Or in other words: who was Rahab in the genealogy of Jesus Christ?
1. Introduction
There are four women in the genealogy with which Matthew begins his Gospel: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah. Tamar is Judah's daughter-in-law, Ruth is Elimelech's daughter-in-law who married Boaz, and Uriah's wife is Bathsheba. That is obvious. But who Rahab is is less clear than you might think.
Many people assume that Rahab refers to the whore from Jericho. After all, we know of no other Rahab in the Old Testament. On the other hand, in no way does Matthew give any indication that it is indeed the harlot Rahab who gave shelter to the spies.
Already in ancient times there were different opinions. Origen indicates that it must be an unknown Rahab (Comm. on Mt. 1.5). Others such as John Chrysostom (Hom. about Mt. 1.14) and Theodoret of Cyrrhus (Questions about the Octateuch, about Ruth 1) assume that this is about Rahab the whore.
This article provides an overview of the arguments. And then it will become clear that there are also questions to be asked to which there is no clear answer.
2. The name: Ra'ab or Rahab?
The name of the whore in Jericho is Rahab (רחב). In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, this is rendered as Ra'ab (Ρααβ). And we encounter the same name twice in the New Testament:
Hebr. 11:31 Because of her faith, the harlot Rahab welcomed the spies into her house and did not perish with the disobedient inhabitants of her city.
Jak. 2:25 Was not Rahab the harlot also declared righteous for what she did when she received the spies and sent them out by another way?
In both cases, as in the Septuagint, the name Ra'ab (Ρααβ) is used here. It is striking that in Matt. 1:5 encounter another spelling, namely Rahab (Ραχαβ; corresponds to the Hebrew רהב). This raises questions. Is it the same person? Maybe not. BTW: all known translations (KJV, KJV, NIV, HSV) give the translation Rahab in all texts mentioned, and it is a mystery to me why no translation shows the difference in Greek in Dutch. The King James Version, for example, does indicate the difference in the translation.
We must also realize that when converting Hebrew names into Greek, differences are often seen in the New Testament. This means that the different spelling of the name in Matthew does not necessarily mean that it must be a different person, but it is plausible.
3. The dating
If we read carefully, Matthew indicates that Rahab is the mother of Boaz, which means we are a few hundred years off compared to the period of the conquest of Israel. The entry into the land of Israel is dated to around 1405 BC. And the history of Ruth probably took place in the period between Ehud (about 1200 BC) and Jephthah (about 1100 BC), because Israel then dominated Moab. There are two options to solve this problem.
The first possibility is to assume that several people lived to a very old age and also married at a late age. But objectively speaking, there are no Biblical arguments for assuming very old ages.
There is a second argument. It is known that 'son of' can also mean 'descendant of', and that Matthew skipped generations. So when Matthew mentions Rahab, it could similarly indicate a great-grandmother according to some interpreters. Again it is not a strong argument. There are no linguistic reasons to assume that having a son by a woman could also refer to a woman's ancestry.
4. Again: the dating
There is another angle regarding the dating.
There are 14 generations recorded from Abraham to David, a period of about 1000 years. If we calculate with approximately 40 years per generation, this means that some genders have been omitted. That happens much more often, but in this case we cannot discover where those gaps are by comparing with other genealogies.
There is another reference point for the dating: Nachson, Salmon's father. Nahshon was head of the tribe of Judah during the wilderness journey (Num. 1:7; 2:3; 10:14). And his sister Eliseba was married to Aaron (Ex. 6:23). This gives us a clear time indication for Nachshon, since the desert journey was from 1445 to 1405 BC. used to be. In the series Nachshon – Salmon – Boaz, more than 200 years must therefore be bridged. This means that either Salmon was not a son of Nahshon but a (further) descendant or that Boaz was not a son of Salmon but that there were one or more generations in between. In the latter case it is very possible that Rahab was a woman from the time of the conquest of Jericho.
5. The Jewish traditions
The question is whether there are indications from Jewish traditions that Rahab the harlot married Salmon, Boaz's father.
Now we encounter Rahab in various sources. For example, the Rabbis state that Sarah, Rahab, Abigail and Esther were the most beautiful women that ever existed in the world. Rahab would have been 10 years old at the time of the Exodus, and 50 years old when Jericho was destroyed. She came to faith and married Joshua. Her descendants produced 8 priests who were also prophets: Jeremiah, Hilkiah, Seraiah, Mahsheiah, Baruch, Neriah, Hanamel and Shallum.
There are other traditions about Rahab, but nowhere is there any indication that she married Salmon, or that she belonged to David's ancestry.
6. The Torah
There is another point to consider. We read in the Torah:
Deut. 7:1-3 The LORD your God will bring you into the land you are about to possess, and will cause many nations to flee from before you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. – seven nations greater and mightier than you. When the LORD your God gives you victory over them, you shall kill them. You shall not make a peace treaty with them or spare them. Also do not allow matrimonial unions with them; do not give your daughter to one of their sons, nor seek a wife from them for your own son.
Although the lives of Rahab and her family are spared, the question is whether the marriage ban is also invalid in her case. This consideration also has a downside: perhaps Rahab did indeed convert, making marriage with an Israelite possible.
7. An unknown woman?
In the Old Testament we only encounter one woman named Rahab, and that is the harlot from Jericho who gave shelter to the spies. Various interpreters argue that there is no good reason why Matthew would mention a completely unknown Rahab in the genealogy.
There is also something to note here. In Matt. 1:11 speaks of Jeconiah and his brothers. And we do not encounter those brothers in the Old Testament. And the names mentioned from the period after the exile are almost all unknown.
8. An open question?
If we look at all the data, it is unlikely that the Rahab from Matthew's genealogy refers to Rahab the whore from Jericho.
The article about Tamar and Ruth on this website explains that Matthew had a very special reason for mentioning the unknown Rahab.
Bas Krins