The story of Abraham’s hospitality in Biblical texts and in Palaea literature

This article investigates the story of Abraham’s hospitality in Gen 18:1–16, which became a kind of paradigm for behavior toward strangers in Judaism and Christianity as well as the source of mystical, Christological and Trinitarian interpretations. This story was further developed in later texts, among which the medieval Palaea literature (texts which combine biblical paraphrase, theology, and polemic, as well as some apocryphal legends) has to be specially emphasized. Unfortunately, this literature is often neglected by scholars dealing with Abraham’s hospitality. The article focuses on the story of Abraham’s hospitality in the context of this literature and related texts, as well as the possible influence of this tradition on Eastern Christian iconography. The article demonstrates that in this stratum of Christian tradition as well as in other exegetical works, the story about Abraham goes beyond the narrative of hospitality. In addition to concerns about the identification of the three strangers, which is a typical topic of Christian exegesis of Gen 18:1–16, in this literature, liturgical and Christological elements appear in the episode about Abraham’s fasting before the coming of the three strangers and in that about the resuscitation of the slaughtered and cooked calf which the patriarch earlier offered to his guests. The legend of Abraham’s refusal of food and water while waiting for guests is probably of Byzantine origin, while the account of the resurrection of the slaughtered calf may go back to an ancient Jewish source, which is also reflected in Test. Abr. A 6.4–5.

1. Adler, W. (2013). Palaea Historica (“The Old Testament History”): A new translation and introduction. In R. Bauckham, J. R. Davila, & A. Panayotov (Eds.). Old Testament pseudepigrapha: More noncanonical scriptures (pp. 585–672). Eerdmans.

2. Allison, D. C., Jr. (2003). Testament of Abraham. Walter de Gruyter.

3. Armstrong, G. T. (1970). The Genesis theophanies of Hilary of Poitiers. Studia Patristica, 10(Pt. 1), 203–207.

4. Arterbury, A. E. (2003). Abraham’s hospitality among Jewish and Early Christian writers: А tradition history of Gen 18:1–16 and its relevance for the study of the New Testament. Perspectives in Religious Studies, 30(3), 359–376.

5. Arterbury, A. E. (2005). Entertaining angels: Early Christian hospitality in its Mediterranean setting. Sheffield Phoenix Press.

6. Badalanova, F., & Miltenova, A. (1996). Apokrifniiat tsikul za Avraam vuv folklora i srednovekovnite balkanski literaturi [Apocryphal circle about Abraham in folklore and and in medieval Bulgarian literature]. Etnografski problemi na narodnata kultura (Vol. 4, pp. 203–251). Bulgarskata Akademiia na naukite. (In Bulgarian).

7. Bucur, B. G. (2015). The Early Christian reception of Genesis 18: From theophany to trinitarian symbolism. Journal of Early Christian Studies, 23(2), 245–272.

8. Bucur, B. G. (2019). “Before Abraham was, I Am”: Re-envisioning the theophany at Mamre (Genesis 18). In B. G. Bucur. Scripture re-envisioned: Christophanic exegesis and the making of a Christian Bible (pp. 42–70). Brill.

9. Bunge, G. (1994). Der andere Paraklet. Die Ikone der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit des Malermönchs Andrej Rubljov. Christliche Osten (In German).

10. D’Ales, A. (1930). La theophanie de Mambre devant la tradition des Pères. Recherches de science religieuse, 20, 150–160. (In French).

11. Dudochkin, B. N., & Nersesian, L. V. (2010). Sviataia Troitsa (Vetkhozavetnaia Troitsa) [Holy Trinity (the Old Testament Trinity)]. In G. V. Popov, B. N. Dudochkin, & N. N. Sheredega (Eds.). Andrei Rublev: podvig ikonopisaniia (pp. 342–346). Krasnaia Ploshchad’. (In Russian).

12. Flusser, D. (1971). Palaea Historica: An unknown source of Biblical legends. In J. Heinemann, & Dov Noy (Eds.). Studies in Aggadah and folk-literature (pp. 48–79). Magnes Press.

13. Ginzberg, L. (2003). Legends of the Jews, Vol. 1, Bible times and characters from Creation to Moses in the wilderness (H. Szold, & P. Radin, Trans., 2nd ed.). The Jewish Publication Society.

