Rahab: Harlot or Innkeeper?

Either way, she is a woman of tremendous faith who deserves our honor.

The hills above Jericho today. Photo by David McLenachan on Unsplash

Have I told you about the time I dressed as a prostitute for Halloween?

I was a very precocious twelve-year-old.

Abigail, WHY would your parents let you do this?

Our preacher had the same question.

So, for some context: It was for a Harvest Party for our church (remember those?) and we were all supposed to dress up as our favorite Bible character. I had just discovered Rahab’s story in my Kid’s Adventure Bible (NIV) and thought her very interesting and brave.

I pulled together some brightly colored sheets, towels, a couple random scarves, and raided my mom’s makeup. It was about as far from Pretty Woman as you could get.

Still, I’ll never forget the look on our preacher’s face when upon benignly asking who I was, I answered, Rahab. He was from the South and very young at the time, maybe all of 30 years old.

“Rahab, the harlot?” his drawl cracked. He laughed nervously while blushing.

Is there any other Rahab?

I did try to convince him that she was an innkeeper based on the footnote in my Bible. I now believe that that understanding obscures and undercuts the power in her story. But it is still a popular opinion in some Christian circles.

The idea of Rahab being an innkeeper comes from rabbinic tradition, which had two strains of thought on her profession. One accepted that she was a prostitute based on the Hebrew word used in Joshua, zonah (זונה), which literally means “prostitute.”¹ The other view held that she was an innkeeper based partly on a Targum’s rendering of the word and partly confusion over a similar word (zanah) that means a woman who provides food and provisions.² Josephus also refers to her as an innkeeper.

Prior to Josephus, the Jewish scribes working on the Septuagint (Greek translation of Hebrew OT manuscripts) translated zonah as pórnē (πόρνη) (and yes, that is partly where we get our English word pornography from.) Apparently, they agreed that she was a prostitute or at least a sexually immoral woman. James and the writer of Hebrews keep with this tradition and use pórnē when speaking of her.³

There is no innkeeper connotation with pórnē. However, some scholars have argued that innkeeper is still a possibility as many ancient inns apparently also operated as brothels. That said, if she was running an inn, her primary designator in the Bible was as a harlot. This is significant for reasons I’ll discuss below.

At 12, I felt very grown up but had no clue what a harlot was except that it had to do with sex and sex was bad at that stage in my life. People of faith weren’t harlots. I had to justify my honor of her by calling her an innkeeper.

A lot of Christians appear to have the need to do this.⁴ It’s like her status as a sex worker overshadows the power of her faith. We have to recast her as the more social respectable innkeeper in order to honor her. But when we do this, we miss seeing the God Who accepts the faith of a person regardless of their profession or their ethnic status (a Gentile, apart from the Chosen People). We miss seeing that God turns all sorts of people into faithful heroines and heroes.

We forget that faith comes before sanctification.

In recent years, some Christians have taken a fresh look at many of the women in Scripture who make us squirm. By now, you’ve (hopefully) been exposed to a more nuanced and I believe more “biblical” (yeah, I’m going to go there) version of the Bible’s most famous harlot.⁵

But in case you haven’t, let me regale you with why I think Rahab is an unsung heroine that deserves high honor in the church.

Rahab’s story occurs in the larger pericope of Joshua 1-6, with chapters 2 and 6 specifically focused on her. Joshua has just taken over leadership of Israel after Moses’s death and forty years spent in the wilderness. God has ordered him to take the people and conquer the nations in the Promise Land so they can possess it. Jericho is Israel's first major incursion recorded in the book of Joshua and their victory there gives them great confidence.

Rahab plies her trade in her dwelling built into Jericho’s walls. The city’s fortifications were “large, with walls up to the sky.” (Deut. 1:28) Jericho has every right to feel secure, especially against wandering strangers like the Israelites. Somehow, the two spies Joshua sends to scope out the city, end up staying at Rahab's house. They are not especially good spies, however, because the King of Jericho is quickly told about them, and he sends men to Rahab's house to capture them.

