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“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans
8:2)
Rahab
– Wikipedia
Rahab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rahab (/ˈreɪhæb/; Hebrew: רָחָב)
was a linen maker from Jericho during the Israelite conquest of Canaan. In the
Book of Joshua of the Hebrew Bible, she is credited with aiding the Israelites
by hiding two spies who had been sent by Joshua to scout the city before the
Israelite assault. Her actions led to the fall of Jericho, during which
Israelite fighters killed every Canaanite inhabitant of the city.
In the New Testament, she is lauded both as an example of a
saint who lived by faith,[1] and as someone "considered righteous"
for her good works.[2] According to biblical research, the narrative's author
intended that she did not contribute to the fall of Jericho, but instead saved
herself and her loved ones from certain death.[3][4]
The King James Version renders the name as Rachab after the
spelling in Koine Greek, which differs from the spelling for Rahab in the
Epistle of James and the Epistle to the Hebrews. Most modern Bible translations
render it as Rahab, ignoring the distinction.[5]
Rahab's profession
The Hebrew term אשה זונה
isshā zonā, used to describe Rahab in Joshua 2:1,[6] literally means
"a prostitute woman".[7] While the Talmud holds to that
interpretation, some sources in Rabbinic literature insist she was an
innkeeper, based on Targum Jonathan and other texts (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic:
פֻנדְקֵיתָא,
romanized: pundǝqeṯā.[8]) Rahab's name is presumably the
shortened form of a sentence-name rāḥāb-N ("the god N has
opened/widened [the womb?])".[9] The Hebrew term zonā may refer to
secular or sacred prostitution; the latter was widely believed to have been an
element of Canaanite religion, although recent scholarship has disputed
this.[7] However, there was a separate word, qǝḏēšā, that
allegedly designated ritual prostitutes.[7]
Josephus mentions that Rahab kept an inn but is silent as
to whether merely renting out rooms was her only source of income.[10] It was
not uncommon for both an inn and a brothel to operate within the same building;
thus, entering Rahab's quarters was not necessarily a deviation from Joshua's
orders. Indeed, as Robert Boling notes, such an establishment might have
represented an ideal location for spies to gather intelligence.[7] Several
scholars have noted that the narrator in Joshua 2 may have intended to remind
the readers of the "immemorial symbiosis between military service and bawdy
house".[7]
In the New Testament, the Epistle of James and the Epistle
to the Hebrews follow the tradition set by the translators of the Septuagint in
using the Greek word πόρνη pórnē, which is
usually translated to English as "harlot, prostitute", to describe
Rahab.[11][12][13]
William L. Lyons observed that biblical interpreters have
viewed Rahab as a model of hospitality, mercy, faith, patience, and repentance
in her interaction with Joshua's spies. The harlot of Jericho became a paragon
of virtue.[14]
In the Hebrew Bible
According to the book of Joshua,[15] when the Hebrews were
encamped at Shittim in the Arabah or Jordan Valley opposite Jericho, ready to
cross the river, Joshua, as a final preparation, sent out two spies to
investigate the military strength of Jericho. The spies stayed in Rahab's
house, which was built into the city wall. The soldiers sent to capture the
spies asked Rahab to bring out the spies.[16] Instead, she hid them under
bundles of flax on the roof. It was the time of the barley harvest, and flax
and barley are ripe at the same time in the Jordan valley, so that "the
bundles of flax stalks might have been expected to be drying just
then".[17]
Rahab told the spies:
She said to the men, “I know that GOD has given the country
to you, because dread of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the
land are quaking before you. For we have heard how GOD dried up the waters of
the Sea of Reeds for you when you left Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og,
the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, whom you doomed. When we heard about
it, we lost heart, and no one had any more spirit left because of you; for the
ETERNAL your God is the only God in heaven above and on earth below. Now, since
I have shown loyalty to you, swear to me by GOD that you in turn will show
loyalty to my family. Provide me with a reliable sign that you will spare the
lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to
them, and save us from death.”
— Joshua
2:9–13[18]
After escaping, the spies promised to spare Rahab and her
family after taking the city, even if there should be a massacre, if she would
mark her house by hanging a red cord out the window. Some have claimed that the
symbol of the red cord is related to the practice of the red-light
district.[19]
When the city of Jericho fell,[20] Rahab and her whole
family were preserved according to the promise of the spies and were counted
among the Israelites. According to some rabbinic authorities, Rahab was treated
as a beautiful captive woman in order to bring her into a marital union with
Israel.[21] (In siege warfare of antiquity, a city that fell after a prolonged
siege was commonly subjected to a massacre and sack, while others were taken
captive.)
