Matthew / Question
Joseph is afraid to go to Judea because Archelaus is reigning there in place of Herod Matthew 2:22. After being warned in a dream, he withdraws to Galilee and lives in Nazareth Matthew 2:22–23.
After Herod dies, Joseph receives a dream message to return from Egypt because the threat to the child is gone (Matthew 2:19–23). Joseph obeys, but news that Archelaus rules Judea makes him afraid to settle there. Another dream warning leads him instead to Galilee, where he makes his home in Nazareth. This unit concludes Matthew’s opening sequence of childhood scenes: birth, recognition by outsiders, conflict with a ruler, flight, and return. The narrative keeps moving by alternating between danger and guidance, with dreams functioning as the repeated means of direction to Joseph.
Matthew presents these events as guided movement: danger eases when Herod dies, and Joseph receives direction through dreams (verses 19–20, 22). The text explicitly says the return is possible because “those who sought the child’s life are dead” (verse 20).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Matthew 2:22, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee,