VAYERA

GENESIS 18:1-22:4
Hospitality in the Ancient Near East
&
The Hue and Cry

HOSPITALITY IN VAYERA
Chapter 18- 3 Messengers to Abraham
Chapter 19- 2 Messengers to Sodom and Lot

The Destruction of Sodom and

Gommorah

Chapter 20- Abraham and Sarah to Gerar &

Abimelechs

ANCHOR BIBLE DICTIONARY

The practice of receiving a guest or stranger graciously was
common to many social groups throughout the period in which
the OT and NT were composed. But special nuances of
hospitality, particularly with regard to the guest and host roles
played by God or Messiah, serve to distinguish the notions of the
biblical writers from those of their contemporaries. The word most
often associated with hospitality in the LXX and the NT is xenos,
which literally means foreigner, stranger, or even enemy. In its
derived sense, however, the term comes to denote both guest
and host alike. Typically, the verb used to describe the extending
of hospitality is xenizein (Sir 29:25; 1 Macc 9:6; Acts 10:23; Heb
13:2). In the NT one who receives visitors is said to be
philoxenos,i.e.,alover of strangers,or to be practicing the virtue
of philoxenia (1 Tim 3:2; 1 Pet 4:9; Rom 12:13; Heb 13:2). All these
terms occur in classical Greek literature as well.

The host would provide food, lodging, and

protection for his guest. Not doing so
would mean violating the custom of hospitality
that was to be indiscriminately
offered to every person in need.

PROTOCOL OF HOSPITALITY
1) There is a sphere of hospitality which comprises

a zone of obligation for both the individual and

the village or town within which they have the
responsibilityto offer hospitality to strangers. The
size of the zone is of course smaller for the
individual than for the urban center.

Each city and its citizens are responsiblefor the care of

visitors who enter their population center.
Each individual camp and its male head of household
are responsible for the care of visitors who enter the
circle of their camp

This obligation is reciprocal. In the ancient Near East

reciprocal gifting of water, food, and shelter meant the
traveler had a greater chance of survival on the road.
It also lessened the instances of theft, raiding, and
murder which might have occurred in an inhospitable
land where every persons hand was turned against
another.
However, where property rights (including both
personal possessions as well as real estate) are
respected, so too must physical well being be
respected.

PROTOCOL OF HOSPITALITY
2) The stranger must be transformed from being a
potential threat to becoming an ally by the offer of

hospitality.

No society can tolerate a hostile presence within it

for long. When a stranger approaches a village or dwelling
place, by definition this person is a threat to
inhabitants of that place. Either hostilities or threats
must result or the stranger must be neutralized as a
fiostile force by temporarily admitting him or her into
the community. This is done through the offer of hospitality.
It also seems to apply to the rule of law accorded
to the sojourneror resident alien who is entitled to justice just
like widows and orphans (Deut 24:17-18).The basis for this
injunction is Israels time in Egypt asstrangers, sojourners, and
slaves.

PROTOCOL OF HOSPITALITY
3) The invitation of hospitality can only be offered
by the male head of household or a male citizen of
a town or village.

Despite occasional instances in which women operate

in an independent and even leading role in the
biblicalnarratives (2 Sam 20:16-22; 2 Kgs 11:1-3), their
legal status is defined by their relationship to their
fathers or husbands. Within this legal framework it is the
prerogative of the male head of household to provide
for and protect his household. It is his right and
responsibility, therefore,to serve as host and make the
initial invitation ofhospitality. His wife and daughter(s)
may serve the guestas well, but only at the behest of
their husband or father.

Resident aliens or sojourners; (ger) are also not

qualified to function as a host. They live within a town
or village at the sufferance of the citizens, although
they are protected under the law (Deut 24:17-18).
They have the right of free passage, but may not
represent thecitizenry in a legal sense, as in the case
of hospitality.

That right is reserved for citizens alone.

