{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6552","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":11,"chapter_to":11,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":31,"verse_to":31},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Clement of Rome</b>: On account of her faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved. For when spies were sent by Joshua, the son of Nun, to Jericho, the king of the country ascertained that they had come to spy out their land, and sent men to seize them, in order that, when taken, they might be put to death. But the hospitable Rahab receiving them, concealed them on the roof of her house under some stalks of flax. And when the men sent by the king arrived and said, \"There came men unto you who are to spy out our land; bring them forth, for so the king commands,\" she answered them, \"The two men whom you seek came unto me, but quickly departed again and are gone,\" thus not discovering the spies to them. Then she said to the men, \"I know assuredly that the Lord your God has given you this city, for the fear and dread of you have fallen on its inhabitants. When therefore you shall have taken it, keep ye me and the house of my father in safety.\" And they said to her, \"It shall be as you have spoken to us. As soon, therefore, as you know that we are at hand, you shall gather all your family under your roof, and they shall be preserved, but all that are found outside of your dwelling shall perish.\" Moreover, they gave her a sign to this effect, that she should hang forth from her house a scarlet thread. And thus they made it manifest that redemption should flow through the blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God. You see, beloved, that there was not only faith, but prophecy, in this woman.<br/><i>— Letter to the Corinthians (Clement)</i></p><p><b>Ephrem the Syrian</b>: Indeed, through the rumors about the miracles which had happened in Egypt and the desert, she believed that they would have possessed the land of Canaan, as God had said to Abraham. The apostle also added some words about the \"explorers,\" who \"were received by her in peace,\" because he wanted to show that they came out of her house in purity and honesty. In fact, they had not entered that place for the sake of fornication.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Elvira</b>: Rahab, who is a type of the church, suspended the scarlet thread from her window as a sign of salvation, to show that the nations would be saved through the Lord's passion.… The house of Rahab and all those with her were saved through the scarlet sign when Jericho was destroyed and burned and its king, a type of the devil, slain. So when this world is destroyed by fire and the devil who now has dominion over the world is overthrown, no one will be preserved for eternal salvation if that one is not found inside the house of the ecclesia which is marked with the scarlet sign, that is, with the blood of Christ. Or again, as in the flood, no one escaped the drowning of the world save those who were preserved in the ark of Noah, which is a type of the church.<br/><i>— ORIGEN'S TRACTATE ON THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 139</i></p><p><b>Hilary of Poitiers</b>: This episode in the Old Testament is a series of important types [sacramenta] of future spiritual events. The harlot takes into her house the two spies sent by Jesus [Joshua] to survey the land. The church, which was a sinner, receives the law and the prophets, sent to spy out the faith of men, and acknowledges that \"God is in heaven above and on the earth beneath.\" She receives from these same spies the scarlet sign of salvation, a color which is manifestly the color of royalty when considered as a dignity, and, when looked at, the color of blood. Both these features were found in the passion—the Lord was clothed in scarlet, and blood flowed from his side. Manasseh also received scarlet as a sign. The dwellings in Egypt marked with blood were spared, and with blood the book of the covenant was sprinkled and the people sanctified. Every member of the family found outside the house was guilty—a lesson that those apart from those called are responsible for their own death.<br/><i>— TRACTATE OF THE MYSTERIES 2.9.154-56</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Thus also did Rahab the harlot, while condemning herself, inasmuch as she was a Gentile, guilty of all sins, nevertheless receive the three spies, who were spying out all the land, and hid them at her home; [which three were] doubtless [a type of] the Father and the Son, together with the Holy Spirit. And when the entire city in which she lived fell to ruins at the sounding of the seven trumpets, Rahab the harlot was preserved, when all was over [in ultimis], together with all her house, through faith of the scarlet sign; as the Lord also declared to those who did not receive His advent,-the Pharisees, no doubt, nullify the sign of the scarlet thread, which meant the passover, and the redemption and exodus of the people from Egypt,-when He said, \"The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you.\"<br/><i>— AGAINST HERESIES 4.20.12</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"By faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, having received the spies with peace.\" It would then be disgraceful, if you should appear more faithless even than a harlot. Yet she merely heard what the men related, and forthwith believed. Whereupon the end also followed; for when all perished, she alone was preserved. She did not say to herself, I shall be with my many friends. She did not say, Can I possibly be wiser than these judicious men who do not believe, and shall I believe? She said no such thing, but believed what had taken place, which it was likely that they would suffer.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 27</i></p><p><b>Justin Martyr</b>: For the sign of the scarlet thread, which the spies, sent to Jericho by Joshua, son of Nave (Nun), gave to Rahab the harlot, telling her to bind it to the window through which she let them down to escape from their enemies, also manifested the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those who were at one time harlots and unrighteous persons out of all nations are saved, receiving remission of sins, and continuing no longer in sin.<br/><i>— Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CXI</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: This command too is given to her who was once a \"harlot\": \"All,\" she says, \"who shall be found in your house shall be saved. But those who go out of the house — we are free from this oath of yours.\" If anyone, therefore, wishes to be saved, let him come into this house of her who was once a \"harlot.\" Even if someone from that people wishes to be saved, let him come to this house, that he may be able to obtain salvation. Let him come to this house, in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. For among those who said, \"his blood be upon us and upon our children,\" the blood of Christ is unto condemnation. For Jesus \"was set for the fall and for the rising again of many,\" and therefore, to those who contradict his \"sign,\" \"his blood\" is made unto punishment, but to those who believe, unto salvation. Let no one, therefore, persuade himself, let no one deceive himself: outside this house, that is, outside the Church, no one is saved; if anyone goes outside, he becomes guilty of his own death. This is the sign of the blood, because here too is the purification which is established through the blood.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Joshua 3.5</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Our \"Jesus sends\" spies to the \"king of Jericho,\" and they are received into lodging by a \"harlot.\" But that harlot, who received the spies sent by Jesus, received them for this reason, that she might no longer be a \"harlot.\" But also the soul of each one of us was a harlot, so long as it lived in the desires and lusts of the flesh. But it received the spies of Jesus, \"the angels whom he sent before his face, that they might prepare his way.\" Yet if each soul received them out of faith, it places them not in lowly places nor in lower ones, but in the higher and lofty ones, because we have received Jesus the Lord not as lowly and earthly, but as one proceeding from the Father and coming from the heavens.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Joshua 1.4</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Lawlessness of life did not prevent salvation; faith covered the wounds of sin. Now, it is worth admiring the apostle's wisdom—or, rather, we ought sing the praises of the activity of the divine Spirit in associating a foreign woman and prostitute with Moses, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, and the other saints so as to establish the power of faith and repress the Jews' conceit. After all, six hundred thousand of them were consumed in the desert on account of lack of faith, as they gained no benefit from the way of life of the law. She on the contrary, though removed from kinship with Abraham, living outside the way of life of the law and spending most of her time in licentious behavior, through faith reaped salvation and foreshadowed in type the church. Just as she with faith gave admission to the spies, so the church did to the apostles. And as she was given the scarlet cord as a sign of salvation, so the church through the Lord's blood enjoyed the eternal goods.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 11</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e6c36c7a906beaac8f2cc2795bc90ad97ad760e4ed5ae0325137ef3cc662a66f","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6552,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"1df96940f9df7e65859331e6a7888b0d0a89d516182f167776571e45541e412d","translator":null,"work":null}