The prostitute of Jericho who hid Joshua's two spies and let them down by a scarlet cord from her window in the city wall, in exchange for the promise that she and her household would be spared when the city fell (Joshua 2; 6:22-25). ⚠ Matthew 1:5 sets her in the genealogy of the Messiah as the mother of Boaz — a Canaanite and a harlot in the line of David and of Christ, one of the four irregular women Matthew names on purpose. The New Testament makes her a heroine twice over: 'by faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish' (Hebrews 11:31), and 'was she not justified by works when she received the messengers?' (James 2:25) — cited by the letter that argues faith and works from opposite directions. The scarlet cord was read by early Christian writers as a figure of the blood that saves.