CARAVANSARY In the days of the elder patriarchs there seem to have been no places specially devoted to the re ception of travelers, at least in the pastoral dis tricts frequented by those venerable nomades; for we find Abraham, like the Oriental shepherds of the present day, under a strong sense of the diffi culties and privations with which journeying in those regions was attended, deeming it a sacred duty to keep on the outlook, and offer the way faring man the rites of hospitality in his own tent.
(1) First Mention. The first mention of an inn, or house set apart for the accommodation of travelers, occurs in the account of the return of Jacob's sons from Egypt (Gen. xlii :27), and as it was situated within the confines of that country, and at the first stage from the metropolis, it is probable that the erection of such places of entertainment originated with the Egyptians, who were far superior to all their contemporaries in the habits and the arts of civilized life, and who, though not themselves a commercial people, yet invited to their markets such a constant influx of foreign traders that they must have early felt the necessity and provided the comforts of those public establishments. The 'inns' where travel ers lodge in the East do not, however, bear the least resemblance to the respectable houses of of houses of public entertainment were always women (Herod. ii :35), and hence we can easily account for the ready admission which the spies obtained into the house of Rahab, 'on the wall of Jericho,' situated, as such houses were, for the reception of strangers, for the most part at the gate or entrance into the town (Josh. ii :1). This woman is called a harlot in our translation. But the Hebrew, zonah, signifies also the land lady of an inn or tavern—most of whom, doubt less, in ancient times, were women of easy virtue —the more so as the idolatrous religion to which they were educated encouraged prostitution, and hence there being only a single word in the origi nal descriptive of both professions, and the first having been adopted by the Septuagint, which was the common version of the Jews in the days of Paul and James (Heb. xi ;31; James ii :25), those two apostles might have used the same ex pression that they found there. The original Hebrew, however, admits of being translated by another word, to which no degrading or infamous associations are attached.
(4) In the Time of Christ. The state of Judaea, in the time of Christ and the apostles, was probably, in respect to means of communica tion, much superior to that of any Oriental coun try in the present day, and we may be disposed to conclude that for the encouragement of inter course between distant parts, that country was then studded with houses of public entertainment on a scale of liberal -provision at present un known in the same quarter of the world. But the warm commendations of hospitality so fre quently met with in the works of contemporary classical writers, as well as the pressing exhorta tions of the inspired apostle to the practice of that virtue, too plainly prove that travelers were then chiefly dependent on the kindness of private individuals. The strong probability is that the
'inns' mentioned in the New Testament find their true and correct representations in the Eastern khans and caravansaries of the present day, and that, although the Jews of that period could not have been acquainted with the largest and most magnificent of this class of buildings, which do not date earlier than the commencement of the Mecca caravans, and which the devotion of opu lent Mussu!mans then began to erect for the ac commodation of the pilgrims, they had experi ence of nothing better than the bare walls and cell-like apartments of such edifices as we have described above. Bishop Pearce, Dr. Campbell and others, indeed, have labored to show that chamber, the word used by Luke to denote the place whence Mary was excluded by the previous influx of strangers, is not synony mous with ravdoxtiov, the common inn, the house to which the good Samaritan brought the wounded stranger, although in both instances our translators, for want of corresponding terms in the English language, have indiscriminately ren dered it by 'mu.' liataluma signifies the guest chamber (Mark xiv ; Luke xxii :1 1), and it is extremely probable that, as upper rooms were al ways the largest in a house, and most suitable for the reception of a numerous company, every re spectable householder in Jerusalem appropriated one gratuitously to his friends, who flocked to Jerusalem at the annual feasts, and who, from that circumstance might call it their 'inn.' Pan dakeian, again, was a house set apart for the ac commodation of all strangers who could ray for their lodging and entertainment, and as the name seems to imply, was of a mean description, having no partition wall, men and cattle being both in cluded under the same roof, the former occupy ing one side, and the latter the other. Bethlehem being the chief city of the family of David, a KardXviaa, chamber, might have been placed by the kindness of some friend at the service of Joseph and Mary, who were wont to resort to it as often as business or friendship called them to town. But as the same privilege might have been offered to others, who, owing to the general census, flocked in such unwonted numbers that the first corners completely oc cupied every vacant space, they were obliged to withdraw to the 2,113oxdop, common Inn, where, in the only retired corner, viz., at the head of the cattle, the mother of Jesus brought forth her child. And occasions are constantly occurring to set multitudes on travel, many of whom arc driven, like Joseph and Mary, for want of room, from the inn to the adjoining stables.