Font Size: 

Scripture reports many instances of individual and collective migrations which we are not unfamiliar from our present day experiences. Abraham and his clan uproots themselves from Ur of the Chaldeans with what looks like the prospect of a better life in Canaan. Jacob and his twelve sons transfers to Egypt where there is food during a long drawn famine. Moses flees to Midian from Egypt to avoid Pharaoh’s ire. The Israelites are led from Egypt to Canaan because this is where they are promised land of their own by God. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt because Herod threatens the life of Jesus. It seems clear that patterns of migration then and now are driven by the same economic and political factors. The narratives or stories of present-day migrants bear witness to the constancy of the patterns established and narrated even in the Bible.

scripture, migration, cultural, biblical