Luke 10:35 - "And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ "

There is little allusion to inns in the Old Testament, since the rigid laws of hospitality among the Hebrews made them unnecessary. It was a sacred duty to offer refuge within the home to any traveler. The first mention that we find of an inn is in the story of the return of Jacob’s sons from their visit with Joseph in Egypt. But, there too, the inn itself was in Egypt, not Palestine.

Whatever inns they had were located close to watering places and were probably just camping grounds, or, perhaps, just niches in the walls. The people who stayed there had to provide their own food, cooking utensils, and other pr…