James 2:25

was not Rahab the harlot The question meets us, What led St James to select this example? St Paul does not refer to it, as he probably would have done, had he been writing with St James's teaching present to his thoughts, in any of the Epistles in which his name appears as the writer. In the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:31) it appears as one of the examples of faith, but this was most probably after St James had given prominence to her name. In the mention of Rahab by Clement of Rome (i. 12) we have an obvious echo from the Epistle just named, with the additional element of a typical interpretation of the scarlet thread as the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those of all nations, even the harlots and the unrighteous, obtained salvation. A more probable explanation is found in the connexion of St James with the Gospel according to St Matthew. The genealogy of the Christ given in ch. 1 of that Gospel must have been known to "the brother of the Lord," and in it the name of Rahab appeared as having married Salmon, the then "prince" of the tribe of Judah (Mat 1:5; 1 Chronicles 2:50-51; Ruth 4:20-21). The prominence thus given to her name would naturally lead him and others to think of her history and ask what lessons it had to teach them. If "harlots" as well as "publicans" were among those who listened to the warnings of the Baptist and welcomed the gracious words of Christ (Matthew 21:31-32), she would come to be regarded as the typical representative of the class, the Magdalene (to adopt the common, though, it is believed, an erroneous view) of the Old Testament. A rabbinic tradition makes her become the wife of Joshua and the ancestress of eight distinguished priests and prophets, ending in Huldah the Prophetess (2 Kings 22:14). Josephus (Ant. v. i. § 2), after his manner, tones down the history, and makes her simply the keeper of an inn. Another ground of selection may well have been that Rahab was by her position in the history the first representative instance of the deliverance of one outside the limits of the chosen people. In this instance also, St James urges, the faith would have been dead had it been only an assent to the truth that the God of Israel was indeed God, without passing into action. The "messengers" are described in Josh, Joshua 6:23 as "young men," in Hebrews 11:31 as "spies".