MANNAFEST

Rahab's Scarlet Cord (Josh 2)

One red cord saves an entire household when Jericho falls.

Primary passage:Joshua 2:21

Full Josh 2:15–21 with 6:22–25. Rahab ties a scarlet cord (Hebrew tiqvat hashani, literally the hope of scarlet; the same root as hope/cord) in her window; every person inside is spared. Patristic tradition (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 111; Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 12) reads the cord as a type of Christ's blood. Rahab is named in Matt 1:5 as an ancestor of the Messiah.

Commentary

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