the Week of Proper 5 / Ordinary 10
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Bible Dictionaries
Rahab (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Ῥαάβ)
Rahab, the harlot (πόρνη) of Jericho, is the heroine of the romantic story told in Joshua 2. At the risk of her life she sheltered two Hebrew spies and cunningly contrived their escape, receiving as her reward her own safety and that of her whole house. She is accorded a place in a great roll of the faithful (Hebrews 11:31), and her case is cited by James (2:25) in support of his thesis that one is not ‘saved’ by faith alone but by faith and works (cf. F. Weber, Jüd. Theol., ed. F. Delitzsch and G. Schnedermann, Leipzig, 1897, p. 332). These high estimates of her are doubtless based on an edifying speech (Joshua 2:9-13), in which she acknowledges that Jahweh has given her land to Israel, and that He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
The Jewish Rabbis and Christian Fathers alike took much interest in her story. Some of them softened the statement that she was a harlot, Josephus (Ant. V. i. 2), followed by Chrysostom, suggesting that she was merely an innkeeper; others, confessing her evil behaviour, represented her as seeking forgiveness from the God of Israel and pleading the merit of her good works (Mechilta, 64b). The allegorizing of her scarlet thread was begun by St. Clement of Rome, who calls her ‘the hospitable Rahab.’
‘Through faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved.… And they [the spies] proceeded further to give her a sign, that she should hang from her house scarlet, making it manifest beforehand that through the blood of the Lord there should be redemption to all who believe and hope upon God. Behold, beloved, how there was not only faith, but prophecy in the woman’ (Ep. ad Cor. i. 12).
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Rahab (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/rahab-2.html. 1906-1918.
