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Year: 2020

Hospitality in the Hebrew

Altmann, Peter

Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-153554 Scientific Publication in Electronic Form Published Version

Originally published at: Altmann, Peter (2020). Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible. Bible : People, Places, and Passages: Society of Biblical Literature. Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/people/related-articles/hospitality-in-th...

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Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible RELATED ARTICLES (7) by Peter Altmann

What is one to do with strangers, those people out of place?

People away from home need protection, shelter, and food. They are at the mercy of the locals. In response, the Hebrew Bible makes a central value of hospitable care for such outsiders—whether travelers, refugees (those forced to relocate), and even neighbors (who are foreigners to the host’s residence). Immigrants and Israelites are often reminded that they too were aliens in Egypt (e.g., Lev Foreigners in the Bible 19:34); so they should care for strangers. The law in Deut 14:28-29 of the The Hebrew Bible contains a third-year tithe shows that food for foreigners became an important legal variety of views about statute, uncommon in ancient Near Eastern laws. foreigners and their relationship to Israel and to Numerous narratives and laws put this concern on display. The quintessential example takes place when three men (who turn out God, reflecting the fact that to be divine) journey by ’s tent. He runs out and invites them to stop. When they accept, he prepares a lavish feast for Israel was in nearly constant them (Gen 18). Though he only offers them bread and water to wash their feet, he proceeds to slaughter his tender calf—a rare contact with foreign peoples. treat—and to have Sarah his wife make fresh bread for a tasty meal accompanied by curds and milk.

Soon after, Abraham’s nephew also provides a feast and protection to these same travelers, in spite of their desire to spend the night sleeping in the Sodom town square. Lot’s protection and provision contrasts with the attempt by the other inhabitants of Sodom’s to take advantage of the outsiders (Gen 19). The Bible highlights the value of hospitality in these two cases by recording God’s blessing on Abraham in the form of a child and the rescue of Lot and his daughters from the destruction of Sodom. Homicide in the Ancient Near East The tragic story of Judg 19 tells of the opposite, bearing similarities to the story of Lot. A Levite and his concubine journey back Homicide is among the most home from his father-in-law’s house. They plan to sleep in the open square of the Israelite town of Gibeon, rather than a foreign heinous offenses in human town. The Levite makes this choice because he assumes they will be safer among Israelites. A man from Ephraim, himself living as an outsider in Gibeon, takes them in. While this man provides them with shelter, food, and drink, the local Gibeonites demand to HarperCollins Dictionary rape the Levite but satisfy themselves with his concubine. She dies as a result. Her death leads to a massive civil war, for this deed represented an atrocity for Israel. The irony is that the travelers may have been safer in the foreign town than they were in Israel. Abraham Amon Amorites concubine Ephraim Egypt A similar critique of the lack of hospitality appears in Deut 23:3-5, which excludes Ammonites and Moabites from the Israelite Elijah Elisha sanctuary because they refused to provide the Israelites with access to water when passing Moabite and Ammonite territory on Gibeon hospitality their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land (but see Ruth for a story about hospitable treatment of a Moabite). Israel Israelite Levites Lot Finally, hospitality also plays an important role elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, including in the lives of the prophets Elijah (1Kgs 17) Moab, Moses and Elisha (2Kgs 4) and in leading to marriage, such as for Moses (Exod 2). Thus, hospitality serves as an underlying core value for Moabites Sarah how the characters in the Hebrew Bible should treat others, for they, too, understood the precarious nature of life as an outsider. tithe

Peter Altmann, "Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible", n.p. [cited 22 Sep 2020]. Online: https://www.bibleodyssey.org:443/en/people Related Publications /related-articles/hospitality-in-the-hebrew-bible Not Bread Alone Contributors ASK A SCHOLAR Divine Hospitality in the Pentateuch Peter Altmann Hospitality in the First Testament postdoctoral researcher in Hebrew Bible, University of and the Teleological Fallacy Zurich Related Links Peter Altmann is a postdoctoral researcher in Hebrew Bible at the Travelers University of Zurich, Switzerland. He also teaches courses in Bible for Fuller Seminary. His publications include Festive Meals in Ancient Israel: hospitality Deuteronomy’s Identity Politics in Their Ancient Near Eastern Context (BZAW 424; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011) and a coedited volume with Janling Fu, Feasting in the Archaeology and Texts of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2014).

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