Commentaria in Josue
Abulensis here, Question xxx, holds that Rahab was moved by God to a venial sin, namely this officious lie. For God, he says, can move a man to sin venially, on account of a great good that follows from it, and lest he fall into greater sins. In like manner, he says, if one seeks another unto unjust death, and a third can preserve his life by a simple lie, he ought to preserve it, and if he refuse to lie, the other will perish unjustly.
But these things are false and paradoxical. For God can be the author of no sin, since he is supreme purity, truth and holiness. Again, it is not lawful to lie, even if the salvation of the whole world should follow from it. For evil is not to be done that good may come, says the Apostle, nor is a lie necessary to save another’s life; for in such a case one can use an equivocation: and even if it were necessary, it would still not be lawful to lie, because a lie is intrinsically evil and a sin, which may not be done in any case.
You will say: This lie was to the destruction of her own nation, which she betrayed to the enemy Hebrews; therefore it was pernicious. I answer that this lie was indeed harmful to the Chanaanites and men of Jericho; yet because Rahab by God’s instinct knew for certain that they were proscribed by God for their crimes and condemned to exile, and given up with their possessions to the Hebrews, she ought not, nor could she without wickedness, patronize the unjust cause of the men of Jericho, and oppose the cause and the just and pious war of the Hebrews, and struggle against God himself. Nay, to obey God, with a courageous faith and piety, she most bravely and most holily exposed herself to the danger of death, so that the Apostle deservedly praises her for it, Hebrews xi, 31, and St. James, chapter ii, verse 25, asserts that she was justified by these works. Wherefore, enlightened and touched by God, she turned to God from her lust by penance and a purpose of chastity, and became a Hebrew and a saint, and ennobled herself by this generous act of hospitality, by which she opened to the Hebrews an entrance into Chanaan, and so bound the Hebrews to herself that for this kindness of hers Salmon, prince of the tribe of Juda, took her to wife, and from her were born all the princes and kings of Juda, and at last Christ himself, as is clear from Matthew i, where she is named, and set before other women in the genealogy of Christ: because namely she was a stranger and a harlot, and because she deserved so well of the people of God. For although she was a stranger, yet being now converted to Judaism she could be taken to wife by a Jewish prince. For marriages with such are not forbidden in Deuteronomy vii, 3, but only with strangers persisting in idolatry, as is clear there, verse 4.
The Hebrews relate that by this faith and piety Rahab merited that eight Prophets and Priests should be born of her stock, namely Jeremias, Helcias, Suraias, Maasias, Baruch the son of Neria, Hanameel, Sellum, Ezechiel and Holda. Hanameel was the son of Sellum, cousin of Jeremias. Again, the same count nine Gentile women, who, marrying Hebrew husbands, or attaching themselves to the Hebrews, converted by them, bore a faithful and great offspring, namely Agar the Egyptian, wife of Abraham; Aseneth, wife of Joseph; Sephora the Madianitess, wife of Moses; Sephora and Phua the midwives, who saved the infants of the Hebrews from Pharao’s slaughter, Exodus i, 15; Pharao’s daughter; Rahab; Ruth and Jahel. Moreover St. Augustine, book Against Lying, chapter xv: “That it is written,” he says, “that God dealt well with the Hebrew midwives, and with Rahab the harlot of Jericho, was not done because they lied, but because they were merciful toward the men of God. In them, therefore, deceit was not rewarded, but benevolence: the kindness of the mind, not the iniquity of the liar.”
6. UPON THE TOP OF HER HOUSE.—The Hebrew gag, that is roof, as the Chaldee and Septuagint render, which in Judea was flat, so that one might walk, lie and sit on it. See what was said on Deuteronomy xxii, 8. It is called solarium, because exposed to the sun. Tropologically Origen, homily 3 on Josue: “She, having received them, places them in the upper parts, and sets them in the lofty and exalted mysteries of faith. For no one who is sent by Jesus is found below and lying on the ground, but remains in the upper parts.”
