Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

[AD 99] Clement of Rome on Joshua 2:1-24

On account of her faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved. For when spies were sent by Joshua, the son of Nun, to Jericho, the king of the country ascertained that they had come to spy out their land, and sent men to seize them, in order that, when taken, they might be put to death. But the hospitable Rahab receiving them, concealed them on the roof of her house under some stalks of flax. And when the men sent by the king arrived and said, "There came men unto you who are to spy out our land; bring them forth, for so the king commands," she answered them, "The two men whom you seek came unto me, but quickly departed again and are gone," thus not discovering the spies to them. Then she said to the men, "I know assuredly that the Lord your God has given you this city, for the fear and dread of you have fallen on its inhabitants. When therefore you shall have taken it, keep ye me and the house of my father in safety." And they said to her, "It shall be as you have spoken to us. As soon, therefore, as you know that we are at hand, you shall gather all your family under your roof, and they shall be preserved, but all that are found outside of your dwelling shall perish." Moreover, they gave her a sign to this effect, that she should hang forth from her house a scarlet thread. And thus they made it manifest that redemption should flow through the blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God. You see, beloved, that there was not only faith, but prophecy, in this woman.

Source: Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 2:1-2

Meanwhile, the spies are sent by Jesus [Joshua] to Jericho and are received by the prostitute Rahab. Those spies, who are sent before the face of Jesus [Joshua], can also be considered the messengers of God, just as it is written, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your paths.” This passage, fulfilled invisibly through others, was fulfilled visibly through John, about whom this was also written. Because the scribes and Pharisees did not believe him, the Lord spoke concerning the baptism of John and said that the “prostitutes and publicans who believed” were baptized. The same thing is fulfilled in the fact that the prostitute received the spies of Jesus [Joshua] and is snatched away and brought back from the destruction of every hostile nation.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.3

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 2:1-2

Nevertheless, our Jesus [Joshua] sends spies to the king of Jericho, and they are received hospitably by a prostitute. But the prostitute who received the spies sent by Jesus [Joshua] was no longer a prostitute since she received them. Indeed, everyone of us was a prostitute in his heart as long as he lived according to the desires and lusts of the flesh.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4

[AD 392] Gregory of Elvira on Joshua 2:1-2

“And Joshua the son of Nun,” it says, “sent two spies from Shittim, saying to them ‘Go up and survey the land and Jericho.’ When they arrived in Jericho, the two young men entered the house of a prostitute by the name of Rahab and stayed there as guests.” Pay attention to the structure of this mystery, most beloved brothers, and ask yourselves why men as great as these, for whom the Lord had performed such marvels and miracles, entered the house of a woman of ill repute, as if they were unable to lodge elsewhere. They did this not by chance, I believe, but intentionally by prophetic design. For I find this prostitute in many places, not only as a hostess of saints but also as their bride. The most holy prophet Hosea, for instance, was commanded by the Lord to accept a harlot as his wife: “For the Lord said to me, ‘Take for your wife a prostitute and generate children of prostitution.’ ” Even our Lord and Savior himself, when he had sat down by the well in Samaria, conversed with an immoral woman to whom no one had previously spoken there. After he said to her, “You have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband,” she believed that he was the Messiah, that is, she confessed him to be the Christ. Then there was the harlot who washed the Savior’s feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair and anointed them while kissing them. Let us see, therefore, what our hostess represents. This Rahab, although she is called a prostitute, nevertheless is a sign of the virgin church, considered as a foreshadow of the coming realities at the end of the age, where she alone is preserved to life among all who are perishing. For even when it was said to the prophet Hosea, “Take for your wife a prostitute,” surely then the image of the church as coming from the Gentiles was being prefigured, given that the people were to be gathered from the harlotry of the nations and from prostitution with idols, for, it says, “they prostituted themselves to strange gods.” Indeed, she is called “the church” because the Greek word ecclesia means “gathering of the people.” And just as the apostle says, “An unfaithful wife is sanctified through her faithful husband,” so also is the church, coming from the infidelity of the Gentiles and prostitution with idols, sanctified through the body of Christ, of which we are members, as we learn from the same apostolic author. Because the church, as I have often said, gathered from the multitude of Gentiles, was then called a prostitute, therefore the church is found in the figure of Rahab, the hostess of saints.

