"Sociologists might suggest that Jews do hospitality so well because they have spent so many centuries being the stranger and the friendless. It is also true that Jewish (and so also Christian) sacred Scripture is thick with the practice of hospitality. More than once, God instructs His people to welcome the stranger because 'you were strangers in the land of Egypt.' And there is story after story of Hebrews and Gentiles alike doing just that. Abraham gives food to three strangers who turn out to be angels come to announce Isaac's birth (it is this to which the Epistle to the Hebrews refers when it instructs, 'Do not be forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.') In the Book of Exodus, Jethro was eager to welcome Moses when he sojourned with Midian. Rehab, a prostitute was blessed for giving shelter to Joshua's spies. In 2 Kings, we read of a nameless Shunammite woman who welcomes the prophet Elisha into her home.

"Later rabbinic literature surrounds the biblical stories and models with codes and instructions. Rabbi Yochanan insisted that practicing hospitality was even more important than praying. Some rabbis turn hospitality into architecture, urging faithful Jews to build houses with doors on all four sides so that travelers and guests might find a welcome door from any direction. Many Jewish communities adopted the idea of serving all their dinner courses at once; this way finicky guests would not have to suffer through an appetizer or bowl of soup they did not like.

"Early Christian communities continued these practices of hospitality, attempting to feed the poor, host travelers, visit the imprisoned, invite widows and orphans to join them at mealtime — all expressions of a capacious notion of hospitality. A second-century Christian text known as the Didache instructed Jesus' followers to help visiting travelers 'all you can.' In a sermon on Acts, renowned fourth-century preacher John Chrysostom told heads of house not merely to delegate hospitality to their servants but to 'personally welcome those (strangers and guests) who come' to your home. In the sixth century, Julianus Pomerius (sounding a little like Rabbi Yochanan) insisted that hospitality took precedence over other spiritual disciplines. He enjoined readers to break a fast and 'unbend one's self' in order to share a meal with others. The Apostle Paul placed such a high value on hospitality that he listed it — along with temperance, sobriety, and gentleness — among the characteristics required of leaders of the church."