Meanwhile, Rahab welcomes the spies even though they are her enemies. She hides them on her roof under stacks of drying flax and "misdirects" (um, LIES) to the king's men, sending them on a wild goose hunt outside the city.⁶

Then Rahab makes an astounding confession of faith to the spies. We don’t know why she’s chosen to fear God instead of her city's idols. But she has. “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." (Joshua 2:9-11)

Rahab basically displays the reverence and faith in God that the nation of Israel was supposed to have. If they had had her attitude, would they have been spared their time in the wilderness?

She makes the spies promise to rescue her and her family when Israel conquers Jericho and then sends them out her window in Jericho’s wall. The spies agree but insist that she hang a red cord out her window to identify her home during the battle. In making this request, Rahab invokes the Hebrew word, hesed, often (weakly) translated into English as kindness or loving-kindness. It is far stronger than this. Hesed is most often used to describe God's covenantal love for Israel. In a way, Rahab is making a covenant with the spies. And God honors it.

Among the many reasons why I think God prompts Joshua to send spies to Jericho, is so they encounter Rahab and that she and her family are saved. We see God rescuing those who have even a little bit of faith from destruction time and again in the Old Testament. Even when they are Gentiles.

You probably remember the rest of the story. God instructs Israel to march around Jericho once a day for 7 days. On the 7th day the Israelites were to blow a ram's horn which would bring the walls down. Israel does exactly as God instructs and the thick walls crumble. Joshua reminds the army to rescue Rahab and her family in her home.

Later, we’re told that Rahab joins Israel as a convert and marries a man named Salmon. There are not a few Christian novels that set up Salmon as one of the spies. It makes for a good love story even if we have no indication from Scripture that he was. Salmon and Rahab have a son, Boaz, the same man who marries Ruth. I like to think that Rahab played a role in Boaz becoming the man of faith we read about. At the very least, Boaz viewed faith in God greater than any kind of societal ethnic delineation. His mother was a Gentile convert of great faith, so he has no problem marrying one himself.⁷

So again, why have Christians been squeamish about Rahab?

The Old Testament portrays Rahab in a heroic light and says nothing negative about her (outside of whatever we are supposed to take away from her being a prostitute). In the New Testament, Rahab is lauded as a person of tremendous faith. She gets the honor of appearing in Matthew’s account of Jesus’s genealogy and is mentioned twice elsewhere. No other Old Testament woman gets mentioned that many times other than Sarah (five references).⁸ The two NT passages on Rahab should guide how we are to think of her.

Hebrews 11:31 lists her among those with great faith. She is one of two named women on this list (the other being Sarah). That’s a pretty high honor. James 2:25, in a striking contrast, presents her as an example of how we show our righteousness by our actions and not our faith. It's like God is calling our attention to both her actions AND her faith. It's not an either/or. She is an example of faith in action.

Her past as a harlot, it seems, is the stumbling block for some Christian fully accepting Rahab. I’d to point out to them that she doesn’t STAY a prostitute. Also, look at the list of persons honored for their faith in Hebrews 11. There’s a lot of broken people there. Abraham is a chronic liar and forces his wife to (arguably) commit adultery twice. Sarah abuses and beats a pregnant slave whom she also forced to have sex with her husband. (They had some deep trust issues I guess?) Jephthah makes a rash vow and then practices human sacrifice, killing his daughter to keep the vow (rather than seeking forgiveness from God or even dying in her place). David is a murdering adulterer with anger and pride issues. And yet, Christians honor most of these persons (ok, we do draw a line with Jephthah) even to the point of naming their children after them.

But not Rahab.

