or a camel. But the inevitable quota of the pupils do not listen to the lesson properly but daydream, and some of them misunderstand the word "flight" and draw an aeroplane. Ask some primary school teachers. This genuinely happens, at least here in England. This mistake may be a childish error, but then children are childish. Anthony Appleyard 08:34, 13 September 2007 (UTC)


 * And the children have never heard the story before and have never wondered what is meant by "flight", they are just asked to draw a picture of a random event that may or may not involve airplanes? Why? Adam Bishop 17:57, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * The teacher does explain, but some of the children are inattentive. Ask an elementary school teacher. Anthony Appleyard 18:10, 13 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, the average elementary school teacher here in Ontario teaches in a secular school, so kids just wouldn't learn about this in the first place. We do have a Catholic school system, where I suppose it is more likely, although I went to a Catholic school and never had to do anything like this. I do remember being confused about Christ standing "before" Pilate - did he get up first, and Pilate stood up afterwards? But we didn't have to draw a picture of it! Adam Bishop 18:34, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Here in Britain, often schoolchildren are asked in class to make drawings or paintings of major Christian religious events, including the Flight to Egypt. Usually they get the means of transport right, but from time to time not, as I describe above. Anthony Appleyard 20:04, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Nonetheless, if this is based solely on personal experience in Britain and has no reliable source besides, it is non-notable. Srnec 21:51, 13 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It happens often. Let a few Wikipedia members living in England ask a few primary school teachers. Anthony Appleyard 05:25, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Hearsay is not a reliable source. If nobody's ever thought to write it down, it's non-notable. Srnec 04:04, 15 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Direct face-to-face enquiry is not hearsay. Anthony Appleyard 05:14, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No, but you telling us about it is. Adam Bishop 07:48, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
 * All I have to say is that it was a good thing that Gaius Turranius was governor of Egypt at the time and not Donald Trump to any other Republican politician, or the Holy Family would have been turned away at the border of Egypt. 174.16.130.144 (talk) 16:21, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

China's "Silk Road": reasons for deleting
I removed the following: "Egypt was a logical place to find refuge, as it was outside the dominions of King Herod, and both Egypt and Judah were part of the Roman Empire and were linked together by China's 2,500 year old ancient "silk road," This ancient road was historically known as China's "Silk Road." The very ancient China "Silk Road" consisted of a land and sea route. The sea route portion of China's ancient "Silk Road" was known as: the way of the sea", making travel between them easy and relatively safe."

I removed this both because it's original research and because it's wrong.

There are many problems with this deleted passage. 1) The silk road was not China's. It didn't belong to any country, city, or region, but rather passed through many. The deleted passage makes three misleading references to the Silk Road as being China's. 2) The term "Silk Road" is actually from the 19th century and was coined by a German scholar. 3) There was no single road, so the many references in this passage to "the silk road" are incorrect. In German, the term referred to "silk roads" in the plural, which is more accurate. This comment which I've deleted repeatedly talks of a singular route and thus exaggerates a) the consensus about the routes that can be called "Silk Road" and b) the extent to which it was something directed and controlled by China. 4) Few scholars include Mediterranean trade routes as part of the "Silk Road". Since this term was never used by those who traveled along these many paths, there's a lot of dispute about just what routes to include under the term of "Silk Road". Some, but not all, include branches that extend into South Asia (what are now Pakistan and India). Some include routes that extend into what are now Iran, Iraq, and ports on the Persian Gulf. Inter lingua 14:19, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Flight vs Return
Neither the "Return from Egypt" nor the "Prophecy of Hosea" have anything to do with the journey TO Egypt, but are more applicable to the "Return of the family of Jesus to Nazareth" article. "OUT of Egypt I called my son." I don't see it as helpful for the article to wander off on divergent subjects. For that matter the section on Nazarenes doesn't belong here either. It is, after all, about their travelling to Egypt, not Nazareth; and there is a separate article regarding the return. Apparently, not everyone agrees. Mannanan51 (talk) 03:37, 25 July 2018 (UTC)