They Are Dead That Sought the Life of the Child: The Infant Moses and the Infant Christ
Old Testament: Exodus 1:22; Exodus 2:2-3; Exodus 4:19
Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive. ... And she conceived, and bore a son; and seeing him a goodly child hid him three months. And when she could hide him no longer, she took a basket made of bulrushes, ... and put the little babe therein, and laid him in the sedges by the river's brink, ... And the Lord said to Moses, in Madian: Go, and return into Egypt: for they are all dead that sought thy life.
Old Testament, also: 4 Kings 11:1-3
And Athalia the mother of Ochozias seeing that her son was dead, arose, and slew all the royal seed. But Josaba the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ochozias, took Joas the son of Ochozias, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, out of the bedchamber with his nurse: and hid him from the face of Athalia, so that he was not slain. And he was with her six years hid in the house of the Lord.
New Testament: Matthew 2:16, 19-20
Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. ... But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, Saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child.
The connection
Israel's deliverer was born under a death sentence. Pharao, afraid of a people growing too strong, ordered every Hebrew boy thrown into the river (Exodus 1:22). One mother hid her son three months, then set him in a basket among the reeds, and the child who should have drowned was drawn out of the water and grew up to lead his people out of Egypt. Years later, when Moses had fled for his life, God called him back with a single sentence: "Go, and return into Egypt: for they are all dead that sought thy life" (Exodus 4:19). The new Deliverer is born under a death sentence too. Herod, afraid for his throne, kills "all the men children that were in Bethlehem" (Matthew 2:16), and one Child escapes because He has been hidden, carried by night into Egypt. When Herod dies an angel calls Him back, and Matthew gives the angel Moses' own sentence: "Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child" (Matthew 2:20). Moses had promised that God would raise up "a PROPHET ... like unto me" (Deuteronomy 18:15), and Peter preaches that Christ is that prophet (Acts 3:22). The likeness begins before the Child can speak. Aphrahat lays the two lives side by side: "When Moses was born, they concealed him that he might not be slain by his persecutors. When Jesus was born they carried Him off in flight into Egypt that Herod, His persecutor, might not slay Him. In the days when Moses was born, children used to be drowned in the river; and at the birth of Jesus the children of Bethlehem and in its borders were slain. To Moses God said: The men are dead who were seeking thy life; and to Joseph the angel said in Egypt: Arise, take up the child." The Catechism draws the same line: "Jesus' departure from Egypt recalls the exodus and presents him as the definitive liberator of God's people" (CCC 530).
Moral sense
Both children were saved by people who had no power at all: a slave mother with a basket, a carpenter with a donkey and a dream. Pharao and Herod had armies. What defeated them was a woman who would not let go of her child and a man who got up in the night and did what he was told. God's way of protecting what He means to save is almost always like that, hidden, small, and entrusted to the faithful obedience of ordinary people. And the massacres were real. The boys in the Nile and the boys of Bethlehem died, and the Church honours the Holy Innocents as the first to die for Christ without ever knowing His name. Faith does not pretend the tyrant does no harm. It trusts that the tyrant does not have the last word: every Pharao and every Herod dies, and the Child they sought outlives them.
Anagogical sense
The same sentence closes both stories: they are dead that sought the life of the child. It is the sentence spoken at the end of every persecution, and it will be spoken at the end of the world. The Apocalypse shows the dragon standing before the woman, waiting to devour her Son, and the Son caught up to God and to His throne. Moses led Israel out of Egypt to a promised land he did not enter. Christ goes down into Egypt, comes up out of it, and leads His people out of a slavery worse than Pharao's into a land where no one seeks the life of any child, and where the Innocents are the first citizens.
The Fathers
Aphrahat, Demonstrations, Of Persecution: "Moses also was persecuted, as Jesus was persecuted. When Moses was born, they concealed him that he might not be slain by his persecutors. When Jesus was born they carried Him off in flight into Egypt that Herod, His persecutor, might not slay Him. In the days when Moses was born, children used to be drowned in the river; and at the birth of Jesus the children of Bethlehem and in its borders were slain." St Augustine, in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 2:13: "Moses before had shut up the light of day from the traitors the Egyptians; Christ by going down thither brought back light to them that sat in darkness."
Warrant
Patristic because Matthew does not name Moses, though he borrows his sentence: the Greek of Matthew 2:20, tethnekasin gar hoi zetountes ten psychen tou paidiou, is the Septuagint of Exodus 4:19, tethnekasin gar pantes hoi zetountes sou ten psychen, without pantes, 'all', and changed to fit the child. Aphrahat sets the two births, the two massacres and the two recalls side by side (Demonstrations, Of Persecution), and St Augustine, in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 2:13, contrasts Moses bringing darkness on Egypt with Christ bringing it light. The prophet like Moses of Deuteronomy 18:15 is applied to Christ in Acts 3:22, which is scriptural, but it does not refer to the infancy. The joining of Joas, hidden six years in the Temple while Athalia slew the royal seed, is the entry's own; no Father in the site's texts sets him beside Herod's massacre. Matthew himself reads the massacre through a different text, Rachel weeping in Jeremias 31:15.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 530.
The verses
Exodus 1:22 · Exodus 2:2 · Exodus 2:3 · Exodus 4:19 · 4 Kings 11:1 · 4 Kings 11:2 · 4 Kings 11:3 · Matthew 2:16 · Matthew 2:19 · Matthew 2:20
