You and I tend to offer hospitality to only a limited number of people — persons whom we already know, mostly relatives and a few close friends. But, in Abraham’s time, hospitality was extended to whomever needed it — strangers and acquaintances alike. In fact, in its original form, “hospitality” combines two separate words — one meaning friend and the other meaning stranger. So, from the beginning of its usage, hospitality has carried with it the idea of making friends out of strangers.
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James W. Cox, The Minister’s Manual, Harper, 1994, 109; contributed by Paul Fritz