QUOTE : Warned by Gabriel, the Magi never returned to Herod and Jesus’s parents escaped to Egypt until after Herod died. By the time Herod, that son of a serpent, murdered all the young male children of Bethlehem, Jesus was already gone. Jesus knew that Herodian mass murder was a mere portent of the battle he had in his future. And this monster before him was the heavenly architect of his earthly opposition. Jesus swayed in his stance. He reached down and with a grunt picked up his staff to hold himself up.