What is in a Name? Rahab, the Canaanite, and the Rhetoric of Liberation in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

As many native women in conquest accounts (historical and fictional), Rahab in Joshua 2 is often “hypersexualised” in biblical scholarship. One narrative detail gratuitously read in sexual terms is her name, Rahab, which is linked to the idea of “broadness.” Traditionally, “Rahab” is read as a harsh nickname highlighting the woman’s occupation, prostitution, or as a reference to her genitals. Against these readings, this discussion considers the language of “broadness” in biblical profiles of the Promised Land and the Torah, key motifs from Joshua 1–2, and demonstrates that the trope of “broadness/spaciousness” constitutes the rhetoric of liberation in the Hebrew Bible. That is, God is often cast as someone who brings afflicted/landless people to a broad locale or “broadens/enlarges” their hearts through his Torah. Since Rahab is linguistically and thematically linked to these acts, it is argued that through her Joshua 2 offers a midrash on Joshua 1. That is, from within Canaan, her name reverberates God’s earlier promises to Israel (“he [God] has created a wide expanse”) and she, herself, models a life informed by the Torah (vv. 9–12). Arguably, through her, Joshua 2 also offers a microcosm of YHWH’s own nature and modus operandi in the world.

Narrative Disjunction, Artful Occlusion, and Cryptic Commentary in Joshua 1–12

“…Scholars identify a correspondence between Rahab's name, which means "broad, wide," and the characterization of the Promised Land at the burning bush as ‫ורחבה‬ ‫טובה‬ ‫ארץ‬ (Exod 3:8), "a land good and wide" (Wazana 2019, p. 41;Kovlova 2020). The book leaves no doubt that her name is rhetorically loaded.…”

“…113-14;Pressler 1992, p. 56;Japhet 1993, p. 75;Hess 1994, p. 94;Hubbard 2001, pp. 16, 18;McEntire 2021, p. 28), the connotations of the name Rahab (Hawk 1991, p. 62;Frymer-Kensky 1997, p. 66;Sherwood 2006, p. 50;Robinson 2009, p. 264;Wazana 2019, p. 41;Davis 2019, p. 135;Kovlova 2020), the homonymic paronomasia of ‫תקוה‬ "hope, cord" in Josh 2: 18,21 (Hawk 1991, p. 70;Nelson 1997, p. 52;Younger 2003, p. 176;Sherwood 2006, p. 57;Robinson 2009, p. 270), and the polysemy of √ ‫,עבר‬ which assumes a prominent role in the narrative (Polzin 1980, pp. 100, 137-38;Hawk 2000, p. 82;Hess 1996, pp.…”