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Caravanserai

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the Arabic name of a building for the accommodation of strangers in sequestered places, while khan is the usual designation of a similar structure situated in or near towns. (See KHAN).

In the days of the earlier patriarchs there seems to have been no such provision for travelers, for we find Abraham looking out for their entertainment (Genesis 23), and the visitors of Lot proposed to lodge in the street, apparently as a matter of course (Genesis 19:2), just as modern Orientals often do, wrapped in their hykes, although in Arab towns generally the stranger is conducted by the sheik to the menzil, where he is provided for the night (La Roque, De la Palestine, p. 124. In Egypt, however, there seems to have been some such building (Genesis 42:27), probably only a rude shed. The innkeepers in that country were usually women (Herod. 2:38), just as in the days of the Hebrew spies (Joshua 2:1); apparently women of easy virtue (Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25), if not absolutely courtesans. (See HARLOT). In the times of Christ and his apostles, inns must have been common in Palestine, yet the frequent injunction contained in the Epistles to entertain strangers (e.g. Hebrews 13:2; Romans 12:3) show that they were very inadequate in their arrangements. (See HOSPITALITY).

They are mentioned in the N.T. under two names, πανδοχεῖον, or house for the reception of all kinds of guests, where the good Samaritan took the wounded stranger (Luke 10:34); probably a building like the modern comfortless and unfurnished ones on the great Eastern routes of travel, with a host (or janitor), however, who, on urgent occasions, will furnish supplies to the sick and destitute. The other word is κατάλυμα, properly the upper room reserved in large houses for guests (Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11), and also applied to the place where the nativity occurred (Luke 2:7). The tradition connects this event with a cave (Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. p. 303; Origen, cont. Cels.), and the spot, as such, is still pointed out. (See BETHLEHEM).

But this is opposed to all the circumstances and usages of the case. The exact distinction between this and the previous term has been matter of dispute, but the editor of the Pictorial Bible (note in loc.) suggests the most probable explanation, that the stable, in the retirement of which Mary brought forth the Savior, was one of the stalls running along the outside of the building, behind the apartments destined for the guests; and that the "manger" (q.v.), or φάτνη, was not the crib or contrivance for this purpose known to us (for such are not used in the East), but simply the projection of the floor of the guest-room into the cattle-shed, which was probably lower on the ground (see Strong's Harmony and Expos. of the Gospls, p. 14). (See INN).

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