Several years ago, I was invited to write notes for a new study Bible for women. The project was unexpected and unusual to me, as I had never read a study Bible for women myself and was skeptical about the need for one. Why can’t we all read the same Bible? But after praying about this offer, I felt led to accept, in hopes that I could offer something of value to the women who would pick up the Bible. But I had no idea how transformative the project would be for Me!
In my four decades of working in Christian schools, churches, and other ministries—and with three Bible degrees under my belt—no one had ever asked me to read the Bible. like a woman And for women. I had never approached the Bible and asked: What will women be wondering when they read this? What will bother them? What will capture their attention?
Because my pastors and theology professors were all men and most of the books I read about the Bible were written by men, I learned to read the Scriptures generically, ignoring myself as much as possible for being able to see the world through their eyes. Some of my teachers thought about the plight of women or the roles of women, but none of them had experiences that helped them enter into the biblical stories of women. It wasn’t their fault, and it didn’t make their teaching useless, but it made my understanding of the Scriptures incomplete.
As I reread the Old and New Testaments, focusing on both the women in the text and those who would read it, many Bible stories came to life for me in a whole new way. I was forced to struggle through difficult passages that seemed hard for women. But as I grappled with these stories with the help of others, I discovered profound insights about the goodness of God.
Reading in the name of women also made me aware of female characters in Scripture who are too often marginalized or caricatured with one-dimensional labels like prostitute, sister, seductress, widow. Not only are these portrayals sometimes inaccurate, but they can often distract from more important facets of their character – such as their courage, loyalty, creativity and determination – as well as their vital contribution to God’s redemptive plan described in the biblical story.
One of these characters is Rahab – to whose name we hasten to add:the prostitute. The story of Rahab sometimes boils down to one mundane thing: God is willing to use even the vilest sinners to accomplish his purposes, even foreign prostitutes! But his character brings much more meaning to the history of Israel.
Rahab was a citizen of Canaan, one of the “enemies” occupying the Promised Land to whom Yahweh referred in his promise to the people of Israel: “I will make all your enemies turn and flee” (Ex. 23:27, NLT all during) . God’s plan involved dismantling the Canaanite worship of Baal and other gods, one way or another. We should therefore find it remarkable that the first recorded conversation with a Canaanite in the book ends with God promising to protect her and her house.
Joshua often gets bad press for portraying a violent, bloodthirsty Canaanite God, but Rahab’s story reminds us not to read the book too absolutely. To scale our expectations, let’s begin with God’s specific instructions on what exactly the Israelites were to do when they entered the land: “Tear down their pagan altars and break their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah staffs and burn their idols” (Deut. 7:5). You will not find blood in these verses, because the destruction ordered by God is not aimed at the people but at the stones they worshiped.
As for the Canaanites themselves, the Israelites were forbidden to marry them or make treaties with them. The reason for this prohibition was not racial but religious: “For they will turn your children away from me to worship other gods” (v. 4). The people were here, or forbidden to the Israelites. God’s plan A was to drive the Canaanites out of the land (which is not possible if they are dead). Yes, the Canaanites died when the Israelites entered the land, but the goal was not to kill them – it was to dismantle their pagan worship and preserve Israelite loyalty.
In the 2010 DreamWorks film How to train your dragon, a Viking village spends a lot of energy defending itself and protecting itself against dragon attacks. Their children even learn to slay dragons at school. But when a village boy (aptly named Hiccup) encounters an injured dragon (a “night fury” he names Toothless), he doesn’t kill the dragon but befriends it, even inventing a tail wing prosthetic to help him fly again. Hiccup’s behavior is considered reckless and even treacherous by his village. Taming the dragons was not the plan – and neither was “taming” the Canaanites.
Why, then, was Rahab spared the destruction that would come at the Battle of Jericho?
Let’s start at the beginning of the story, when Joshua sent two spies to watch over things in and around Jericho before the attack (Joshua 2:1). Ironically, given God’s instructions not to have sex with the Canaanites, these spies took refuge with a prostitute named Rahab. Perhaps a house of ill repute was the only establishment in town where visitors could pay for a room, or perhaps it was the safest place to stay under the radar and avoid undue attention.
Regardless, the king still discovered them and asked Rahab to hand over the spies. Instead, she hid them and lied, sending the king’s men on a wild goose chase. In exchange for their safety, the spies promised Rahab that she and her family would be spared in the impending battle. But the question here is: Did the Israelite spies blatantly ignore God’s instructions regarding the Canaanites? Or is Rahab a special case?
The key factor to consider is Rahab’s allegiance to Yahweh and Israel rather than the king of Jericho. Her monologue to the spies is one of the most powerful declarations of faith from a stranger in the entire Hebrew Bible: “I know that the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. . “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the country lives in terror. For we have heard how the LORD made a dry way for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt” (vv. 9-10).
Rahab recounted Israel’s victories over Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings who refused to let them pass peacefully on their way to the Promised Land. She concluded: “No wonder our hearts melted with fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the LORD your God is the supreme God of heaven above and of the earth beneath” (v. 11).
Rahab’s testimony is unequivocal; it recognizes Yahweh as the supreme divinity. Its words echo the song of Moses and Miriam in Exodus 15, which announced:
The people hear and tremble;
Anguish grips those who live in Philistia.
The leaders of Edom are terrified;
the nobles of Moab tremble.
All who live in Canaan melt away;
terror and fear fall upon them. (vv. 14-16a)
For all intents and purposes, Rahab is no longer a Canaanite. She declared allegiance to the God of Israel. Sparing Rahab aligns with God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you.” »
Returning to our illustration from the film, Rahab is Toothless the dragon, and the spies are the Hiccup in Israel’s plan to drive out the Canaanites. But the author of the Book of Joshua does not view the behavior of spies as problematic. In fact, Rahab saves the day, and the Israelites save her life in return. And we know that Rahab’s story ends happily ever after because she marries into the Israelite community. Interestingly, Salmon, Rahab’s husband, was the fourth generation grandson of a Canaanite woman, which may have shaped his views on so-called foreigners.
Rahab and Salmon later had a son, Boaz, who became King David’s great-grandfather after marrying Ruth, a Moabite widow, another “forbidden” foreigner who became an Israelite (see Ruth 4:18-22; Matthew 1:2). –6). Through their loyalty to the God of Israel, these women become not only peripheral to Israel’s story, but central to it. Rahab, like Tamar, Miriam, Zipporah and so many others, are not just accessories but principal instruments in God’s plan of redemption as recounted in Scripture.
Like Tamar the Canaanite (Gen. 38), Jael the Kenite (Judges 4), and Ruth the Moabite (Ruth 1-4), Rahab becomes a model of faith and an ally of God’s people. By saving the Israelite spies, she humanizes “the other” and participates in the realization of Yahweh’s divine plan. Rahab is a shining example of what is possible: a world in which those destined for destruction can join the people of Israel in their worship of the one true God.
Perhaps we should not be surprised, then, that Rahab is listed in the Gospel of Matthew as an ancestor of Jesus, who also chose to save and “tame” those who were once enemies of God – even though we too were destined for destruction.
Carmen Joy Imes is an associate professor of Old Testament at Biola University. She contributed notes to two women’s study Bibles, the first of which will be published April 23, 2024. Every Woman’s Bible (NLT) is available from Tyndale House Publishers.
