A Family of Freedom Fighters

Jericho was a city in the way of the Israelites' mission to conquer Canaan, so it was decided that it must be destroyed. Rahab was a prostitue living in a wall in Jericho at the time that the Israelites came to conquer Canaan. She helped two Israelite spies sent out by Joshua to scout the city. The spies were being looked for by soldiers from Jericho. They stopped at Rahab's "house", and she decided to hide them under bundles of flax on her roof after she made them promise that when the Israelites destroyed Jericho, she and her family would be spared. She told them that she had heard about the Israelites' journey and wanted to help (although she did not mean it: she did it for herself). She probably heard this through the powerful men that she slept with. When the walls of Jericho fell and the Israelites stormed in and started killing, Rahab marked her "house" with a red piece of cloth, and they passed by her. After Jericho, Rahab was assimilated into the Israelite culture. She converted to Judaism and, according to the bible, married Salmon of the tribe of Judah and became the mother of Boaz. She is part of Jesus' geneaology. In Jewish tradition, however, she is said to have married Joshua and became an ancestor of 8 prophets. She made a true conversion to Judaism, with God being the only God on Heaven and Earth.

Rahab went out of her way to assist the Israelite spies, but she did it for selfish reaons. She could have let them be caught and killed by the soldiers from Jericho, which was probably the right thing to do for a Jerichan, but she decided instead to sell her own people out to save herself. She probably saved many Israelite lives by helping the spies get back to Joshua and tell him information about Jericho, but she probably gave no thought to it; as long as she was being saved, everything would be allright. The attack was probably planned out much better than it would have been without Rahab's helping the spies. Rahab is in Jesus' geneaology because she is a very important figure in the scriptures, regardless of sex. She is honored in the scriptures by being listed in Jesus' line of descendants as a token of gratitude expressed by the authors for what she did. Without Rahab's selfish act, there is a good chance that the Israelites would have lost many more people in their conquering of Jericho and Canaan. Rahab saved other people, just like Jesus would later preach, but she did not know it because she was caught up in herself. She may not have been Jesus' actual 26-greats-grandmother, but the inclusion of Rahab in the geneaology of Jesus means that she had done enough to earn the right to be listed as his 26-greats-grandmother.