Josué 2
Jerome · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Josué 2:1-2
We have been following so far the historical interpretation, and you perceive how from the history itself we are ascending upward gradually to a mystical understanding. Jesus [Joshua], the leader, who had led the people out of Egypt; Jesus [Joshua], whose name means Savior, after the death and burial of Moses in the land of Moab in the land of Arabia—that is, after the law was dead—Jesus desires to lead his people into the gospel and sends out two men on secret mission to Jericho. Two messengers he sends: one to the circumcised; the other to the Gentiles, Peter and Paul. Jericho seeks to kill them; the harlot takes them in, meaning, of course, the church gathered together from the Gentiles. — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)
Josué 2:1-2
Rahab; what is the force of her name? We have been following the historical sense; let us now reflect upon the anagogic significance of the name. Rahab thus admits of two interpretations: the name may imply either a "broad space" or, better, "pride." Consider, therefore, its impact. She who formerly walked the broad, spacious road to death, she whose pride was driving her to destruction, was later converted unto humility. — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)
Josué 2:6
"I will be mindful of Rahab," of Rahab, that harlot who lodged Jesus' [Joshua's] secret agents, who lived in Jericho where Jesus [Joshua] had come and had dispatched the two spies. Jericho, that collapsed in seven days, is a type of this world, and as such is determined to kill the secret agents. Because, therefore, Jericho is bent upon killing the spies, Rahab, the harlot, alone received them, lodged them not on the ground floor but in the upper story of the roof—or, in other words, in the sublimity of her faith. She hid them under her stalks of flax.… She believes in Jesus, and those whom Jericho is determined to destroy she protects in safety on her own roof. She harbors them on the roof—in the loftiness of her faith—and hides them under the stems of flax. Even though she is a harlot, she covers them with flax. Flax with much labor and care becomes of dazzling whiteness. You yourselves know that flax grows from the soil and that when it has come forth from the ground, it is black; it has no beauty; it has no use. First, it is pulled up from the ground, broken, then twisted, afterwards washed. Next, it is pounded; finally, combed, and after so much care and hard work, it finally becomes white. Here, then, is the meaning: this harlot took the messengers in and covered them with her flax so that these agents might turn her flax into dazzling whiteness. — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)
Josué 2:16
She counsels them and says, "Wait here for three days." Not one day does she specify, nor two days, but definitely three days. Notice what she says: "Wait three days." She does not designate three nights but three days, for hers was an enlightened heart. Then she says, and after three days—but what does she say? "Do not go through the open plains," she warns, "but go up the mountain way." The faith of the church is not laid in the valleys but is established on the mountains. Later, indeed, Jericho is overthrown, but this harlot alone is preserved untouched; hence, the Lord says, "I will be mindful of Rahab"; that is, on the day of judgment, I will be mindful of her who welcomes my messengers. — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (Ps 86)
Josué 2:21
So, too, with a mystic reference to the shedding of blood, it was a scarlet cord which the harlot Rahab (a type of the church) hung in her window that she might be saved at the destruction of Jericho. — LETTER 52.3