Entertaining Strangers: Emergent "Hospitality" in the Early Church

Entertaining Strangers: Emergent “Hospitality” in the Early Church

Richard L.S.PHUA

The term “hospitality” is often taken at face value as reflecting the practitioner's friendly and generous disposition and is used in most versions of the English Bible to translate the Greek term φιλοξενία. This paper considers the Old Testament background of the term and its evolution in the early church. The thesis of the paper is that “hospitality” as a virtue reflected God's kindness and generosity towards his people in the Old Testament, the concept of which further developed in the New Testament through the giving of Jesus and became part of the instrument through which ─ God's truth was disseminated in the early church. Thus, when Christians entertain strangers, they are in fact extending hospitality towards God. The early church after Jesus' ascension continued the practice of hospitality through social care alongside their proclamation of the gospel . The concept evolved into a form of mutualism that seemed to be offered to Christians only.