14. Grypeou, E., & Spurling, H. (2009). Abraham’s angels: Jewish and Christian exegesis of Genesis 18–19. In E. Grypeou, & H. Spurling (Eds.). The exegetical encounter between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity (pp. 181–203). Brill.

15. Heine, R. E. (Trans.) (1982). Origen. Homilies on Genesis and Exodus. Catholic Univ. of America Press.

16. Hunt, S. A. (2010). And the word became flesh — again? Jesus and Abraham in John 8:31–59. In S. A. Hunt (Ed.). Perspectives on our Father Abraham: Essays in honor of Marvin R. Wilson (pp. 81–109). Eerdmans.

17. Kvlividze, N. V., Liavdanskii, A. K., Shukurov, R. M., et al. (2000). Avraam [Abraham]. In Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ (Ed.). Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia (Vol. 1, pp. 149–155). Tserkovno-nauchnyi tsentr “Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia”. (In Russian).

18. Lazarev, V. N. (2000). Russkaia ikonopis’ ot istokov do nachala XVI veka [Russian iconography from the origins to the beginning of the 16th century]. Iskusstvo. (In Russian).

19. Mikhailov? A. V. (1896). K voprosu o tekste knigi Bytiia proroka Moiseia v Tolkovoi Palee [On the question of the text of the Prophet Moses’ Book of Genesis in the Palaea Interpretata]. Varshavskie universitetskie izvestiia, 1896(1), 1–23. (In Russian).

20. Miller, W. T. (1984). Mysterious encounters at Mamre and Jabbok. Scholars Press.

21. Miltenova, A. (2018). South Slavonic Apocryphal collections. Boyan Penev.

22. Savran, G. W. (2005). Encountering the Divine: Theophany in Biblical narrative. T & T Clark.

23. Shakhmatov, A. A. (2003). Tolkovaia Paleia i russkaia letopis’ [The Palaea Interpretata and the Russian chronicle]. In A. A. Shakhmatov. Istoriia russkogo letopisaniia (Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 232–295) . Nauka. (In Russian).

24. Slavova, T. (2002). Tulkovnata paleia v konteksta na starobulgarskata knizhnina [The Palaea Interpretata in the context of old Bulgarian literature]. Universitetska biblioteka. (In Bulgarian).

25. Somov, A. B. (2022). Abraham as a model of hospitality in the Palaea and cognate literature. In Ed. by Th. R. Blanton IV, & C. D. Bergmann (Eds.). Abraham as ritual model in Judaic, Christian, and Islamic contexts (forthcoming). Brill.

26. Stone, M. E. (2012). Armenian apocrypha relating to Abraham. SBL Press.

27. Thunberg, L. (1966). Early Christian Interpretation of the Three Angels in Gen. 18. Studia Patristica, 7(Pt. 1), 560–570.

28. Vodolazkin, E. G. (2008). Vsemirnaia istoriia v literature Drevnei Rusi (na materiale khronograficheskogo i paleinogo povestvovaniia XI–XV vekov) [World history in the literature of ancient Russia (based on material of chronographic and Palaea narratives of the 11th–15th centuries)] (2nd ed.). Pushkinskii Dom. (In Russian).

29. Witkovsky, V., & Vitkovskaja, M. (2018). Apokrificheskii tsikl ob Avraame v slavianskikh sbornikakh smeshannogo soderzhaniia i v poeme Georgiosa Khumnosa (K voprosu o retseptsii Istoricheskoi Palei) [The apocryphal Abraham’s cycle in the Slavic miscellanies and in the poem of Georgios Choumnos (a contribution to the reception of the Palaea Historica)]. Scripta & E-Scripta, 18, 197–210. (In Russian).

30. Witkovsky, V., & Vitkovskaja, M. (2019). Literaturnyi fenomen “perepisyvaniia” (‘rewriting’) v Istoricheskoi Palee i Avraamovom tsikle slavianskikh sbornikov [The literary phenomenon of ‘rewriting’ in the Palaea Historica and the cycle about Abraham in Slavic collections]. Scripta & E-Scripta, 19, 265–278. (In Russian).