Hebrews 11:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is shameful if there should be less faith in you than in a harlot. When she heard the words of the messengers, she immediately believed, and the outcome was this: when all perished, she alone was saved. She did not say within herself: I will remain with the many others, my fellow citizens. She did not say: Can I be wiser than so many prudent men, who do not believe, while I shall believe? She did nothing of the sort, which another might have said and done, but believed what was spoken. She did not begin to reason: how can these captives, fugitives, and exiles, who live a wandering life, take possession of our city, protected by walls and goddesses? If she had reasoned so, she would have destroyed both herself and them, just as those before the ones saved by Rahab actually perished.

Behold, as I said above, he brings forward the most despised person, so that through her also he may put them to shame, if they should prove worse than such a woman. At the same time, he shows that the power of faith is great, if it produces such an effect even in despised people. Thus she also showed her faith by hiding the men who were being sought as spies. She would not have hidden them if she had not believed that the city would be taken. For she spoke in this way: "I know that you will take this land, for we have heard of your deeds" (cf. Josh. 2:9-10). She believed what she had heard. But those who did not believe the miracles of God perished.

The fame of the miracles that had taken place in Egypt and in the wilderness led her to faith that the Hebrews would truly take possession of the land of Canaan, as God had said to Abraham. If the Apostle mentioned the "spies" who were "received by her with peace," he wished thereby to show that they came out from her in purity and chastity. For they did not enter her house for fornication (Josh. 2:1; Josh. 6:16, 24).

Even the lawlessness of her life did not hinder salvation, because faith covered the wounds of sin. The apostolic wisdom is worthy of wonder. Better still, one must hymn the working of the Spirit of God, because foreign women and harlots are joined with Moses, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, and the other saints. Thus the power of faith would be made visible, and the arrogance of the Jews would be humbled. For six hundred thousand of them were destroyed in the wilderness for unbelief, and life under the law did not profit them. But Rahab, though far from kinship with Abraham, a stranger to life under the law, and having spent most of her time in debauchery, acquired salvation through faith and traced in herself an image of the Church.

Because she trusted the spies whom the aforementioned Joshua sent into the city where she lived, she believed their words. They said that the Israelites would take that city together with the others. She received them kindly and hid them when her fellow citizens were seeking them. For all this, after the city was taken, she was spared, while the others, who refused to surrender the city, perished. To shame the Hebrews to whom this epistle was written, the Apostle here pointed to what concerned Rahab. He put them to shame because, in the matter of faith, they proved lower than a harlot.

And when the whole city in which she lived was turned into ruins at the sound of the seven trumpets, Rahab the harlot was finally saved with her whole household through faith in the red sign. So also the Lord said to those who did not receive His coming, namely the Pharisees, who counted as nothing the sign of the red color that signified Passover, deliverance, and the exodus from Egypt: "Publicans and harlots go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt 21:31). On Rahab the harlot and the meaning of the color red, see also Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 12, and Justin the Philosopher, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, ch. 111.

As the paschal blood saved those who were in Egypt, so the Blood of Christ will deliver from death those who believe in Him. Would God have been deceived if this sign had not been on the doors? No, I say. But through this He foretold the salvation that was to come to the human race through the Blood of Christ. For the sign of the red cord, given in Jericho to Rahab the harlot by the spies sent by Joshua, likewise represented a symbol of the Blood of Christ. They commanded her to tie the cord to the window through which she had lowered them, so as to hide them from their enemies. Through that Blood, those from all nations who were formerly harlots and lawless receive salvation, having accepted forgiveness of sins and no longer sinning.

This episode from the Old Testament is joined in the Spirit, in a typological sense, to the great mysteries of things to come. The harlot received the two spies sent by Joshua to examine the whole land. So the Church, which had been a sinner and then confessed, receives into her house the law and prophecy, sent by God to examine the faith of men. For she confessed: "The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth beneath" (Josh 2:11). From these two spies the sign of salvation was also received: cochineal, a sign of scarlet color. It contains the color designation of royal dignity and, in bodily representation, the color of blood. In both senses it corresponds to the cruciform suffering of Christ.

Just as Rahab's dwelling among foreigners did not harm her in the least, but on the contrary, faith joined her to the portion of the Israelites, so sin will not harm those who await the Redeemer with hope and faith. When He comes, He transforms the thoughts of the soul, makes them divine, heavenly, and good, and teaches the soul true prayer, undistracted and unscattered.

Rahab the harlot is called prophetic by Clement of Rome (1 Cor. 12), because she foretold the capture of Jericho by the Hebrews (Josh. 2:9).

What is especially remarkable in the deed of Rahab, who believed? First, that she was a foreigner and did not know the religion of Israel before the arrival of the spies. Second, that her moral life up to that time had been shameful. The complete renewal of her dark and sinful soul by the power of faith was no less remarkable than the fall of the walls of Jericho. Not without intention, as St. Chrysostom observes, did the Apostle include Rahab the harlot among the examples of faith worthy of imitation. By this he wished to strengthen the instruction. For "to be found lower in faith than renowned persons, such as Abel, Noah, Abraham, and others, is not so grievous. But it is grievous to be found lower than unknown persons. Therefore the Apostle begins with the parents of Moses, unknown people who had nothing of what their son possessed. Then, continuing his discourse, he expresses more strongly the absurdity of unbelief by pointing to harlots and widows who believed."

And an even more wondrous event occurred: faith was shown even by so lowly a person as Rahab the harlot.