PROTOCOL OF HOSPITALITY
4) The stranger has the right of refusal, but this
could be considered an affront to the honor of the
host and could be a cause for immediate hostilities
or con flict.

While the stranger is generally at the mercy of

his host or host city, it is the visitors right to refuse
hospitality when offered. This may be based on
a desire to continue ones journey (Judg 19:910) or, as in the case of the angels visit to
Sodom (Gen 19:2), refusal may be based on the
legal inappropriateness of the one making the
invitation.

Examples of the proper exercise of the invitation of

hospitality are found in Gen 18:2-3 and 24:30-31 and
other examples of improper invitation are found in Gen
19:2 and Judg 19:20. In the former the heads of
households invite strangers to share the comforts of
their homes and thereby to remove their status as
strangers(Pitt-Rivers: 23), while in the latter two
examplesresident aliens improperly offer hospitality to
a stranger.

PROTOCOL OF HOSPITALITY
5) The guest remains under the protection of the
host until he/she has left the zone of obligation of
the host.

The sphere or zone of obligation which the guest

enters and leaves has its limits. There will be spaces
between these zones which are uninhabited in the
sparsely populated area of ancient Canaan. In those areas
travelers are truly on their own and are subject to the dangers
of the road-brigands, wild animals, hostile climate. This then
magnifies the importance of the hospitality ritual when a
traveler enters the zone of obligation of an individual
household or population center. The potential hosts know the
dangers faced by travelers and the level of responsibility they
have to protect their guest as long as he/she is within their
defined area of obligation.

Exo 22:21-27 Do not tread down a sojourner or oppress him,

for you were sojourners in the land of Mitsrayim. (22) Do not
afflict any widow or fatherless child. (23) If you do afflict them
at all if they cry out to Me at all, I shall certainly hear their cry,
(24) and My wrath shall burn and I shall slay you with the
sword, your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless.
(25) If you do lend silver to any of My people, the poor
among you, you are not to be like one that lends on interest to
him. Do not lay interest on him. (26) If you take your
neighbours garment as a pledge at all, you are to return it to
him before the sun goes down. (27) For that is his only
covering, it is his garment for his skin. What does he sleep in?
And it shall be that when he cries to Me, I shall hear, for I show
favour.

The term "Kingdom" in the First Century world

had a notion usually associated only with the
elite classes and not the peasants who
made up 98% of society
It has to do with an
Exclusive vs Inclusive mentality of the day.

YESHUA HAS THE AUTHORITY TO

OFFER HOSPITALITY TO HIS FATHERS
HOUSE AND KINGDOM

Joh 14:1-4 Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in

Elohim, believe also in Me. (2) In My Fathers house
are many staying places. And if not, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I shall come again and
receive you to Myself, that where I am, you might be
too. (4) And where I go you know, and the way you
know.

2JOHN
2Jn 1:6-11 And this is the love, that we walk according to His
commands.1 This is the command, that as you have heard
from the beginning, you should walk in it (7) Because many
who are leading astray went out into the world who do not
confess Messiah as coming in the flesh. This one is he who
is leading astray and the anti-messiah. (8) See to yourselves,
that we do not lose what we worked for, but that we might
receive a complete reward. (9) Everyone who is transgressing
and not staying in the teaching of Messiah does not possess
Elohim.1 The one who stays in the teaching of Messiah
possesses both the Father and the (10) If anyone comes to
you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into
your house nor greet him, (11) for he who greets him shares in
his wicked works.

