We have come along ways in this brief consideration of the themes of hospitality across the scriptures, from Abraham and Lot to Jesus and the early Christians. We have used examples from the Odyssey and other Hellenistic literature to help clarify what exactly this hospitality implied: the role of the host (to provide for the guests’ needs and aid them in their travels) and the role of the guest (to provide information and not steal or overstay a welcome). We have seen considered examples of bad hosts (e.g., Polyphemus, the city of Tyana, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Simon the Pharisee) and good ones (e.g., Abraham, Eumaeus, Nestor, god in the wilderness, Jesus during the Passover, Zacchaeus), though not spent as much time on the examples of guests. A few bad guests have lurked in the background like the Israelites complaining in the wilderness and the ‘suitors’ of Odysseus’ wife in the Odyssey; with their contrast in the open commensality of traditional Jews, Hellenized Jews, and Gentiles in the early Christian community.
We are now ready to see where the post-Acts Christian community fits in. What exactly has been its responsibility? While there are certainly some considerations for guests, the demands of the host seem more broadly applicable.
Meals have been a recurring theme in the providing of hospitality. The ancient custom of hospitality[1] began with a meal, where neither host nor guest needed to know the other. Hospitality came first, and friendship or kinship might follow. An interesting analogy appears in the letter to the Christian community in Laodicea in Revelation, in which Jesus says:
‘Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.'[2]
Image in Mari Girgis Monastery, Cairo, Egypt
Christians have long recognized this injunction: to accept Jesus message of forgiveness of sins and to heed his commands about how these forgiven people ought to live. Parallels are numerous:[3]
‘Be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the lord will find watching when he comes. In fact, the lord will dress himself to serve those slaves, making them recline and be served.'[4]
‘The one who loves me [Jesus] will keep my word; my father will love him and we shall come to him and make a home in him.'[5]
In accepting Jesus, Christians must not only embrace the message of forgiveness, but also submit to obedience to Jesus’ commands. Of these, right behavior is paramount, especially hospitality. It finds its way into the greatest commandments:
‘You shall love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments rest all the law and the prophets.[6]
So, what exactly does this look like? Jesus tells a parable which helps illustrate:
But when the son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate one from the other, just as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
The king will tell those on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.
The righteous will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and take you in; or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, or visit you?’
The king will reply, ‘I tell you: as much as you did to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.’
To those on his right, he says, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me no food; thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not receive me; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick and imprisoned, and you did not visit me.'[7]
Christians invite Jesus into their homes by showing hospitality to those in need. We looked at cases when gods were disguised as guests (e.g., Philemon and Baucis, Abraham, Nestor), and here Jesus plays on that trope: every poor, hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, or sick person is a divine guest. Will you invite them in and care for them? Or be like Sodom and Gomorrah and the city of Tyana and refuse entry to the divine visitor?
We see this realization in the practices of the early Christians in Acts and beyond. The kingdom of god granting forgiveness was proclaimed, baptism given, and then they were given the moral injunction to behave well and care for widows and orphans, the poor and needy. The injunctions to this way of life in the Christian New Testament are seemingly endless.[8]
Before the end of the first century, Clement of Rome wrote a letter to Corinth in which he opens his address by describing the reputation of the Corinthian community:
Who, ever, dwelt even a short time among you, and did not find your faith to be as fruitful of virtue as it was firmly established? Who did not admire the sobriety and moderation of your godliness in Christ? Who did not proclaim the magnificence of your habitual hospitality? And who did not rejoice over your perfect and well-grounded knowledge? For you did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the commandments of God, being obedient to those who had the rule over you, and giving all fitting honor to the presbyters among you.[9]
Clement cites Abraham, Lot, and Rahab (of Jericho, who hosted the Israelite spies during the conquest) as exemplars of this hospitality and models for Christians to follow.[10]
The generosity and hospitality of Christians is further described in second century texts like the letters of Ignatius of Antioch as he was being led to death in Rome;[11] and mocked by the satirist Lucian of Samosata as naïve, whose generosity could easily be taken advantage of;[12] and praised for their self-discipline and pursuit of justice by Galen.[13] Repeated injunctions appear in the sermons of Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzus.[14]
St. Augustine by Marc Arcis in Montauban Cathedral, Tarn et Garonne, France
Christians today need to continue this hospitality: taking care of the poor, the sick, the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned, and all of those in need regardless of race, class, beliefs, or location. This is the second greatest commandment and the praise which is given to the sheep on Jesus’ right. It involves sacrifices of time, money, goods, and possibly reputation. But it is a Christian responsibility. Practicing hospitality has served as one of Christianity’s greatest symbols to the world, and in this vein I think it is worth ending our exploration of hospitality with once again returning to the Emperor Julian’s complaints about the pagan lack of hospitality:
The Hellenic religion does not yet prosper as I desire, and it is the fault of those who profess it…Why then do we think that this is enough, why do we not observe that it is their [the Christian’s] benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead, and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism [Christianity]? I believe that we ought really and truly to practice every one of these virtues. And it is not enough for you alone to practice them, but so must all the priests of Galatia, without exception. Either shame or persuade them into righteousness, or else remove them from their priestly office, if they do not. […]
In every city establish frequent hostels in order that strangers may profit by our benevolence; I do not mean for our own people only, but for others also who are in need of money. I have but now made a plan by which you may be well provided for this. [The government will supply food and wine.] I order that one-fifth of this be used for the poor who serve the priests and the remainder be distributed by us to strangers and beggars. For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. […] At any rate Homer makes Eumaeus say:
Nay my friend, the wrong were mine
To scorn a stranger, were he worse than you.
Strangers and beggars are in care divine
How small soe’er the grace to those we show
is precious.Then let us not, by allowing others to outdo us in good works, disgrace by such remissions, or rather, utterly abandon, the reverence due to the gods.[15]
- At least in the region we’re considering.
- Revelation 3.20
- Sometimes, the analogy is the other way, with Christians coming into god’s kingdom to rule alongside the messiah. E.g., Revelation 3.21, Luke 22.24f.
- Luke 12.36f
- John 10.3
- See Matthew 22.34f
- Matthew 25.31f
- E.g., James 1.27, Hebrews 13.2, 1 Peter 4.9, Romans 12.13, Luke 14.12f, 1 John 3.16f, 2 Corinthians 9.6f, Galatians 6.9f, etc.
- Letter of Clement to Corinth 1.
- Letter of Clement to Corinth 10-12.
- Most of Ignatius letters are written to offer thanks to a community for providing him hospitality on his journey to Rome (and expected martyrdom).
- Lucian, On the Death of Peregrinus 11-16.
- See Stevenson (2013), A New Eusebius, 152.
- E.g., Augustine’s Sermon 61; Chrysostom’s Homily 33; Nazianzus’ Oration 40.
- Quoted from Stevenson (2012), Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Documents Illustrating the History of the Church, AD 337-461, 66-67.