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Back | 202 | Next rhetorical question makes an assertion, and this question asserts that no one has a friend who will refuse to get up and give three loaves to him when he needs bread for another friend who has come on a journey-- even if the request for bread is made at midnight when the person being requested is sleeping comfortably in bed with his family. These assertions evoke two syllogisms, one in which conventions of hospitality and friendship intertwine, and another that focuses more directly on friendship. Hospitality and Friendship Friendship [Rule. Social conventions of both hospitality and friendship require a host-friend to feed bread to a hungry guest-friend.] Case. A guest-friend arrives at midnight and the host-friend does not have any bread. [Rule. A friend willingly gives of his possessions to another friend.] Result/Case. At midnight the host-friend asks his sleeping-friend for bread for his hungry guest-friend. Result. At midnight the sleeping-friend will give the host-friend bread for his hungry guest-friend. These syllogisms exhibit social reasoning: principles that all people in the Mediterranean world, whatever their specific cultural tradition, know. The reasoning concerns both hospitality and friendship. On the one hand, the arrival of the traveling friend enacts conventions of hospitality that overlap with friendship. There are many nuances to hospitality conventions,32 including the nuance that a host invites a guest into his home and attends to the needs of that guest for food and rest, even if the guest arrives at an inconvenient time. In addition, friends offer hospitality to one another. These conventions explain why, according to Plutarch, having too many friends can be a problem (Plutarch, On Having Many Friends 95C).33 Both as a friend and as one who knows the conventions of hospitality, the host-friend welcomes the traveling-friend into his home and does what is necessary to meet his needs. On the other hand, the host-friend's need to give bread to his guest-friend enacts additional 32Bruce J. Malina, "Hospitality," in The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, rev. ed., ed. Paul J. Achtemeier (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) 440-441. Back 33Friends also offer hospitality to the friends of one's friends (Bruce J. Malina Windows on the World of Jesus: Time Travel to Ancient Judea [Louisville KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1993] 48-49) but the sleeping-friend is not asked to offer this act of kindness in Luke 11:5-7. Back Back | 202 | Next