miraculous stories occurring on the voyage with palm trees bowing before the Infant Jesus and the beasts of the desert paying him homage. An encounter with the two thieves that would later be crucified alongside Jesus is also reported. In these tales the holy family are joined by Jesus' nurse Salome. The story of the palm trees makes it into the Qur'an with Sura 19:24 relating the event. Why Matthew includes this trip to Egypt has also been debated by scholars. Stendhal's interpretation of Matthew 2 is that it is a lengthy apology for why the messiah left Bethlehem, a town of great religious importance, for the minor and little known Nazareth in Gentile Galilee. However, the side trip to Egypt does little to advance this argument. One view is that Matthew is presenting Jesus as Moses, but in reverse, to draw parallels with that other great Jewish leader. France feels that the trip to Egypt is part of Matthew's greater interest in geography. France notes that in Matthew 4:24-25 the entire Holy Land is described as being aware of Jesus, while the arrival of the magi "from the east" in Matthew 2:1 is a reference to Mesopotamia. This leaves out only one major portion of the Jewish world: Egypt. France feels that this brief trip was added to cover this omission. Commentary from the Church Fathers Pseudo-Chrysostom: He says not, ‘the Mother and her young Child,’ but, the young Child and His mother; for the Child was not born for the mother, but the mother prepared for the Child. How is this that the Son of God flies from the face of man? or who shall deliver from the enemy's hand, if He Himself fears His enemies? First; He ought to observe, even in this, the law of that human nature which He took on Him; and human nature and infancy must flee before threatening power. Next, that Christians when persecution makes it necessary should not be ashamed to fly. But why into Egypt? The Lord, who keepeth not His anger forever, remembered the woes He had brought upon Egypt, and therefore sent His Son thither, and gives it this sign of great reconciliation, that with this one remedy He might heal the ten plagues of Egypt, and the nation that had been the persecutor of this first-born people, might be the guardian of His first-born Son. As formerly