Joshua 6:25

"The Lord" our Jesus "shall come," then, "and shall come at the voice of the trumpets." But even now let us pray that he may come and destroy this "world," which "is set in wickedness," and "all the things that are in the world," because "everything that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes." May he destroy those things, may he now, this very moment, dissolve them, but may he save this one alone, who received his spies, who received his Apostles in faith and obedience and set them in the upper rooms, and may he join and unite this harlot with the house of Israel. But let us now not bring up again nor reckon against her the old fault. Once she was a harlot, but now she is joined as "a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." Hear the Apostle saying of her: "for I have determined this very thing, to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." From her too was that very one who said: "for we also were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures." Do you wish to learn yet more fully how the harlot is now no longer a harlot? Hear Paul saying further: "and such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." For that she might be able to escape, lest she perish with Jericho, she received from the spies a most powerful "sign" of salvation, the "scarlet cord." For through the blood of Christ this whole Church is saved, in Christ himself our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen!"

But let us now see the things that follow. Jericho having been overturned, Rahab the harlot alone is saved. For thus it is written of her: "and Rahab the harlot and all the house of her father, Jesus made alive; and she was joined to Israel unto this present day." I would like to inquire of the Jews, and of those who are indeed called Christians but still keep a Jewish sense in the Scriptures, how they explain that "Rahab the harlot was joined to the house of Israel unto this present day." How is Rahab said to be "joined unto this present day"? For it is the custom of holy Scripture to say this of those things which remain unto the end either of life or of the age. For example, as it says: "this is the father of the Moabites unto this present day," which signifies unto the end of the age. And again in the Gospel it is said that "this saying was spread abroad among the Jews unto this present day," that is, as long as the age stands. But how is Rahab, a woman, said to be "joined to the house of Israel unto this present day"? Is a succession of posterity ascribed to a mother, so that she may seem to be preserved in the renewal of offspring? Or is it rather to be understood that she "has been joined" and made a companion to the true Israel "unto this present day"? And if you wish to see more plainly how "Rahab is joined to Israel," look at how "the branch of the wild olive is grafted into the root of the good olive tree," and you will understand how those who have been grafted into the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are rightly said to be "set beside" and "joined to Israel unto this present day," because in their "root" we, "the branches of the wild olive" taken from among the nations — we who once played the harlot, worshiping "wood and stone" in place of the true God — "have been set beside them unto this present day," and, on account of faith in Christ, we have been made "above," while that people which has remained unbelieving has been made "below," according to the prophecy of Deuteronomy. If anyone, then, has within himself Christ, who is "the head of all," this one is made "into the head"; for they denied Christ Jesus and were made into the tail, and those who were "first" have been made "last."