Source: ORIGEN’S TRACTATES ON THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 12

[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 2:1-2

We have been following so far the historical interpretation, and you perceive how from the history itself we are ascending upward gradually to a mystical understanding. Jesus [Joshua], the leader, who had led the people out of Egypt; Jesus [Joshua], whose name means Savior, after the death and burial of Moses in the land of Moab in the land of Arabia—that is, after the law was dead—Jesus desires to lead his people into the gospel and sends out two men on secret mission to Jericho. Two messengers he sends: one to the circumcised; the other to the Gentiles, Peter and Paul. Jericho seeks to kill them; the harlot takes them in, meaning, of course, the church gathered together from the Gentiles.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)

[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 2:1-2

Rahab; what is the force of her name? We have been following the historical sense; let us now reflect upon the anagogic significance of the name. Rahab thus admits of two interpretations: the name may imply either a “broad space” or, better, “pride.” Consider, therefore, its impact. She who formerly walked the broad, spacious road to death, she whose pride was driving her to destruction, was later converted unto humility.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Joshua 2:1-2

Moreover, Joshua sends two spies to the city of Jericho, and they are received by a harlot. Joshua sent two spies because the true Joshua was going to give two commands of love. In truth, what else do the men whom the true Joshua sends announce to us except that we should love God and our neighbor?

Source: SERMON 115.2

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Joshua 2:1-2

Rahab was a harlot who secretly admitted the spies of Joshua when they visited Jericho and let them out by another exit so that they should not be captured. Her name means “pride.” She was converted by God’s generosity and deserved to obtain mercy. She is a type of the church, which takes in souls endangered by the vice of pride, and lets them out into life by another route, the way of humility and patience.

Source: EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 86.4

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Joshua 2:3-5

“By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies, but she directed their departure by another road.” And pay attention to how much wisdom she blended with her prudence. When those sent by the king came and requested the spies, they ask her, “Did men enter in here and come near you?” She answers them, “Yes, they entered in.” First she builds the truth, and then she applies the lie on top. For no lie like this becomes believable unless it first reveals the truth. For this reason all who tell lies probably to be believed, first speak of truths and reveal confessions and later add the lies and things which are questionable. “Spies entered in here and came near you?” “Yes,” she says. If she had said “no” from the beginning, she would have challenged the messengers to investigate. However, “they entered in,” she says, “and they came out and escaped by such and such a road. Pursue them and you will capture them.” O this good lie! O this good fraud, which does not betray the divine but safeguards the sacred! When the mouths of saints preach the repentance that made Rahab worthy of such salvation, for example, Joshua the son of Nun, who shouts in the desert, “Let Rahab the prostitute live”; and Paul, who says, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,” will we not receive salvation even more so when we offer to God our repentance?

Source: HOMILIES ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING 7.5.17

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Joshua 2:3-5

Therefore, no lie is just. Accordingly, when examples of lying are proposed to us from the sacred Scriptures, either they are not lies but are thought so for not being understood, or, if they are lies, they are not to be imitated because they cannot be just.As for its being written that God dealt well with the Hebrew midwives and with Rahab the harlot of Jericho, he did not deal well with them because they lied but because they were merciful to the men of God. And so, it was not their deception that was rewarded, but their benevolence; the benignity of their intention, not the iniquity of their invention.

Source: Against Lying 15.31-32

[AD 435] John Cassian on Joshua 2:3-5

This was the case with Rahab. Scripture not only recalls nothing virtuous about her but even speaks of her immorality. Yet for her lie alone, whereby she chose to conceal the spies rather than betray them, she deserved to share an eternal blessing with the people of God. If she had chosen to speak the truth or to be concerned for the safety of her people, there is no doubt that she and her whole household would not have escaped the approaching destruction and that she would not have deserved to be included among those responsible for the Lord’s birth, to be numbered on the roll of the patriarchs, and, through her offspring, to beget the Savior of all.

