Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant. Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. I will […]
⛓ Read Genesis 18 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
‘Some have entertained angels without knowing it’ (v. 2) reaches back to Abraham at Mamre, who welcomed three strangers who proved to be the Lord and his messengers, and to Lot, who took in the two angels at Sodom's gate (Gen 19:1–3). High volume on the thematic level (Hays' criterion of thematic coherence) and recurrence within Genesis itself; the verbal trigger is faint, but the narrative is so iconic that no quotation is needed for the echo to be heard.
High confidenceBeing 'hospitable to strangers' as a mark of the approved widow recalls Abraham and Sarah's reception of the three visitors at Mamre. The patriarchal scene became the paradigm of welcoming strangers that Paul lists among the widow's good works.
Medium confidenceEcho4
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Gaius's reception of brothers who are also 'strangers' and his sending them on worthily reflects the patriarchal paradigm of hospitality, where Abraham receives unknown travelers and provisions them for the road. This Abrahamic model stands behind the early Christian valuing of welcome to itinerant messengers.
Medium confidenceAbraham's hospitable reception of the LORD and his angels at Mamre exemplifies 'the works of Abraham' that the hostile interlocutors fail to imitate by seeking to kill Jesus. Coherence is good in Jewish exegesis that paired Abraham's welcome with his descendants' murderous rejection of prophets.
Medium confidenceThe hospitality/inhospitality axis governing the worthy-household and shake-off-the-dust instructions (10:11-15) culminates in the Sodom comparison; Abraham's reception of the visitors vs. Sodom's refusal is the implicit contrast. The sin of Sodom as failed hospitality (cf. Ezek 16:49) underlies the whole judgment logic.
Medium confidenceAbraham's hospitality to the three visitors is the paradigm narrative of welcome that informs the early-Christian virtue 'given to hospitality' (12:13).
Low confidence◇ Figural2
A typological pattern re-read in a later text — no verbal quotation, high figural coherence.
The LORD appears and a meal is set before him/by him; here the risen Lord hosts a theophanic breakfast none dare question. Faint typological resonance of divine appearance plus prepared food; coherence with John's revelation motif ('revealed himself') but no verbal anchor.
Low confidenceMartha's busy hospitality toward the Lord visiting her house figurally recalls Abraham hastening to serve the three visitors at Mamre, the model scene of hospitality to a divine guest. The link is thematic (welcoming and serving the Lord) and faint, hence figural and contested.
Low confidence