What is in a Name?: Rahab, the Canaanite, and the Rhetoric of Liberation in the Hebrew Bible
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, "...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2020
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| In: |
Open theology
Year: 2020, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Pages: 572-586 |
| Further subjects: | B
Conquest
B Promised Land B Rahab B Torah B midrashic derivations of names B Joshua |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 2300-6579 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Open theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/opth-2020-0106 |