Righteous Rahab

Witness in the New Testament

Rahab is cited twice in the apostolic writings as an example of faith joined to action. The Letter to the Hebrews lists her among those who acted by faith, noting that she did not perish with the disobedient because she had received the spies in peace. The Letter of James appeals to her as evidence that faith is shown through works, asking whether she was not justified by her works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.

In the genealogy that opens the Gospel of Matthew, she is named as the wife of Salmon of the tribe of Judah and the mother of Boaz, by whom the line continues toward David and ultimately to Christ. She thus appears among the women of that genealogy who were not native daughters of Israel, read in the tradition as a sign that the lineage of the Messiah gathered in the nations.

Commemoration among the Forefathers

The Orthodox Church remembers Rahab among the Holy Forefathers and Foremothers of Christ, the ancestors according to the flesh who lived before and under the Law. These are commemorated together on the Sunday that falls between December 11 and 17, the second Sunday before the Nativity, during the Nativity Fast. The commemoration looks especially to the Patriarch Abraham and the promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and it gathers the patriarchs, prophets, kings, and other righteous forebears from whom Christ descended.