A STRANGER, and also a GUEST — the same word for the unknown outsider and for the visitor you take in, because in the ancient world the two were meant to be the same act. It is the root of PHILOXENIA, 'love of strangers,' which is simply the Greek word for HOSPITALITY: a whole virtue named for treating the unknown traveller well. 3 John 5 praises Gaius for what he does for the brothers 'and these, XENOUS' — strangers he had never met and who could not repay him. The New Testament presses the point hard: 'do not neglect PHILOXENIA, for by it some have entertained angels unawares' (Hebrews 13:2). ⚠️ The negative twin of the virtue stands one letter away in the pair: 2 John tells a church to refuse a XENOS who carries a false Christ. Same act, opposite travellers — the message decides, not the stranger's strangeness. → first discussed at 3 John 1:5