Women in the Bible

Rahab

Joshua 2; 6:16-25; Matthew 1:5

• Joshua 2:1 Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and spent the night there.

• Joshua 6:16-17 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent.

• Matthew 1:5…and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.

List of Reading & Resources:

Articles

• "Rahab" by Julia M. O’Brien

• “The Rabbinic Transformations of Rahab the Harlot” by Judith Baskin (pp.141-157) in Notre Dame English Journal (1979)

• "The Women in Matthew’s Genealogy" by Caroline Parish and Kim Bauser McBrien

• “Rahab: Bible” by Tikva Frymer-Kensky and Carol Meyers in Jewish Women’s Archive (2021)

• “Rahab the Prostitute – A Postcolonial Perspective” blog post on Queer Bible Hermeneutics (April 29, 2019)

• “When Rahab and Indonesian Christian Women Meet in the Third Space” by Ira D. Mangililo in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Vol. 31 No. 1 (Spring 2015)

• "Rahab" by Julia M. O'Brien

• "Rahab the Faithful Harlot" by Amy Cooper Robertson

• "Prostitution in the Bible" by Jennifer Knust (video)

• "Destruction of the Canaanites" by Charlie Trimm

• "Remixed Gospel of Rahab: Who Are You Calling A Whore" by Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D.

Books

• Reframing Her: Biblical Women in Postcolonial Focus by Judith E. McKinlay (2004)

• "Rahab and Her Interpreters" by Amy H.C. Robertson in Women’s Bible Commentary, edited by Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. RInge (2012)

• "Acts of the Apostles" by Margaret Aymer in Women's Bible Commentary, edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley (2012)

Podcasts

• “Rahab” podcast episode The Bible Binge Season 5: Shady Ladies, Episode 6 (April 21, 2019)