101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

242 101 Myths of the Bible
Since Jericho didn’t exist in the time of Joshua, the story of Rahab can’t be true. The
parallel story in Judges about the spies at Beth-el suggests the existence of an old legend
that was adopted by separate Hebrew scribes at different times and represented
different points of view about Israel’s history. In all likelihood, Rahab was a city or village
rather than an actual person, and the description of her as a prostitute probably
represents some historical event in that city’s past where it may have betrayed an ally,
as Rahab did in the story of Jericho. In later scripture, the name Rahab seems to have
had an ancient connotation as an evil force. Psalms 87:4 refers to Egypt as Rahab in a
negative context and Isaiah 51:9 tells us that God destroyed a monster dragon
named Rahab.