An inn is generally considered to be a place of lodging travelers. While a twentieth-century traveler might mention modern amenities such as room service and fresh, clean linens to describe a place to stay during a long journey, the first-century A.D. understanding of overnight lodging was quite different. An inn in the world of the Bible might refer to a place to stretch out on the ground for a night’s sleep, a room in someone’s home situated by the highway, or a public building where rent was charged and food would be served to individuals or large caravans.

Three Greek words are used in the New Testament to describe a lodging place or inn. One word describes a place to sleep such as a guest room in someone’s home or a general lodging place, perhaps even with animals. In Luke 2.7 Mary and Joseph cannot find space in an inn, and Luke describes it as a kataluma, which literally means “to unloose” or “to unharness,” perhaps denoting a place to bed the animals for the night as well as a place for people to sleep. The word is generally used to describe a place to lodge rather than specifying the particulars of the lodging. The meaning in Luke 2.7 is actually related more to the idea of a guest room rather than a formal inn. The same word is also used to describe the place where Jesus and his disciples had their last meal together. The setting for the Lord’s Supper was probably a guest room in a private home rather than a public gathering place where rent would be charged and food served.

Another Greek word that is translated “inn” describes specifically living quarters in a person’s home. The apostle Paul is housed in an inn while placed under house arrest. The word used in Acts 28.23, however, is ksenia, which can mean the general concept of hospitality or specific quarters within a person’s home, like a guest room.

A third word for “inn” is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan takes the wounded man to an inn. This time the word is pandocheion, which means a public place that would be more like our twentieth-century understanding of hotel accommodations than the other two words used in the New Testament for inn. At this inn, the man could pay money to stay overnight and be given food and a place to keep his animal.

Public inns existed in Greek times and throughout the Roman period, as well as the practice of offering hospitality in one’s home to the traveling stranger. Public inns could accommodate large caravans, both animals and drivers, often given the name caravanserai. Although we do not have any archaeological evidence, we know from literary sources that these inns existed. For example, in the Old Testament we read that Rahab kept an inn by the wall of Jericho (Josh 2.1), although it cannot be located. Furthermore, the Jewish Mishnah makes several references to inns and innkeepers.

The references in the Mishnah attest to the wide use of inns at least in the first two centuries A.D. in Palestine. (Although written in A.D. 200, the Mishnah can also reveal Jewish practices and laws common early in the first century.) A consistent point, however, in the Mishnaic references is the bad reputation of the public inn. Inns and innkeepers were not held in high esteem, at least by the rabbis formulating Mishnaic law. The Mishnah places innkeepers on the lowest scale of degradation and states that “Cattle may not be left in the inns of the gentiles since they are suspected of bestiality” (m. Abodah Zarah, 2.1). In addition the Mishnah states that the word of an innkeeper is to be doubted: “The Sages said to Rabbi Akiba, ‘And should not a priest’s wife be [deemed as trustworthy] as the mistress of an inn?’ He answered, ‘only when the mistress of the inn could be deemed trustworthy!’”

Because inns had such a bad reputation, it is not surprising that the Jews and early Christians recommended keeping an open house for the benefit of strangers. The Jewish tradition looked to the example of Abraham, who practiced hospitality to three strangers and was blessed for his kindness (Gen 18.1‑11). Hospitality was a recognized duty from the time of the early Bedouin to New Testament times. The early Christians were admonished to “not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13.2) and encouraged to “practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another” (1 Pet 4.9). Their acts of hospitality were applauded: “Beloved, it is a loyal thing you do when you render any service to friends, especially to strangers” (3 John 5).