What Does Hebrews 11:31 Mean in the King James?
By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The woman named “spacious” is distinguished by a trust that receives the spies into wholeness.
THE MEANING
This verse addresses you now: a stigmatized past does not fix your place among those who perish. Rahab’s trust takes visible form in welcome, she receives the spies in wholeness, while the others are marked by refusal to trust.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that a stigmatized past determines whether you can belong among the trusting.
THE ROOT
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
To persuade, convince, or trust; pistis is trust that leans its full weight.
“faith” in this verse is pistis. Pistis is trust that leans its full weight; the word rendered “believed not” comes from the same peithō family. The contrast is between trust and refusal to be persuaded, not merely between having a thought and lacking one.
ALSO GROWS
apeitheō: To refuse persuasion; to disobey or be unpersuaded.
ἀπειθέω
This is the word behind “them that believed not,” exposing the shared root beneath the verse’s contrast.
pisteuō: To trust or believe.
πιστεύω
This verb shows pistis as active reliance, the trust that Rahab embodies in how she receives the spies.
רָחָב
Rāḥāb
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To be broad, wide, or spacious.
Rahab’s Hebrew name carries the sense of spaciousness. The verse places that name beside her open welcome: she makes room for the messengers, and her defining act exceeds the narrow label “harlot.”
ALSO GROWS
merḥāb: A broad place or open space.
מֶרְחָב
This branch makes the root’s sense of spaciousness explicit, echoing the room Rahab gives the messengers.
reḥov: An open square or broad street.
רְחֹב
This word carries the same widening sense, joining Rahab’s name to the space created by her welcome.
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
εἰρην-
eirēn-
Peace, wholeness, and well-being.
Eirēnē carries peace as wholeness. In “received the spies with peace,” it gives her welcome the quality of wholeness and shows trust taking shape in how she receives people at risk.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: To live in peace or be at peace.
εἰρηνεύω
This verb extends the same peace-word family into a lived condition.
eirēnopoios: A peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
This branch names one who makes peace, illuminating how Rahab’s welcome creates a place of safety.
THE PATTERN
Trust takes visible form as welcome that makes room for the stranger.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:Use hospitality one to another without grudging.THE THREAD
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?The shared verb family is δέχομαι (dechomai, receive or welcome): Hebrews has δεξαμένη (dexamenē, having received), and James has ὑποδεξαμένη (hypodexamenē, having welcomed as a guest). James shows that welcome protecting the messengers and sending them another way, while Hebrews names the same receiving as the shape of Rahab’s trust.
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