Source: CONFERENCE 17.17.1-2

[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 2:6

“I will be mindful of Rahab,” of Rahab, that harlot who lodged Jesus’ [Joshua’s] secret agents, who lived in Jericho where Jesus [Joshua] had come and had dispatched the two spies. Jericho, that collapsed in seven days, is a type of this world, and as such is determined to kill the secret agents. Because, therefore, Jericho is bent upon killing the spies, Rahab, the harlot, alone received them, lodged them not on the ground floor but in the upper story of the roof—or, in other words, in the sublimity of her faith. She hid them under her stalks of flax.…
She believes in Jesus, and those whom Jericho is determined to destroy she protects in safety on her own roof. She harbors them on the roof—in the loftiness of her faith—and hides them under the stems of flax. Even though she is a harlot, she covers them with flax.
Flax with much labor and care becomes of dazzling whiteness. You yourselves know that flax grows from the soil and that when it has come forth from the ground, it is black; it has no beauty; it has no use. First, it is pulled up from the ground, broken, then twisted, afterwards washed. Next, it is pounded; finally, combed, and after so much care and hard work, it finally becomes white. Here, then, is the meaning: this harlot took the messengers in and covered them with her flax so that these agents might turn her flax into dazzling whiteness.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)

[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Joshua 2:8-11

Pass now, pray, to the others who were saved by repentance. Perhaps even among the women someone will say, “I have committed fornication and adultery. I have defiled my body with every excess. Can there be salvation for me?” Fix your eyes, woman, upon Rahab, and look for salvation for yourself too. For if she who openly and publicly practiced fornication was saved through repentance, will not she whose fornication preceded the gift of grace be saved by repentance and fasting? For observe how she was saved. She said only this: “Since the Lord, your God, is God in heaven above and on earth below.” “Your God,” she said, for she did not dare call him her God, because of her wantonness. If you want scriptural testimony of her salvation, you have it recorded in the Psalms: “I will think of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me.” The salvation procured by repentance is open to men and women alike.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 2:9

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Joshua 2:8-11

Do you see how with faith she takes on her lips the word of the Lawgiver? “And I realize that your God is up in heaven and down on the earth, and that apart from him there is no God.” Rahab is a prefigurement of the church, which was at one time mixed up in the prostitution of the demons and which now accepts the spies of Christ, not the ones sent by Joshua the son of Nun, but the apostles who were sent by Jesus the true Savior. “I learned,” she says, “that your God is up in heaven and down on the earth, and that apart from him there is no God.” The Jews received these things and did not safeguard them; the church heard these things and preserved them. Therefore, Rahab, the prefigurement of the church, is worthy of all praise.

Source: HOMILIES ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING 7.5.16

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Joshua 2:8-11

For he selected this one nation to teach the knowledge of God to all the others. Just as he had selected one man—at one time Moses, at another Joshua, at another Samuel, at another some other of the prophets—to look after the welfare of this race, one man who benefited his fellows by practicing true wisdom, so through the one race, Israel, he called all the races of the earth that shared the same nature to share the same religion. Rahab, the harlot, testifies that this is so. Though she belonged to a different race and was a harlot, she relied solely on their reputation, accepted their religion, abandoned her own beliefs and entrusted herself to strangers. “We have heard,” she said, “what things the Lord your God has done to the Egyptians, and fear of you fell on us.” Accordingly, she made a pact with the spies and sealed it with an oath.

Source: ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE 10.49

[AD 99] Clement of Rome on Joshua 2:12-14

For her faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved. For when the spies were sent forth into Jericho by Joshua the son of Nun, the king of the land perceived that they were coming to spy out his country, and [he] sent forth men to seize them, that being seized they might be put to death. So the hospitable Rahab received them and hid them in the upper chamber under the flax stalks. And when the messengers of the king came near and said, “The spies of our land entered into your house; bring them forth, for the king so orders,” then she answered, “The men truly, whom you seek, came to me, but they departed immediately and are journeying on the way”; and she pointed out to them the opposite road. And she said to the men, “Without a doubt I perceive that the Lord your God will deliver this city to you; for the fear and the dread of you is fallen upon its inhabitants. When therefore it shall come to pass that you take it, save me and the house of my father.” And they said to her, “It shall be even so as you have spoken to us. Therefore, when you perceive that we are coming, you shall gather all your folk beneath your roof, and they shall be saved; for as many as shall be found outside of the house shall perish.” And moreover they gave her a sign, that she should hang out from her house a scarlet thread, thereby showing beforehand that through the blood of the Lord there shall be redemption for all them that believe and hope on God. You see, dearly beloved, not only faith, but prophecy, is found in the woman.

