Egypt

Location

Egypt is the ancient civilisation of the Nile valley in north-east Africa — the land the Bible calls Mizraim (Genesis 10:6). It borders the wilderness of Sinai to the east and Nubia to the south. In the Old Testament its capital was for long periods at Memphis (near modern Cairo); by the Ptolemaic and Roman periods the capital was Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast.

Biblical importance

Egypt is the great foreign land of the Old Testament — the land of Joseph's rise (Genesis 37-50), of Israel's bondage (Exodus 1), of the Exodus (Exodus 5-14), of the plagues, of the Passover. In the New Testament Egypt receives the Holy Family in flight from Herod (Matthew 2:13-15) and is home to the great Alexandrian catechetical school and the Coptic Church, one of the oldest branches of Christianity.

Historical timeline

• c. 2091 BC — Abraham sojourns in Egypt during a famine (Genesis 12:10-20).
• c. 1898 BC — Joseph is sold into Egypt (Genesis 37); rises to be vizier (Genesis 41).
• c. 1876 BC — Jacob and his family move to Egypt (Genesis 46-47).
• c. 1526 BC — Moses is born; rescued from the Nile (Exodus 2).
• c. 1446 BC (Long Chronology) — The ten plagues; the Passover; the Exodus (Exodus 5-14).
• c. 4 BC — The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15). Ancient Coptic tradition preserves a route along the Nile Delta from Sinai to Assiut.
• c. AD 42 (traditional) — Mark the Evangelist founds the church of Alexandria.
• c. AD 180 — Pantaenus founds the Alexandrian catechetical school.
• AD 251-356 — Anthony the Great (patron of monasticism) lives in the Egyptian desert; monasticism as we know it begins here.
• AD 451 — The Coptic Church becomes distinct from the Chalcedonian majority after the Council of Chalcedon.

Important biblical events

• Genesis 41 (KJV) Joseph is made ruler over all Egypt.
• Exodus 3:7 (KJV) 'I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt.'
• Exodus 12 (KJV) The Passover.
• Exodus 14:21-31 (KJV) The crossing of the Red Sea.
• Hosea 11:1 (KJV) 'When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.'
• Matthew 2:13-15 (KJV) The flight into Egypt fulfils Hosea 11:1.
• Acts 2:10 (KJV) Egyptian Jews are present at Pentecost.
• Acts 18:24-25 (KJV) Apollos is 'an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures,' born in Alexandria.

Related People

• Joseph son of Jacob — vizier of Egypt.
• Moses — rescued from the Nile.
• Pharaoh — the successive kings who variously honoured and oppressed the Hebrews.
• Abraham — who sojourned in Egypt during a famine.
• Christ Jesus — carried into Egypt as an infant.
• Mary and Joseph of Nazareth — who fled here with the child.
• Mark the Evangelist — founder of the Alexandrian church.

Connected Places

• Mount Sinai — where Israel arrived three months after leaving Egypt.
• Alexandria — the great Christian city of Egypt.
• Jordan River — the river Israel crossed forty years after the Exodus.
• Nazareth — where the Holy Family returned from Egypt.

Christian tradition

• The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world; its calendar is dated from the martyrdom era ('Anno Martyrum').
• The Sayings of the Desert Fathers preserve the wisdom of fourth-century Egyptian monasticism.
• Coptic tradition preserves an extensive itinerary of the Holy Family's flight, with more than twenty stopping-places along the Nile.
• The Alexandrian catechetical school (Pantaenus, Clement, Origen, Athanasius, Cyril) shaped early Christian theology.

Household reflection

Egypt is the household's reminder that the Lord uses the whole earth for His purposes. A pagan pharaoh raised Joseph. A Coptic community gave the Church the desert fathers. An Egyptian widow gave Elijah the last of her meal in Zarephath (a Phoenician town, but the pattern is the same).

When a household finds itself in a strange place (a new city, a new country, a new hardship), remember: the Holy Family lived here as refugees for some years. Christ Himself was once a stranger in a strange land.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read Genesis 37-50, Exodus 1-15, and Matthew 2 together as the household's Egypt unit.
• Pray (Chapel) — Pray for Coptic Christians on their feast of the Flight into Egypt (1 June).
• Family (Kitchen Table) — Bake unleavened bread near Passover-Easter as a household remembrance of the Exodus.
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing 'Let My People Go' — the African-American spiritual that carries Exodus.
• Learn (Workshop) — Study the Sayings of the Desert Fathers — a foundational text of Christian formation.

Further reading

Genesis 37-50 and Exodus 1-15 in the KJV.

Matthew 2:13-23.

Athanasius, Life of Anthony (c. AD 360).

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum).

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• Moses
• Alexandria
• Sinai
• Christ Jesus
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.