Brother strangers

In his third epistle, John commends Gaius for his hospitality to “brothers,” particularly for his hospitality to brothers who are “strangers.” This simple commendation marks a social revolution in ancient history.

The revolution is not John’s commendation of hospitality per se. Many ancients commended philoxenia, hospitable love of strangers. The Phaeacians received Odysseus, bathed him, fed him, and entertained him even before they knew his name, and Baucis and Philemon entertained Zeus and Hermes unawares.

Yet, when ancient peoples entertained strangers, they did so with clear recognition of the boundaries between “inside” and “outside,” between brother and stranger. In what Greeks could only see as verbal and conceptual confusion, John speaks of brothers who are strangers, strangers who are brothers, and in that “confusion” we begin to see fissures in the walls of ancient civilization.

To say “brother-stranger” is to confess a unity in the human race that the ancient world dreamed of but never achieved. To say “stranger-brother” is to declare not only the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise but the fulfillment of all the best hopes of paganism.