Tikva Frymer-Kensky regards Rahab as "smart,
proactive, tricky and unafraid to disobey and deceive her king". She also
credits Rahab with being "one of Israel’s early saviors" due to
"her allegiance to God and Israel".[22] As the first non-Israelite
person, and in particular the first Canaanite woman, to ally with Israel,
Rahab's convictions led her to protect the men sent by Joshua despite her
background.[22]
Michael Coogan says the book of Joshua, more than any other
book of the Bible, contains short etiological narratives that explain the
origins of religious rituals, topographical features, genealogical
relationships, and other aspects of ancient Israelite life, and that the legend
of Rahab is such an example. The story of Rahab, as faithful, was counted as an
Israelite, and not part of the Deuteronomistic injunction to kill all
Canaanites and not to intermarry with them.[23][24][25]
Some scholars see the parallels between Joshua 2 and
Genesis 19, which narrates the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. Like Sodom and
Gomorrah, Jericho was presumed to be equally as wicked, with Rahab challenging
Jericho's "oppressive establishment" by siding with Jericho's
destroyers (i.e. the Israelites).[26] Coincidentally, these cities were
believed to lie among a major fault line extending 1,100 kilometers from the
Red Sea to Turkey.[27]
In rabbinic literature
In the midrash, Rahab is named as one of the four most
beautiful women the world has ever known, along with Sarah, Abigail, and
Esther. In the Babylonian Talmud, Rahab was so beautiful that the very mention
of her name could cause arousal (Megillah 15a). Rahab is said to have converted
at the age of 50, after practising prostitution for 40 years, and repented
according to three sins, saying:
Master of the Universe! I have sinned with three things
[with my eye, my thigh, and my stomach]. By the merit of three things pardon
me: the rope, the window, and the wall [pardon me for engaging in harlotry
because I endangered myself when I lowered the rope for the spies from the
window in the wall]." (Babylonian Talmud, Zevahim 116a–b).
A similar tradition has Rahab declaring, "Pardon me by
merit of the rope, the window, and the flaxen [the stalks of flax under which
she concealed the spies]."
Because of this, rabbis interpret Biblical verses that talk
about the citizens of Jericho "melting in fear", such as Joshua
2:9–11 and Joshua 5:1, as describing their inability to maintain erections upon
hearing Israelite military victories. Rahab knew this because "there was
no minister or prince that did not pay a visit to Rahab the harlot".[28]
The rabbis viewed Rahab as a worthy convert, and attested
that following her conversion, Rahab married Joshua,[29] and their descendants
included the prophets Jeremiah, Hilkiah, Seraiah, Mahseiah, Baruch, Ezekiel and
the prophetess Hulda,[30] although there is no report in the book of Joshua of
the leader marrying anyone, or having any family life.[31] Rahab often is
mentioned alongside Jethro (Yitro) and Na'aman as "positive examples"
of the converts who joined Israel,[32] and another midrash has Rahab acting as
an advocate for all nations of the world.[33][34]
Some believe that the genealogies described in Jeremiah 1:1
and Ezekiel 1:3 served to dispel accusations that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were
descendants of Rahab. At the time, the Israelites discriminated against these
prophets for this alleged heritage.[35]
In the New Testament
In the New Testament, Rahab (Greek Ῥαάβ)
of the Book of Joshua is mentioned as an example of a person of faith[1] and of
good works.[2] Rahab is referred to as "the harlot" in each of these
passages.
A different spelling of the name, Rachab (as transliterated
in the King James translation of the Greek Ῥαχάβ) is
mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew as one of the ancestors of Jesus (Matthew
1:5). She married Salmon of the Tribe of Judah and was the mother of Boaz. Most
other English Bibles transcribe her name as Rahab.
Some who have conjectured that Jesus invoked the name of
"Rahab" (רחב) by writing it in the sand when he
protected the adulteress from stoning (John 8:6). Through this act he would
have reminded the hypocritical Pharisees of the righteous prostitute in their
own ancestry.
In fiction
Rahab is depicted as a virtuous soul (in The Third Circle
of Heaven) in Dante's Divine Comedy (Paradiso 9.112 ff.)
Rahab is a figure in the mythos of William Blake. She is
pictured as a harlot, akin to the whore of Babylon, and figures alongside
Blake's character of Tirzah, as representing materialism, false religion, and
fallen sexuality. Rahab's embrace of Urizen, who loosely represents fallen
reason, is seen as the consolidation of error necessary to bring about the
Final Judgment.
The claim of Hugh Broughton, a controversial historian,
that Rahab was already "a harlot at ten years of age" is used by
Humbert Humbert to explain or perhaps justify his attraction to young girls in
Nabokov's Lolita.[36]
Fictional accounts of Rahab's life
Afshar, Tessa. Pearl in the Sand (2010), ISBN
978-0-8024-5881-0
Burton, Anne. Rahab's Story (2005), ISBN 0-451-21628-8;
Book 2 in Burton's "Women of the Bible" series.
Havel, Carlene and Faucheux, Sharon. The Scarlet Cord
(2014), ISBN 1940099692
MacFarlane, Hannah. The Scarlet Cord (2009), ISBN
1844273709
Morris, Gilbert. Daughter of Deliverance. ISBN
0-7642-2921-4; Book 6 of "Lions of Judah" Series.
Rivers, Francine. Unashamed: Rahab (2000), ISBN
978-0842335966; Book 2 in Rivers' "A Lineage of Grace" series.
Slaughter, Frank G. The Scarlet Cord: A Novel of the Woman
of Jericho (1956), ISBN 0671774980
Smith, Jill Eileen. The Crimson Cord: Rahab's Story (2015).
ISBN 978 0 8007 2034 6; Book 1 in Smith's "Daughters of the Promised
Land" series.
Wolf, Joan. This Scarlet Cord: The Love Story of Rahab
(2012), ISBN 1595548777
Jennings, Jenifer. "Crimson Cord" (2017), ISBN
1954105061
Craig, Naomi. "Rahab's Courage" (2021),
Television portrayals
Rahab is portrayed by Myrna Fahey in the 1967 TV series The
Time Tunnel in episode 20 entitled "The Walls of Jericho".
Rahab is portrayed by Stephanie Leonidas in the 2013 TV
miniseries The Bible.