FOR YESHUAS FOLLOWERS, HIS SHARP CRITIQUE OF

CONVENTIONAL MEAL CODES OPENED THE DOOR FOR THEM TO
PRACTICE TABLE FELLOWSHIP ACROSS STATUS LINES, AND
EVENTUALLY ACROSS ETHNIC BARRIERS AS WELL, AS PHILLIP
ESNER HAS ASTUTELY OBSERVED, IT IS SURELY NO INADVERTENCE
ON LUKES PART THE TYPES OF PEOPLE SPECIFIED LK 14:21 AS
REPLACEMENT GUESTS ARE VIRTUAL IDENTICAL TO THE GROUPS
PROMISED THE GOOD NEWS IN LK:4:8 AND EXTOLLED AS BLESSED
IN THE BEATITUDES IN LK:620-24, NAMELY BEGGARS, THE
CRIPPLED, THE BLIND, THE POOR THE LAME ETC.
Scott Bartchy, A Profound Challenge to the elite

THE PARABLE OF THE WEDDING

SUPPER
Luke14:12-24

THE WEDDING FEAST OF THE LAMB

Matthew 22:1-14 & Revelation 19:6-9

THE HUE AND CRY

Legal Action

LAW & ORDER IN ANCIENT ISRAEL

We can properly speak in this case of a legal institution by
means of which in a situation of need a wrong could be
righted. The basic thinking behind the hue and cry was
this. When a person found himself in a situation of acute
need, he could raise an outcry and thereby oblige
anyone within hearing to come to his immediate
assistance. This is verified in nearly all legal cultures, and
itseffects can still be traced in German law today.

CRYING OUT IN SCRIPTURE

Gen 4:10*

Prov 21:13*

Ex 2:23*

Jonah 1:2*

Ex 14:10*

Sirach 35:14-24*

Jdg 3:9*, 15, 4:3, 6:6, 7:21

Mark 10:46-52*

1 Kings 17:17-20

Mark 15:33-37* (cf Jn 12:27-33)

Job 19:7*

Acts 7:60

Ps a 8 8 : 1

James 5:1-6***

Rev 6:10*

Exo 3:7-9 And said, I have indeed seen the oppression of My

people who are in Mitsrayim, and have heard their cry because of
their slave-drivers, for I know their sorrows. (8) And I have come
down to deliver them from the hand of the Mitsrites, and to bring
them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land
flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Kenaanites and the
Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hiwwites and the
Yebusites. (9) And now, see, the cry of the children of Yisral has
come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the
Mitsrites oppress them.

Exo 22:21-27 Do not tread down a sojourner or oppress him,

for you were sojourners in the land of Mitsrayim. (22) Do not
afflict any widow or fatherless child. (23) If you do afflict them
at all if they cry out to Me at all, I shall certainly hear their cry,
(24) and My wrath shall burn and I shall slay you with the
sword, your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless.
(25) If you do lend silver to any of My people, the poor
among you, you are not to be like one that lends on interest to
him. Do not lay interest on him. (26) If you take your
neighbours garment as a pledge at all, you are to return it to
him before the sun goes down. (27) For that is his only
covering, it is his garment for his skin. What does he sleep in?
And it shall be that when he cries to Me, I shall hear, for I show
favour.

Mar 10:46-52 And they came to Yeriho. And as He was leaving

Yeriho with His taught ones and a large crowd, blind Bartimai, the
son of Timai, was sitting by the way begging. (47) And when he
heard that it was of Natsareth, he began to cry out and to
say, , Son of Dawid, have compassion on me! (48) And
many were reprimanding him to be silent, but he cried out all the
more, Son of Dawid, have compassion on me! (49) And
stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man,
saying to him, Take courage, arise, He is calling you. (50) And
he, throwing aside his garment, rose and came to . (51) And
responding, said to him, What do you desire I do for you?
And the blind man said to Him, Rabboni, that I receive my sight.
(52) And said to him, Go, your belief has healed you. And
immediately he saw again and followed on the way.

Mat 25:32-46 And all the nations shall be gathered before Him,
and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
separates his sheep from the goats. (33) And He shall set the
sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. (34) Then the
Sovereign shall say to those on His right hand, Come, you blessed
of My Father, inherit the reign prepared for you from the
foundation of the world (35) for I was hungry and you gave Me
food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and
you took Me in, (36) was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick
and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.