Commentary on Joshua

Gregory of Elvira

"And Joshua the son of Nun," it says, "sent two spies from Shittim, saying to them 'Go up and survey the land and Jericho.' When they arrived in Jericho, the two young men entered the house of a prostitute by the name of Rahab and stayed there as guests." Pay attention to the structure of this mystery, most beloved brothers, and ask yourselves why men as great as these, for whom the Lord had performed such marvels and miracles, entered the house of a woman of ill repute, as if they were unable to lodge elsewhere. They did this not by chance, I believe, but intentionally by prophetic design. For I find this prostitute in many places, not only as a hostess of saints but also as their bride. The most holy prophet Hosea, for instance, was commanded by the Lord to accept a harlot as his wife: "For the Lord said to me, 'Take for your wife a prostitute and generate children of prostitution.' " Even our Lord and Savior himself, when he had sat down by the well in Samaria, conversed with an immoral woman to whom no one had previously spoken there. After he said to her, "You have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband," she believed that he was the Messiah, that is…

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• More works by Gregory of Elvira

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