Is the Harlot of Jericho an ancestor of Jesus? (From the Chris | Christian Aryanism — Fides et Gens, Inseperable.
Is the Harlot of Jericho an ancestor of Jesus?
(From the Christian Aryan Catechism; if you have any other questions relating to Christianity, please feel free to ask in the comments)
No she is not. Often the Harlot of Jericho [Joshua 2. 6.] is confused with Rachab, the wife of Salmon [Matthew 1:5].
The Old Testament mentions a variant of this name 5 times, in the book of Joshua [Joshua 2:1, 3. 6:17, 23, 25] all with consistent spelling in each biblical language. Hebrew: רחב (rchb); Greek: Ρααβ (Raab); Latin: Raab.
The New Testament mentions two different variants of this name 3 times. In the books of Hebrews and James in reference to the Harlot of Jericho [Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25] with the same spelling, that also perfectly match all 5 verses in the book of Joshua. Greek: Ρααβ (Raab); Latin: Raab. One more variant is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew in reference to the wife of Salmon [Matthew 1:5] with the following spelling. Greek: Ραχαβ (Rachab); Latin: Rachab.
What we can see here is that every single mention in both the Old and New Testament, in all languages, is spelt Raab, with two exceptions: Matthew, which is spelt Rachab in all languages and does not reference a Harlot of Jericho; and the Old Testament in Hebrew which spells the Harlot of Jericho as RCHB (Rachab).
Claiming this is the same person based on the matching spelling of the Harlot of Jericho in Hebrew and wife of Salmon in Greek, is a horrendous conflation when the Greek New Testament spells direct mentions of the Harlot of Jericho differently to Salmon's wife. Even if these were the same spelling, there's no reason to assume this is the same person. For further simplicity, we'll refer to them as Raab (Jericho) and Rachab (Salmon).
To remove any doubt that they could be the same person, we'll look into when approximately Salmon and Raab lived, to see if they correspond.
From the book of Joshua, two spies sent by Joshua to Jericho, met Raab who shelters them from authorities; this puts the Raab in the time period of Joshua who lived from 1355-1245ᴮᶜ, and this event above was during the Battle of Jericho which occured when Joshua was 101 years old (1,254ᴮᶜ). While close in time, Salmon wasn't born until 1228ᴮᶜ and Salmon's son to Rachab wasn't born until 1193ᴮᶜ. If we were to assume Raab's age was an extremely low estimate of 20 years old at the Battle of Jericho, Raab would be 46 years old when she met Salmon (his birth) and 61 years old when mothering Boaz. Raab was likely much older at Jericho but even with this low estimate, she is far too old to be his spouse.
It's quite realistic to assume these are two different women, especially considering there is no connection between them other than a similar name.
Why does it actually matter if Raab is Rachab? It doesn't, but many use this conflation to claim Jesus has impure Canaanite ancestry making Him a mongrel, who doesn't have a right to His throne.
The issues with this are: 1) There is nothing signifying whether Raab was a Canaanite or Israelite; only that she resided in Jericho, a major city. 2) Many, if not most, Canaanites were pure in Adamic ancestry; there's nothing signifying she was a Canaanite of impure ancestry. 3) Assuming she was a Canaanite and was Rachab, it is highly unlikely that the Israelites who just slaughtered the entire city of Jericho would immediately marry a Canaanite of impure ancestry. Being a female Canaanite of pure ancestry wouldn't affect the lineage as it's followed patriarchally, assuming the woman is of pure Adamic descent.
In conclusion, the Harlot of Jericho (Raab) is not the ancestor of Jesus (Rachab) and even if she was, it doesn't matter.
