When one reached: a city at nightfall he took up his position on the open space before the gate, and waited to see if any one would invite him in (Jg 19%#). In like manner a traveller in the country took his stand before the tent or the house into which he desired to be invited (Gn 187). When the guest entered, his feet were washed, and a meal was prepared for him. In the latter instance, a wish to honour him was marked, as still happens regularly in the East at the present day, by the killing of an animal from the herd (Gn 187, 2S 124). At his departure he was ex- pected to eat heartily to strengthen him for his further journey (Jg 19°, cf. 1S 28”). To take payment from a guest was contrary to good manners, and hence it is a perfectly genuine touch that Josephus adds to the narrative of Gn 24, when he makes Rebekah decline Eliezer’s offer to
ay for his entertainment by telling him not to think they were parsimonious people (Ané. 1. xvi. 2). In later times hospitality specially flour- ished among the Essenes, who, according to Jose- phus (BJ I. viii. 4), took nothing with them on a journey, as everything belonging to their co- religionists was at their command. There was even an official appointed in every city, whose duty it was to provide travelling Essenes with clothing and all other necessaries. An instance of a permanent guest-friendship is supplied by the story of Elisha and the wealthy lady of Shunem (2 K 48%), In later times, under Roman and Greek influence, this practice was greatly ex- tended. Thus we hear for instance of guest- friends in Jotapata, whose death was bewailed at Jerusalem, after the little fortress was taken by the Romans;+ ef. also Ac 10°21%, That a guest’s lot, however, was not always a happy one, and that he was exposed to many disagreeable ex- periences, is noted by that always acute and dis- passionate observer, Ben Sira (Sir 29?!*:),
Lireraturn.,—Riehm, HWB2, artt. ‘Reisen’ and ‘ Wege’; G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, passin ; F. Buhl, Geographie des alten Paldstina, 125-131; H. Guthe, Kurzes Bibelwirterbuch, art. ‘ Wege.’
FRANTS BUHL.
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN Nt).{—I. RouTEs BY LAND AND BY SEA.—i. ROME THE CENTRE OF THE EMPIRE.—The system of communication
* The Deuteronomic law regarding duties to the gér (Dt 116 2414. 17 etc.) belongs to a different category. oe
+ Jos. BJ mt. ix. 5. Several of the stories in the midrashim have to do with Jewish guest-friends in different lands.
{ See Table of Contents, p. 402.
376 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
in the world of the first century after Christ was dominated and determined by one single motive, viz. to seek direct connexion with Rome, the capital and centre of the Empire and of the world. Within the bounds of the Empire, the principle of Roman Republican government had originally been to connect every subject, country, and district as closely as possible with Rome, and to keep them asmuch as possible disconnected from one another, so that each should look to Rome as the centre of all its interests, its trade, its finance, and its aspirations, and regard all other subjects as rivals and competitors for the favour of the governing city. Though the ideal and the ultimate aim of the Imperial government was different, and did not tend to make Rome the governor of subjects, but rather to educate and elevate the subjects to equality with Rome by a slow but steady process, yet in the first century the older idea still was practically effective to a large extent, and governed the system of communication. Hence the first
oint is to examine how each province of the
mpire communicated with Rome.
Along the great arteries that led to Rome all new ideas and movements of thought and religious impulses naturally moved, without any definite purpose on the part of the originators, even per- haps in spite of their intentions in some cases. It was, as a rule, an easier and more rapid process for a new idea to spread from a distant province to Rome than to spread from that province to its neighbour, if the neighbour did not lie on the road to Rome, or was not connected with the first pro- vince by some old bond of intimacy. Hence the fact, for example, that Christianity spread very early to Rome constitutes no proof, and does not even afford a presumption, that there was any purpose or intention of carrying it thither. Such conscious, deliberate purpose can be proved only by some clear evidence of its existence, and espe- cially by deliberate statement on the part of those who entertained the purpose.
For example, we know that the purpose of visit- ing Rome was distinctly expressed by St. Paul (Ac 19°") several years before he was able to carry it into effect ; and we can infer from the general character of his action that the purpose was in his mind, latent or perhaps expressed orally, long before the date at which he first mentions it in his extant letters. But even at that time Rome contained already a body of Christians, and St. Paul’s aim was twofold—partly to extend the limits and affect the character of the Church in Rome, ‘to impart unto you some spiritual gift,’ and ‘that I might have some fruit in you also, even as in the rest of the Gentiles’ (Ro 1-18); but still more to use Rome as a basis from which to affect the West, especially Spain, ‘to be brought on my way thitherward by you’ (Ro 15%). Just because Rome was the centre and meeting-place of all roads, it lay on the way for any traveller or mis- sionary going from Syria to the West: he could not go direct, but must tranship in Rome.