It’s pretty clear that she can’t shake the prostitute designation—even posthumously. It’s like people who think Christ is Jesus’s last name. Rahab is “Rahab TheHarlot.” This is another reason I think she’s likely a prostitute instead of an innkeeper. There really is nothing of significance communicated to readers by referring to her occupation if she’s just an innkeeper. The designation’s repeated inclusion is intentional because it means something. Going back to Jesus, the reason he is Jesus Christ is because he is Jesus the Messiah. We’re making a statement about his identity. Same thing with Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector, neither of which are positive associations. I believe Rahab falls in the same boat as Simon and Matthew.

Maybe the writer of Hebrews and James both want to highlight her past as a harlot. As a good friend recently pointed out the fact that Rahab stopped being a sex worker makes it easier for us to accept her as an honorable woman. But in her story, Rahab didn't have to stop being a prostitute before she became the hero. When the Bible’s writers honor her later it’s not because she Stopped Having Sex For Money, but because of her outstanding faith in God.

The Bible’s writers want us to remember that God’s acceptance and honoring of Rahab had nothing to do with her profession—as unpalatable as it is to us.

Lastly, it's notable that in the New Testament’s commentary on Rahab, neither the spies nor Joshua are called out as heroes. (Hebrews calls the army who marched around the wall faithful, but no individual is named). Once again, you have a theme of God subverting the typical expected ancient Biblical hero (faithful Jewish man of power) to show His glory and care for everyone by using Rahab (pagan, Gentile woman of the enemy with immoral past).

Given this, why isn’t Rahab as popular a name for our girls as say, Sarah or Rachel?⁹ I think Rahab would be a bold, but wonderful choice for parents (especially Gentile Christians) wishing to honor one of greatest people of faith in Scripture (come on, she’s listed as Abraham’s counterpart in James). If the “b” on the end isn’t your cup of tea, consider the Modern Hebrew version, Rahav, with is softer sound and inclusion of the very popular letter, “v.”

Sarah and Rachel both have character blemishes, but we uphold them (rightly so) as women of faith.

Isn’t it time we do the same for Rahab?¹⁰

1. Be ready for an eyeful (or put your safe filter on) if you google the word in Hebrew. It still means that in Modern Hebrew.

2. For a more detailed explanation and also the interesting Jewish legends surrounding Rahab’s life after the fall of Jericho see: Rahab and also Endnote 2 - Was Rahab Really a Harlot?)

3. Without getting into the weeds about how Hebrew is written, this clears up any potential confusion between zonah and zanah, for me, but if any Hebrew scholars wish to chime in, I welcome that!

4. See: Rahab the Innkeeper - CBE International, Rahab the Harlot?- Biblical Archaeology Society,

5. For a very good, provocative exploration of Rahab and other oft-maligned Biblical women please, please, PLEASE go buy a copy of Vindicating the Vixens immediately after finishing this essay. Please. I don’t receive any renumeration for this recommendation, by the way. It’s just that good. :)

6. In ancient times, flat roofs were customarily used for drying anything that needed to be laid out in the sun and air. The “stalks of flax” were three- or four-foot stems that had previously been soaked in water and were then laid out on the flat roof to dry. Other things that were often laid out on the roof were fruit that needed exposure to the sun to ripen, grain that needed drying, and wet clothing. (Source: James M. Freeman and Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 185.

7. A lot could be said about the fact that Gentile women are highlighted in Jesus’s lineage. Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth are all Gentiles. Scholars debate whether Bathsheba was one—one can argue her either way. But I think these women, and other Gentiles whom God calls out in the Old Testament, are a foreshadowing of the work he does with the Church. Paul spends a good deal on Jew-Gentile relations in the Church, calling it a “mystery” that “Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body” in Ephesians 2-3, and expounding even further on this in Romans 9-11. There is a lot to explore here.

8. List of all the Women in the New Testament – Women In The Scriptures

9. One of my friends has a daughter named Rahab. When she first told me her daughter’s name, I knew we were destined to be friends.

10. Can you tell I like me some footnotes?