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Rahab's Best Kept Secret RAHAB’S BEST KEPT SECRET: AN INQUIRY INTO THE MORAL JUSTIFICATION OF TELLING A LIE Matthew Parks Old Testament Survey I October 8, 2013 1 RAHAB’S BEST KEPT SECRET: AN INQUIRY INTO THE MORAL JUSTIFICATION OF TELLING A LIE “Where are the Jews?” “There aren’t any Jews here.” The man struck me hard across the face. “Where do you hide the ration cards?” “I don’t know what you’re—” Kapteyn hit me again. I staggered up against the astronomical clock. Before I could recover he slapped me again, then again, and again, stinging blows that jerked my head backward… I tasted blood in my mouth. My head spun, my ears rang—I was losing consciousness. “Lord Jesus,” I cried out, “protect me!”1 When the door busted open and an armed Gestapo soldier filed into the room, Dutch watchmaker, Corrie ten Boom, had prepared for this moment. Corrie, along with her family, were instrumental in illegally hiding Jews in their home during the Nazi occupation of Holland during World War II. She did not use brute force nor intellectual advantage. Her weapon of choice? A lie. When asked frankly where she was harboring Jews, she boldly told the Gestapo officer, “There aren’t any Jews here.”2 She knew full well that she was telling a lie in order to save lives. Was this an act of altruistic heroism or moral deficiency? Was she taking a morally responsible action on behalf of her fellow human beings or failing to trust a sovereign God who has the power to make blind eyes see and seeing eyes blind?3 Corrie ten Boom is not alone in this issue. It even dates back to the Old Testament times. Rahab, the prostitute, has also been questioned as to her lie told to the enemy in order to save the lives of two Israelite spies. Although both women have been regarded as heroines of the Christian faith, their stories beg the question: Can a lie be morally acceptable? The question of most importance is: Does the Bible condone lying in certain contexts? A biblical definition of a lie, a thorough examination of difficult biblical texts related to the lying, and a broad survey of ethical thought will reveal that the Bible never morally justifies telling a lie, even in the most desperate situations. 1 Corrie ten Boom, John Sherrill, and Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place (Washington Depot, CT: Chosen Books, 1971), 121. 2 Ibid. 3 John 9:39 (NIV 1984). Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture references will be the NIV 1984. 2 A Biblical Definition of a Lie Did Rahab indeed tell a lie? Lying and deception need to be distinguished. Deception is a broad category covering all intention to lead the hearer away from the truth. Lying is simply one category of deception.4 Sissela Bok in her classic work on the subject of lying defines a lie as “an intentionally deceptive message in the form of a statement.”5 This is consistent with Saint Augustine of Hippo’s view, who indicates that speech and intent to deceive is involved in telling a lie.6 For the sake of clarity in this study, Bok’s definition will be used. Her definition involves two vital elements: 1) words and 2) intent to lead the hearer away from the truth. This begs the question: What is truth? Now that we have an adequate definition of a lie, what is the meaning of its counterpart? The Biblical Concept of Truth So how exactly does the Bible define truth? The Hebrew word for truth and its cognates is ‘emet. One scholar says that ‘emet “denotes ‘faithfulness’ in the sense of fidelity and trustworthiness, honesty and moral rectitude. It implies absolute reliability and complete integrity.”7 Likewise, another scholar adds, “The root meaning of this group appears to connote ‘support’ or ‘stability,’ and it is not difficult to see how both ‘faithfulness’ and ‘truth’ would develop as the implications of this rootage.”8 Exodus 34:6 uses the same Hebrew word for truth as an attribute to describe God’s faithfulness and reliability. The very existence of lying testifies that there is indeed truth. If God is truth, then it would be contrary to His nature to utter a lie because lying is opposed to the truth.9 This is not solely an Old Testament idea. According to John 14:6 in the New Testament, truth is a person: Jesus Christ. To say that something is true does not merely mean that it conforms with fact but that it conforms to the very 4 Bok, Lying: Moral Choices in Public and Private Life (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1978), 13. 5 Bok, Lying, 13-14. 6 Augustine, “On Lying,”Moral Treatises, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 3, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1956), 459. 7 William D. Mounce, ed., Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 234. 8 Roger Nicole, Scripture and Truth, eds. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), 288. 9 Numbers 23:19 and 1 John 1:5. 3 character of God. Truth is rooted in the very nature of God, so to try to define truth and lying apart from the character of God is to have a false representation of both terms. In a world without God as Truth, there would be no moral stability and we would face the same situation as the Israelites did in Judges 21:25, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they say fit.” An Examination of Rahab’s Lie One issue of whether or not Rahab was justified in telling a lie comes down to a matter of semantics. Did she indeed lie? Since we have established that a lie is an intentionally false statement and that truth is rooted in the very character of God, let’s take a look at Joshua 2:1-6: 1Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. 2The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” 4But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6(But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them… According to Bok’s definition, Rahab lied. Her words were clearly intended to deceive the king’s messengers. She did not simply try to bend the facts; she blatantly made a false statement with full knowledge of the truth with the intent to mislead. When the king’s messengers came and asked her to bring out the spies, she acknowledged that they were there but had left. It can be argued that Rahab did not lie in verse 4 by saying “I did not know where they had come from,” because that information may not have been told to her by the spies. Now, Rahab “knew” many men, since she was a prostitute. However, it is possible that she did not know where they were from, but this is unlikely since she had hidden them and no doubt by divine providence.10 Also, in verse 9 she comes out and confesses to know who they are. She was not told by the king’s messengers beforehand that the men were spies from Israel, but that they were looking for some men who came to Rahab’s house. If verse 4 is not evidence enough that Rahab lied, the lie she tells in verse 5 cannot be refuted. She told the king’s messengers that the men 10 David M. Howard Jr., Joshua (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 100. 4 had left, knowing full well that they were in her house, and then proceeded to send the king’s messengers on a wild goose chase. Some scholars have disputed over the definition of a lie in ancient Israel. Woudstra, in a footnote to his commentary on the book of Joshua, relies on another commentator’s view in saying, “B. Holwerda argues that ‘truth’ in Israel is something different from ‘agreement with fact.’ It means ‘loyalty toward the neighbor and the Lord.’ Thus viewed, Rahab’s words need not be called a lie.”11 This is consistent with the Old Testament understanding of the ninth commandment in the Decalogue, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,”12 but it is incomplete. The focus of the ninth commandment is on the relationship with one’s neighbor.13 It stresses loyalty to one another. But neighbor is not restricted to just those of one’s own people group. Quite literally “neighbor” can mean the people next door, one’s closest friends, or even enemies.14 Even in the New Testament Jesus expands the meaning of “neighbor” to one’s enemy, as illustrated with the relationship between the Jew and the Samaritan in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.15 Furthermore, there are three issues with Woudstra and Holwerta’s definition.
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