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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 13:2 - 13:2
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2. φιλοξενίας. The hospitality of Christians (what Julian calls ἡ περὶ ξένους φιλανθρωπία) was naturally exercised chiefly towards the brethren. The absence of places of public entertainment except in the larger towns, and the constant interchange of letters and messages between Christian communities—a happy practice which also prevailed among the Jewish Synagogues—made “hospitality” a very necessary and blessed practice. St Peter tells Christians to be hospitable to one another ungrudgingly, and unmurmuringly, though it must sometimes have been burdensome (1Pe 4:9; comp. Rom 12:13; Tit 1:8; 1Ti 3:2). We find similar exhortations in the Talmud (Berachoth, f. 63. 2; Shabbath, f. 27.1). The “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” shews that hospitality to wandering teachers was an ordinary duty.
ἀγγέλους. Abraham (Gen 18:2-22. Lot (Gen 19:1-2). Manoah (Jdg 13:2-14). Gideon (Jdg 6:11-20). Our Lord taught that we may even entertain Him—the King of Angels—unawares. “I was a stranger, and ye took Me in” (Mat 25:35-40). There is an allusion to this “entertaining of angels” in Philo, De Abrahamo (Opp. II. 17). The classic verb rendered “unawares” (ἔλαθον) is not found elsewhere in the N. T. in this sense, and forms a happy paronomasia with “forget not.” The verb is used adverbially, “unconsciously.”