Rahab, (/ˈreɪ.hæb/; Hebrew: רָחָב, Modern Raẖav, Tiberian Rāḥāḇ; “broad,” “large”) was, according to the Book of Joshua, a prostitute who lived in Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites in capturing the city. In the New Testament she was lauded as an example of living by faith, while being considered righteous by her works.
Although Matthew 1:5 in the King James Translation uses the name Rachab, Biblical literature commonly refer to Rachab and Rahab as two names of the same person such as the Strong’s Concordance of the Bible and the Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible. However, some interpreters do not agree. To some interpreters, a different woman (see below) named Rachab (spelled as in King James Translation) is reckoned among the ancestors of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. It is transcribed as Rahab in most Bible translations.
The Hebrew אשה זונה, used to describe Rahab in Joshua 2:1, literally means “a woman, a prostitute”. Rahab’s name is presumably the shortened form of a sentence name rāḥāb-N, “the god N has opened/widened (the womb?)” The Hebrew zōnâ may refer to either secular or cultic prostitution, and the latter is widely believed to have been an invariable element of Canaanite religious practice. However, there is a separate word in the language that could be used to designate prostitutes of the cultic variety, qědēšâ.
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Rahab, Rahab harlot, Rahab prostitute, Rahab innkeeper, Rahab inn keeper
Bible reference(s): Joshua 2:1, Joshua 2:3, Joshua 6:17, Joshua 6:23, Joshua 6:25, Matthew 1:5, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Rahab,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.