Some of the parables of Jesus reflect this aspect of Oriental life. The man to whom a friend has come unexpectedly at midnight is distressed be- cause he has nothing in the house to otter him {Lk ll'"'). In tlie parable of the Wedding Feast (Mt 22iff.) we note the early invitation of the guests, the calling of tliem by servants on the appointed day (with /caWo-ai toi/s KeK\rii/.iiiovs, cf. Heb. D'tiij^n 1 S 9''- '"'), the provision of the wedding garment.
In some other passages in the Gospels we have what seem to be traces of Oriental ideas as to the reception of guests, e.g. the instructions to the Twelve (Mt 10"- '* ; see also vv.^-^'), to the Seventy (Lk lO^"'-). There is an Eastern saying that ' the guest while in the house is its lord ' ; the host often ministers to his needs with his own hands. With this we may perhaps compare such sayings as Mt 23". In Mt 8", Lk 13=^ the final blessed- ness of the Kingdom of Heaven is spoken of under the figure of a feast, at which guests from the east and the west shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Most striking of all is the great prophecy of final judgment (Mt 25'"'-), where the uestiny of men is made to turn on their granting or refusing to Christ, in the person of ' one of these my brethren, even the least,' the position and provision of a guest.
Literature. — Expositor's Gr. Test. ; Hastings' DB, artt. 'Guest,' 'Hospitality,' 'Host'; Enci/c. Bill., artt. 'Meals,' 'Stranger'; Jewish Encyc^ art. ' Hospitality ' ; Vigouroux, Diet, de la Bible, art. 'Hospitality'; Hamburger, HE, art. 'Cast'; Schenkel, Bibcl-Lex., art. 'Gast'; Robinson, BRP; Trumbull, Studies in Oriental Social Life, pp. 73-142 ; W. R. Smith, J2S2 ; Van Lennep, Manners and Customs in Bible Lands ; Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and WahdI/i/s ; Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta (jHtr-sint) ; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of Ancient Eqitptians.
Charles S. Macalpine.
GUEST-CHAMBER. — This word occurs in EV only in the parallel passages Mk H'-*, Lk 22". Peter and John, sent by Jesus to prepare His last Passover, are told to ask the master of the house to which they would be guided, ' Where is the (Mk. 'my') guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?' Tlie Greek word here used (KaToKviia) occurs elsewhere %n NT only in the narrative of the Nativity (Lk 2'), ' Tliere was no room for them in the inn ' (iv rip KaraMiMTi). It is used by LXX as the rendering of pSo (Ex 4=^, RV ' lodging place ') and of nsfh (1 S d^-, RV 'guest- chamber '). [It may here be noted that the cognate verb KaraXioj, rendered in RV ' lodge,' occurs in Lk 9>= 19']. The guest-chamber of tlie last Passover is also spoken of by Jesus as ' a large upper room ' {avdyaiov, Mk 14'=", Lk 22'-). With this may be compared the i^Trfpijjoi' of Ac 1" 9^- '" 20". It has been conjectured by some that the di/dyaioi/ of Mk. and Lk. and the vTepifov of Ac 1'^ are identical, but there is no evidence in supjjort of this.
We must associate several incidents in the life of our Lord besides the last Passover with the guest-chambers of the houses in which they took place, e.g. the anointing, in tlie house of Simon the Pharisee, by the woman who was a sinner (Lk T*"') : the later anointing by Mary of Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper (Jn 12"''-); Levi's
feast (Lk S-'"'-) ; the dinner, or ratlier breakfast i),of LklP'ff-; andth recorded in Lk H'""-.
Tlie guest-cliainber occupied in our Lord's time, as it does at the present day, an important place in the arrangement and economy of Oriental houses. In it all festivities took place ; it was set apart also for the entertainment of guests during their stay. It varied in position and character with the size of the house. The smaller houses (see House) had only one court; in these the guest- chamber was on the ground-floor, the women's apartments being above. But in the larger houses of tlie wealthier classes, which had two or three courts, the women's apartments were hidden away in an inner court, and the guest-chamber occupied the first floor of the outer court (hence apayaiov, vTcpifov). In either case it was open to the court, so that all that took place in the one could be seen from the other. On the opposite side of the court was another chamber, equal in size to the first, but fronted with lattice-work filled in with coloured glass ; this served as a winter guest-chamber. In some cases a room on the flat roof, the most pleasant and most retired part of tlte house, was used as a guest-chamber. This is the n'^ll of the OT (cf. 1 K 17'-').
The guest-chamber was, of course, furnished according to the means of the owner of the house. Many no doubt were, as indeed they are still, like the prophet's chamber of 2 K 4'°, furnished with 'a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candle- stick.' But those of the wealthy were furnished with the greatest luxury. In our Lord's time the custom of reclining at meals was common. Tlie couches and tables, whicli in the larger houses were placed on a raised part of the guest-chamber calleclthe Ikvan, occupied three sides of a square, and the guests reclined with their heads toward the table, the feet outward toward tlie wall, and the left arm resting on a cushion. This must be borne in mind in reading such narratives as those of the two anointings and of the last Passover. The places at table were allotted to the guests according to a strict etiquette, as to the details of which there is considerable uncertainty. The eagerness of the Pharisees to secure for themselves the 'chief seats' (wpaTOKXtalat) at feasts brought on them the rebuke of Jesus (Lk 14'"), and gave occasion to His warnings to the disciples to avoid such unseemly eagerness for personal honour (Mt 23«, Mk 12'«f-, Lk 20«f-).