Vision of Theophilus

The Vision of Theophilus is an ancient apocryphal account of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt and the life they led there, edited and translated by A. Mingana.

The story is told in the form of a vision, under the title The Vision of Theophilus. This does not mean that every historical detail was invented by its author. His task seems to have been to take his material from local tradition and give it the form we now have. He also drew on some apocryphal books and on works of church history that the Egyptian scholars of his time knew well.

For the Coptic Church the journey of the Holy Family through Egypt is a treasured part of its heritage, and this text is one of the writings through which that memory has been handed down.

The book will interest readers who love the Holy Family's journey through Egypt and the traditions of the Coptic Church, students of Christian apocrypha and early Christian Egypt, and pilgrims to the sites associated with the Holy Family. It is also suitable reading during the Nativity season and around the Coptic Church's feast of the Entry of the Lord into Egypt.