Matt.i. I. t" have become, bj a subsequent marriage with Salmon, prince of Judah, an ancestress ol Jesus,
Hut we must he content to take lads as they stand,
RAHAB
881
RAHAB
and not strain them to meet difficulties; and it is now universally admitted by every sound Hebrew scholar that !"I31T means " harlot," and not " hostess." It sig- nifies " harlot" in every other text where it occurs, the idea of " hostess" not being represented by this or any other word in Hebrew, as the function represented by it did not exist. (See Frisch, De Muliere Peregrina up. Heb. [Lips. 1744].) There were no inns; and when certain substitutes for inns eventually came into use, they were never, in any Eastern country, kept by wom- en. On the other hand, strangers from beyond the riv- er might have repaired to the house of a harlot with- out suspicion or remark : the Bedawin from the desert constantly do so at this day in their visits to Cairo and Bagdad. The house of such a woman was also the only one to which they, as perfect strangers, could have had access, and certainly the only one in which they could calculate on obtaining the information they required without danger from male inmates. This concurrence of analogies in the word, in the thing, and in the prob- ability of circumstances ought to settle the question. If we are concerned for the morality of Rahab, the best proof of her reformation is found in the fact of her sub- sequent marriage to Salmon : this implies her previous conversion to Judaism, for which, indeed, Iter discourse with the spies evinces that she was prepared. Dis- missing, therefore, as inconsistent with truth and with the meaning of HSit and iropvj], the attempt to clear her character of stain by saying that she was only an innkeeper, and not a harlot (TravcoKivrpla, Chrysostom and Chald. Vers.), we may yet notice that it is very pos- sible that to a woman of her country and religion such a calling may have implied a far less deviation from the standard of morality than it does with us (•• vitse genus vile magis quam flagitiosum :" Grotius), and, moreover, that with a purer faith she seems to have entered upon a pure life. See Haulot.
As a case of casuistry, her conduct in deceiving the king of Jericho's messengers with a false tale, and, above all, in taking part against her own countrymen, has been much discussed. With regard to the first, strict truth, either in Jew or heathen, was a virtue so utterly unknown before the promulgation of the Gospel that, so far as Rahab is concerned, the discussion is quite superfluous. The question, as regards ourselves, whether in any case a falsehood is allowable — say to save our own life or that of another — is different, but need not be argued here. The question, in reference both to Rahab and to Christians, is well discussed by Augustine, Contr. Jfendacium (Opp. vi, 33, 34 ; comp. Bullinger, 3d Dec. Serm. iv). With regard to her tak- ing part against her own countrymen, it can only be justified — but is fully justified — by the circumstance that fidelity to her country would, in her case, have been infidelity to God, and that the higher duty to her Maker eclipsed the lower duty to her native land. Her anxious provision for the safety of her father's house shows how alive she was to natural affections, and seems to prove that she was not influenced by a selfish insen- sibility, but by an enlightened preference for the service of the true God over the abominable pollutions of Ca- naanitish idolatry. If her own life of shame was in any way connected with that idolatry, one can readily understand what a further stimulus this would give, now that her heart was purified by faith, to her desire for the overthrow of the nation to which she belonged by birth, and the establishment of that to which she wished to belong by a community of faith and hope. Anyhow, allowing for the difference of circumstances, her feelings and conduct were analogous to those of a Christian Jew in Paul's time, who should have prefer- red the triumph of the Gospel to the triumph of the old Judaism, or to those of a converted Hindu in our own days, who should side with Christian Englishmen against the attempts of his own countrymen to estab- lish the supremacy either of Brahma or Mohammed.
VIII.— K K K
This view of Rahab's conduct is fully borne out by the references to her in the N. T. The author of tht Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that " by faith the har- lot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace" (Heb. xi, 31); and James fortifies his doctrine of justification by works by asking, "Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" (James ii, 25). In like manner Clement of Rome says, " Rahab the harlot was saved for her faith and hospitality" (ad Corinth, xii)".
The fathers generally (" miro consensu :" Jacobson) consider the deliverance of Rahab as typical of salva- tion, and the scarlet line hung out at her window as typical of the blood of Jesus, in the same way as the ark of Noah and the blood of the paschal lamb were — a view which is borne out by the analogy of the deliver- ances, and by the language of Heb. xi, 31 (role, cnruS)]- oamv, " the disobedient" ), compared with 1 Pet. iii, 20 (aTTfj^i'iaaaiv irort). Clement (ad Corinth, xii) is the first to do so. He says that by the symbol of the scar- let line it was " made manifest that there shall be re- demption through the blood of the Lord to all who be- lieve and trust in God," and adds that Rahab in this was a prophetess as well as a believer — a sentiment in which he is followed by Origen (in lib. Jes., Horn. iii). Justin Martyr, in like manner, calls the scarlet line " the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those of all na- tions who once were harlots and unrighteous are saved ;" and in a like spirit Irenasus draws from the story of Ra- hab the conversion of the Gentiles, and the admission of publicans and harlots into the kingdom of heaven through the symbol of the scarlet line, which he com- pares with the Passover and the Exodus. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine (who, like Jerome and Cyril, takes Psa. lxxxvii, 4 to refer to Rahab the harlot), and The- odoret, all follow in the same track ; but Origen, as usu- al, carries the allegory still further. Irenajus makes the singular mistake of calling the spies three, and makes them symbolical of the Trinity ! The comparison of the scarlet line with the scarlet thread which was bound round the hand of Zarah is a favorite one with them. See Irenajus, < 'ontr. Her. iv, xx ; Just. Mart. ( 'ontr. Tryph. p. 11 ; Jerome, Adv. Jovin. lib. i ; Epist. xxxiv ad Nepot. ; Breviar. in Psa. Ixxxvi; Origen, Comm. in Malt, xxvii; Chrysost. Horn. 3 in Matt., also 3 in Ep. ad Horn. ; Ephr. Syr. Rhythm 1 and 7 on Nativ. : Rhythm 7 on tht Faith ; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechet. Lect. ii, 9; x, 11. Bullin- ger (bth Dec. Serm. vi) views the line as a sign and seal of the covenant between the Israelites and Rahab.