Source: 1 CLEMENT 12

[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 2:16

She counsels them and says, “Wait here for three days.” Not one day does she specify, nor two days, but definitely three days. Notice what she says: “Wait three days.” She does not designate three nights but three days, for hers was an enlightened heart. Then she says, and after three days—but what does she say? “Do not go through the open plains,” she warns, “but go up the mountain way.” The faith of the church is not laid in the valleys but is established on the mountains. Later, indeed, Jericho is overthrown, but this harlot alone is preserved untouched; hence, the Lord says, “I will be mindful of Rahab”; that is, on the day of judgment, I will be mindful of her who welcomes my messengers.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 2:17-20

Also this commandment is given to the person who was once a prostitute: “All,” it says, “who will be found in your house will be saved. But concerning those who go out from the house, we ourselves are free of them by your oath.” Therefore, if anyone wants to be saved, let him come into the house of this one who was once a prostitute. Even if anyone from that people wants to be saved, let him come in order to be able to attain salvation. Let him come to this house in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. For among those who said, “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” the blood of Christ is for condemnation. For Jesus had been appointed “for the ruin and the resurrection of many.” Therefore, for those refuting his sign, his blood effects punishment; for those who believe, salvation.Let no one persuade himself, let no one deceive himself. Outside this house, that is, outside the church, no one is saved. If anyone goes outside, he is responsible for his own death. This is the significance of the blood, for this is also the purification that is manifest through the blood.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5

[AD 258] Cyprian on Joshua 2:17-20

For the faith of the sacred Scripture sets forth that the Church is not without, nor can be separated nor divided against itself, but maintains the unity of an inseparable and undivided house; since it is written of the sacrament of the passover, and of the lamb, which Lamb designated Christ: "In one house shall it be eaten: ye shall not carry forth the flesh abroad out of the house." Which also we see expressed concerning Rahab, who herself also bore a type of the Church, who received the command which said, "Thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household unto thee into thine house; and whosoever shall go out of the doors of thine house into the street, his blood shall be upon him." In which mystery is declared, that they who will live, and escape from the destruction of the world, must be gathered together into one house alone, that is, into the Church; but whosoever of those thus collected together shall go out abroad, that is, if any one, although he may have obtained grace in the Church, shall depart and go out of the Church, that his blood shall be upon him; that is, that he himself must charge it upon himself that he perishes; which the Apostle Paul explains, teaching and enjoining that a heretic must be avoided, as perverse, and a sinner, and as condemned of himself. For that man will be guilty of his own ruin, who, not being cast out by the bishop, but of his own accord deserting from the Church is by heretical presumption condemned of himself.

Source: Epistle LXXV.4

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 2:21

She herself puts the scarlet-colored sign in her house, through which she is bound to be saved from the destruction of the city. No other sign would have been accepted, except the scarlet-colored one that carried the sign of blood. For she knew there was no salvation for anyone except in the blood of Christ.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 2:21

In that the sign hangs in a window I think this is indicated: A window is that which illumines the house and through which we receive light, not wholly but enough, enough to suffice for the eye and for our vision. Even the incarnation of the Savior did not give us pure wine and the whole aspect of divinity, but through his incarnation, just as through the window, he makes us behold the splendor of the divinity. For that reason, so it seems to me, the sign of salvation was given through a window.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Joshua 2:21

A harlot saw this; and she who in the destruction of the city lost all hope of any means of safety, because her faith had conquered, bound a scarlet thread in her window, and thus uplifted a sign of her faith and the banner of the Lord’s passion; so that the semblance of the mystic blood, which should redeem the world, might be in memory. So, from outside the city, the name of Joshua was a sign of victory to those who fought. From within, the semblance of the Lord’s passion was a sign of salvation to those in danger.

Source: Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.10.127

[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 2:21

So, too, with a mystic reference to the shedding of blood, it was a scarlet cord which the harlot Rahab (a type of the church) hung in her window that she might be saved at the destruction of Jericho.

Source: LETTER 52.3