Rahab is a woman of Jericho who, in the Book of Joshua, sheltered two Israelite spies sent ahead of the conquest of Canaan and, in return, was spared with her household when the city fell. The biblical text identifies her with a word meaning harlot, though some later interpreters read her instead as a keeper of an inn. The Orthodox Church numbers her among the righteous ancestors of Christ, commemorating her with the other Holy Forefathers and Foremothers on the Sunday before the Nativity.
Her place in Christian memory rests on the New Testament, where she is held up as a model of living faith. The Letter to the Hebrews names her among those who acted by faith, and the Letter of James points to her works in receiving the spies as the proof of that faith. The genealogy of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew lists her as the wife of Salmon and mother of Boaz, placing her within the lineage of the Messiah.
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The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
The conquest of CanaanHiding the spies at JerichoWhile the Israelite forces were encamped in the Jordan Valley, Joshua sent two men to scout Jericho. They lodged at Rahab's house, which was built into the city wall. When the king of Jericho's men came searching, Rahab hid the spies under bundles of flax drying on her roof and told the searchers that the men had already gone.
Before the assaultThe covenant of the scarlet cordRahab professed to the spies her conviction that the Lord had given the land to Israel, and asked that her family be spared. The spies promised her household would be preserved if she marked her house by hanging a scarlet cord from its window as a sign to the attacking forces.
The fall of JerichoPreserved among the IsraelitesWhen the city fell, Rahab and her whole family were spared according to the promise the spies had made, and she was counted among the people of Israel rather than destroyed with the other inhabitants of the city.
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Witness in the New Testament
Rahab is cited twice in the apostolic writings as an example of faith joined to action. The Letter to the Hebrews lists her among those who acted by faith, noting that she did not perish with the disobedient because she had received the spies in peace. The Letter of James appeals to her as evidence that faith is shown through works, asking whether she was not justified by her works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.
In the genealogy that opens the Gospel of Matthew, she is named as the wife of Salmon of the tribe of Judah and the mother of Boaz, by whom the line continues toward David and ultimately to Christ. She thus appears among the women of that genealogy who were not native daughters of Israel, read in the tradition as a sign that the lineage of the Messiah gathered in the nations.
Commemoration among the Forefathers
The Orthodox Church remembers Rahab among the Holy Forefathers and Foremothers of Christ, the ancestors according to the flesh who lived before and under the Law. These are commemorated together on the Sunday that falls between December 11 and 17, the second Sunday before the Nativity, during the Nativity Fast. The commemoration looks especially to the Patriarch Abraham and the promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and it gathers the patriarchs, prophets, kings, and other righteous forebears from whom Christ descended.
