Why does Luke not mention Jesus' flight into Egypt?

Answer 1

Luke does not set out to record every event. His focus is different to Matthew's.

Another answer:Each gospel was tailored to a specific audience. "Universal" concepts appear multiple times, but occurrences of more specific interest may appear in only one of the four, as is the case with the flight into Egypt.

Matthew's audience, the Jews, would (or should have) recognized Herod's "slaughter of the innocents" as a fulfillment of prophecy (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18), as well as the flight into and return from Egypt itself (Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15).

Luke's gospel was written primarily for a Greek audience who had no knowledge of Old Testament prophecy. Herod's mad determination to kill an infant would have made no sense to them at all.

Answer 2

There are two distinct and different nativity stories in the New Testament. Jesus' flight to Egypt, of which the author of Luke's Gospel knew nothing, is in Matthew's Gospel and is actually incompatible with the account in Luke.

In Luke's Gospel, Nazareth is clearly the home town of Mary and Joseph, because they travelled to Bethlehem for a census and Jesus was born in a stable. Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem and then home to Nazareth in Galilee, while he was still a baby. From this point onwards, it would no longer be possible to find baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Then, each year, they took him back to Jerusalem for the Passover, with no thought that Jesus could be in danger from King Herod, but they never again travelled to Bethlehem - because they had no need to.

In Matthew's Gospel, Bethlehem was the home town of Mary and Joseph, because: the family remained there after his birth, whether for a few weeks or two years; the wise men found Jesus in a house, not a stable; when Joseph, Mary and Jesus finally began the return journey from Egypt, they planned to go back to Bethlehem but, Joseph being warned in a dream (Matthew 2:22), turned aside and travelled to Galilee where they settled in a city called Nazareth (Matthew 2:23).

The difference between the two accounts, including the absence from Luke of this dramatic and important journey to Egypt, can be understood by knowing that many New Testament scholars say that neither nativity story is correct. John Shelby Spong says in Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus, Matthew was clearly writing Christian midrash.