The least of these and Strangers too.

#biblestudy #greeknewtestament

Yesterday there was a brief twitter storm over some media pundit who claimed to understand Greek stating two verses in Matthew referred to helping the Christian poor only.

MATTHEW 25

Verse 28  talks about taking away from someone for not using the money they were given.

However even a single talant would have a small fortune by the standards of that time.

Verses 35 to 36 The Son of man enthroned as King welcomes those who fed the hungry gave drink to the thirsty and welcomed a stranger and clothed the naked, comforted the sick and visited prisoners.

Now Xenos can mean Stranger or Guest but once a Xenos has received hospitality and entered a household then he or she is a guest with certain rights  and the verse talks about welcoming strangers without specifiying anything about their background, rich, poor, Jewish, Greek, Roman.

Then Verse 40 the words of my brothers the least of these are used and again in 45 the words least of these are used. The word for least is elakhistos the very smallest a superlative form of micros.

Finally anyone who thinks brethren means fellow Christians only urgently needs to reread the story of the Good Samaritan or Peters Vision in Acts.