Scripture · Matthew 2:13
Matthew 2:13-15
Flight into Egypt
When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.” So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
Mary and Joseph both ride in this version of the Flight into Egypt. Their weary progress gives the familiar escape the weight of a long journey.
About the artwork
Both Mary and Joseph ride here, unlike Tanner’s 1899 Detroit version, in which Joseph walks. The two mounts keep the travelers together as a compact group near the lower edge. Around them, bands of blue and green spread across a much larger sky and landscape; the escape continues within a world that does not stop for it.
This 1921 painting makes an event of sustained travel. Herod and his soldiers are absent, and there is no visible angel delivering the warning. The family is already living out the consequences of that message. Its low, unhurried progress gives Matthew’s brief statement about leaving at night the duration of a difficult road.
Featured in: The Life of the Virgin Mary in Paintings
Featured in: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris
What does Matthew 2:13-15 mean?
After the Magi leave, an angel warns Joseph in a dream that Herod intends to kill the child. Joseph takes Mary and Jesus away at night and remains in Egypt until Herod’s death. Matthew’s short account gives the command, the departure, and the reason for their exile without describing every stage of the road.
Tanner expands that interval into a visible journey. Matthew does not specify animals or the travelers’ positions, so those details belong to the painter’s imagining of the escape. What the text does establish is the family’s vulnerability and Joseph’s prompt response to the warning.
Matthew 2:13–15 supplies the urgency behind the weary travelers: the journey is a flight from a ruler’s threat against the child.
Sources
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (50.10); 50.8 × 61 cm.
Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Matthew 2 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Matthew 2:13-15.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:The Flight into EgyptFirst Steps, after Millet