That Rahab bore the figure of the Catholic Church, nearly all the ancients teach: Origen hom. 3; St. Cyprian bk. On the Unity of the Church ch. 5; Procopius on this place; Theodoret quaest. 1 (as a little before, [in] quest. 1, we were hearing), and on Heb. 11; St. Chrysostom hom. 5 On penitence; Rupert bk. 1 on Joshua ch. 12; St. Augustine on Ps. 86; Theophylact on Matth. ch. 1. About six reasons are brought forward.
The first, because “Rahab” signifies breadth [latitudo] (part 2, quest.). “What, then,” says Origen, “is breadth, but this Church of Christ, which says [in] Is. 49 v. 20: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room [breadth] for me, that I may dwell’?” And a little later he compares her with Japheth. Let the fourth mark of the true Church be looked at, in Bellarmine bk. 4 On the Church ch. 7.
The second reason is [that] Rahab was a Gentile and a harlot. For the Church is gathered in great part from heathen idolaters and sinners, as, in the same place, Origen says. “Nor indeed,” says Theodoret, “let anyone think Rahab an unworthy figure of the Church; but let him hear the Apostle saying, to Titus 3: ‘We were once, we too, foolish, unbelieving, erring, serving diverse desires and pleasures, acting in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.’ And again: ‘But then, as ignorant of God, you served those who are not gods.’ And [in] 1 Cor. 6: ‘You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord.’ And in another place: ‘Do not err: neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor idolaters, nor the avaricious, nor thieves, nor the evil-tongued, nor drunkards, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.’ Then he subjoins: ‘And these you were once; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, and in the Spirit of our God.’” And this Origen inculcates not only in the cited hom. 3, but also [in] 1 and 7. And rightly, in the cited place, Theophylact adds: [that] as Rahab received the spies of that Jesus, so the Church of the Gentiles received the Apostles of JESUS CHRIST our Lord.
The third reason is the excellence of faith, of benignity, and of the other virtues which are in the whole Church — about which [in] the preceding quest.
The fourth: [that] those whom she once received into her house she protects, guards, [and] frees from the hands of the enemy with all zeal; she covers [them] under the flax, calls [them] up to the upper [parts] of her house, [and] urges [them] to proceed to the mountains. For “the [ones] whom the Church has received,” says Origen hom. 3, “she establishes, in high and lofty [places], by the sacraments of the faith. For no one who is sent by JESUS is found below, and lying on the ground, but remains in the higher [places].” And again a little later: “She gives them counsel,” he says, “mystical and heavenly, having nothing earthly: ‘Go,’ she says, ‘through the mountains. Do not walk through the valleys; flee the low and abject [things]; preach the [things] which are lofty and sublime.’” [So] Joshua.
(col. 386)
The fifth reason. She receives the symbol of the safety of herself and of all her own — the scarlet cord — and embraces it most eagerly, at once displays [it], at once marks her house with it and distinguishes [it] from all others. And what is this, but the purple blood of JESUS, the bloody body, the scarlet cloak, the gory cross? “She knew,” says the same Origen there, “that there was safety for no one except in the blood of Christ.” And Rupert: “That sign, that scarlet cord to be tied in the window, is the title of the Lord’s Passion, to be continually painted between the eyes of the Church; the scarlet cord, I say, is the bloody seal of the cross, to be continually painted on her forehead. For what other sign does the well-provident Church demand for herself?” St. Augustine, on Ps. 86: “The harlot who received the messengers and cast [them] out by another way, who presumed upon the promise, who feared God — [of whom] it was said that she should send the scarlet [cord] through the window: that is, that she should have on [her] forehead the sign of the blood of Christ.” Martín de Roa may be consulted, bk. 1 ch. 3. The blood of the lamb on the lintels of the Israelites warded off the Angel striking the Egyptians; and the bloody cord in the window of the Canaanite woman’s house warded off ruin, in the horrible destruction of the whole city. A happy token, which, set before the eyes, turns away the mass of evils, brings safety, [and] preserves those who put [their] hope in it! A wondrous cord, which — [by] the material of which it is [made] — signifies the most pure and most chaste body of our JESUS; which, by the weaving-together of many threads now, shows not only the most apt connection of two natures between themselves, but even the woven texture of all the heavenly graces [charismata]; which, by its hanging-down from a higher place, proclaims [Christ’s] origin and coming, drawn from the summit of the heavens; which, by [its] profuse colour, represents the blood [poured out] for the safety of the whole world; which, by [its] strength and the firmness of [its] knitting, demonstrates the force of the cross — the power, I say, of God and the wisdom — because “that which is the weak [thing] of God is stronger than men,” 1 Cor. 1 v. 25. Herodotus relates, bk. 1, [that] whole cities were once wont to bind themselves with cords to the shrines of the gods whom they worshipped. Did not Rahab, then, by this so wondrous cord, bind herself utterly to the true God of the Israelites?
The sixth reason: [that] those whom Rahab held in the embrace of her house — though the ramparts fall on every side — she has [as] safe and secure; but [those] who are outside, even if they but carry a foot from there, perish by sword and flame, without any mercy, all most wretchedly. This Theodoret whispered to us [in] quest. 1; but with a plainer and greater voice others acclaim the same, and Origen indeed hom. 3, thus: “If anyone, therefore, wishes to be saved, let him come into this house of her who was once a harlot. Even if anyone of that [former] people wishes to be saved, let him come to this house, that he may be able to obtain safety. Let him come to this house, in which is the blood of Christ in the sign of redemption. For among those who said ‘His blood [be] upon our sons,’ the blood of Christ is unto condemnation. For Jesus had been set for the ruin and resurrection of many; and therefore, to [those] contradicting his sign, his blood is made unto punishment, [but] to [those] believing, unto safety. Let no one, therefore, persuade himself, let no one deceive himself: outside this house — that is, outside the Church — no one is saved.” St. Cyprian, in the cited place: “Do you think you can stand and live, withdrawing from the Church? — building for yourself other and diverse dwellings? — when it was said to Rahab (in whom the Church was pre-figured): ‘Your father and your mother, and your brothers, and the whole house of your father, you shall gather to your-[self]’—”
(col. 387)
—[you shall gather] to yourself into your house; and every one who shall go out the door of your house abroad shall be guilty to himself.” Rupert: “Whoever shall have gone out the door of your house — whoever shall have cut himself off from the unity of the faith, and made heresies and schisms — his blood shall be upon his [own] head, and we shall be free [alieni].” But the same argument St. Augustine pursues at greater length, bk. 21 On the City [of God] ch. 21, bk. On the Unity of the Church ch. 4 & 16, [and in] the former book against Franciscus Puccius the Florentine ch. 11. Unworthy of relating, moreover, [are the things] which the impure Gnostics said about this scarlet [cord], in St. Epiphanius heres. 26. Better — though in a bad cause — the Donatists said [that] those were to be honoured, for the merit of their martyrdom, who had not handed over the scriptures to the persecutors, after the example of that woman who was unwilling to hand over to the persecutors the two spies in Jericho (in whom would be figured the two testaments, Old and New) — as [one] may read in St. Augustine, in the Breviary [record] of the Conference with the Donatists, conference of the third day, ch. 13.