AND COVERED THEM WITH THE STALKS OF FLAX.—The Hebrew is pishtei ha-ets, but the Hebrews call flax of wood wooden flax, or that which becomes woody, namely flax which consists of an entire stalk, which the Latin interpreter clearly expressed in Latin, rendering stalks of flax. For the Hebrews give the name of wood also to plants, like rush, hyssop, flax, which by their stalk gradually harden and become woody, as is clear from 3 Kings iv, 33. Masius therefore rashly carps at our Interpreter here. For the Chaldee and Josephus favour him, who render bundles of flax. And Pagninus, rendering stalks of flax, and the Zurich version, little stalks of flax. This verse explains verse 4.
9. I KNOW THAT THE LORD HATH GIVEN YOU THIS LAND.—“Hath given,” that is, hath decreed to give, assigned, bestowed, and in fact is about to give at once. Rahab knew this partly from the miracles and wonders which God, fighting for the Hebrews, had wrought; partly from God’s own instinct and revelation.
You will ask, in what language did Rahab converse with the Hebrew spies? I answer, in her own, that is Chanaanite. For the spies seem to have been skilled in it; indeed it was akin and near to Hebrew, as is clear from the names by which the Chanaanites called their cities and men, such as Salem, Sichem, Jericho, Cariatharbe, Bethlehem, Melchisedech, Adonisedec, Rahab, Abimelech, etc. For these are Hebrew. Serarius proves this at more length here, Question xxv.
HAVE LOST HEART.—The Hebrew namogu, that is, have melted like wax, are dissolved and wasted away: for huge fear melts, unnerves and dissolves all strength, and all powers of soul and body. The Chaldee, they are broken; Vatablus, they are dismayed with fear of you, that is, driven by panic terror, they as it were melt away. The Septuagint, verse 11, renders: eptoethemen, that is, we were stunned, became ecstatic, were rapt out of ourselves and fainted, were moved out of our mind. For fear makes men destitute of counsel, moved in mind, and as it were out of their wits.
10. WHOM YOU SLEW.—The Hebrew heremtem, that is, you made anathema, you anathematized, that is, as an anathema, that is a victim consecrated to God and to divine justice and vengeance, you immolated and slew. See what was said on Leviticus chapter xxvii.
11. FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD HE IS GOD IN HEAVEN ABOVE, AND IN THE EARTH BENEATH, as if to say: Your God alone is the true God, who rules heaven and earth with eternal sway, and everywhere works what he wills. For the Hebrew is Elohim, which word signifies God as governor of all things. The sense is, as if to say: Since the true God fights for us, neither the Chanaanites nor anyone else will be able to resist him and you, or to keep you from possession of this land, as the dread cast upon them by God sufficiently proves, which has made them, otherwise most valiant, unwarlike and unnerved. The Chaldee renders, and that the Lord your God is God, whose divinity is in heaven above, and who rules over the earth beneath. This is what Moses says in Deuteronomy xxxiii, 26: “There is no other God like the God of the rightest; he that is mounted upon the heaven is thy helper. By his magnificence the clouds run about; his dwelling is above, and underneath are the everlasting arms: he shall cast out the enemy from before thee, and shall say: Be thou bruised”; where I said more on this matter. Rahab therefore, partly from miracles and prodigies, partly from God’s illumination, knew that the idols of the Chanaanites were false and feigned gods, and that the God of the Hebrews alone is the true God (for the Hebrew is Jehovah), and therefore believed in him, hoped, loved, and repenting of her sins begged pardon of him, and so was justified, as the Apostle teaches, Hebrews chapter xi, verse 31, and James chapter ii, 25.
14. BE OUR LIVES FOR YOU UNTO DEATH,—that is, may our life perish, that is, may we perish, may God destroy us, or the earth open for us, if we do you Hebrews harm. For they swear, as Rahab had asked, by an imprecatory oath, as is clear from verse 17. For they knew that Josue and the Hebrews would ratify it, indeed would give thanks to her for so great a service of hospitality, by which the entrance into the promised land was opened, and would repay her with greater benefits. They knew likewise that the law of God commanding all the Chanaanites to be slain was not to be understood of her who had received the Hebrews as a friend, and had opened to them the way into Chanaan to so many victories. For equity dictated this to them; the Chaldee renders, our souls be delivered up for yours. Vatablus clearly: We devote our lives to death for you, that we shall repay thee the kindness and the faith; which he explains thus, as if to say: