Rahab

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.

A different woman (see below) named Rachab (spelt 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.

The 1st century AD historian Josephus, mentions that Rahab kept an inn, but is silent as to whether merely renting out rooms was her only source of income. It was not uncommon for both an inn and a brothel to function within the same building, thus going into Rahab's building was not necessarily a deviation from Joshua's orders, and, as Robert Boling notes, "where better to get information than a bar?" A number of scholars have noted that the narrator in Joshua 2 may have intended to remind the readers of the "immemorial symbiosis between military service and bawdy house".

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