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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Hospitality
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HOSPITALITY.—This marked Oriental virtue prevailed in Palestine in Christ’s day. Our Lord assumes its exercise, rather than directly enjoins it. His Apostles, later, however, prescribed hospitality as a reflexion of the Christ spirit (Rom_12:13, 1Ti_3:2, Tit_1:8, Heb_13:2; 1Pe_4:9), even towards an enemy (Rom_12:20). Because of the widespread prevalence of hospitality, inns (wh. see) were comparatively few; and even in khans or places of lodgment for strangers there were unfurnished rooms which were at the disposal of travellers, without cost. The innkeeper or host usually received remuneration for such extra service as the stranger might require, as in a case like that of the wounded man cared for at the Samaritan’s expense (Luk_10:35). Since Jesus Himself ‘had not where to lay his head’ (Mat_8:20), He depended much upon the hospitality of the friendly disposed, as of Andrew and Peter at Capernaum (Mat_8:14), and of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at Bethany (Joh_11:1-5); and frequently accepted the hospitality of house-holders (Mat_26:6, Luk_5:29; Luk_7:36 ff; Luk_19:5). On occasions of the great feasts at Jerusalem, guest-chambers were freely put at the disposal of visiting worshippers (Mar_14:14). When the Master sent out the Seventy, they were to take no purse, but to rely upon the hospitality of the people of the towns into which they might go (Luk_10:4 ff.); a blessing being left with the hospitable (Luk_10:6), while a woe is pronounced upon the inhospitable city (Luk_10:10-12). Christ said of His messengers that those who received them were in truth receiving Him (Joh_13:20). So incensed were two of His disciples at being refused entertainment in a Samaritan village, that they would have called down fire from heaven to destroy the people. But this spirit Jesus rebuked (Luk_9:52-56). The spirit of hospitality was manifested in giving not only lodging and food, but also water for the feet (Luk_7:44, cf. Joh_13:5); a servant usually unloosing and taking charge of the sandals (Luk_3:16). Sometimes a kiss characterized the hospitable reception (Luk_7:45).
The emphasis that Jesus laid upon the virtue of hospitality may be discovered in His description of the Last Judgment, in which the righteous are commended because ‘I was a stranger and ye took me in’ (Mat_25:35). See also art. Inn.
Literature.—Thomson, LB [Note: The Land and the Book.] , passim; Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life; Trumbull, Oriental Social Life; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible , s.v.
E. B. Pollard.