The Scarlet Cord

by Frank G. Slaughter

Rahab was to know both degradation as a slave whom any man could possess...and great heights of power as consort to a prince. And at Jericho, when the walls tumbled down at Joshua's command, Rahab was to win eternal glory as the woman who helped the army of the Lord reach the Promised Land.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1956

About the author

Frank Gill Slaughter , pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C.V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies.

Slaughter was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Stephen Lucious Slaughter and Sarah "Sallie" Nicholson Gill. When he was about five years old, his family moved to a farm near Berea, North Carolina, which is west of Oxford, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College (now Duke University) at 17 and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He began writing fiction in 1935 while a physician at Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

Books by Slaughter include The Purple Quest, Surgeon, U.S.A., Epidemic! , Tomorrow's Miracle and The Scarlet Cord. Slaughter died May 17, 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frank G Slaughter, was a bestselling American novelist and physician whose bestselling novels sold more than 60 million copies.

He often drew on his experiences as a physician, in this novel one of the main heros is Salmon, the physician, and chief male protagonist.

This novel adapts the story of Rahab, the woman of Jericho, the harlot who helped the Israelite spies in Jericho, and was spared with her family, during the Israelite conquest.

According to Slaughter's fairly loose adaptaion, Rahab meets Joshuah and Salmon during the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, and is betrothed to Joshuah, but is attacked and sold into slavery hometown of Medeba.
She is sold in Egypt as a concubine to Hazor, Prince of Jericho, and journeys there with him as his consort. She gives birth to a son, Jaschar, who we learn is by Joshuah.
Hazor is assasinated and his enemies sieze power. Rahab is forced into harlotry by the evil Egyptian Captian Kanofer.
From there she is reunited with Salmon, who has always loved her, but hated as a harlot by Joshuah.
She helps the spies and is rescued by the Israelites but spurned by Joshuah, she eventually marries Salmon, and moves to Chinnereth
with him, after her son dies in a the war against Ai.
I liked the interpretation that Rahab was part of the Hebrew tribes that stayed in Canaan while their brethren went down to Egypt, but am not happy with much of the rest.
Joshuah is unjustly villified and presented as cruel, egotistical and smallminded, and not the great prophet and leader of men that he was.
In fact according to Midrashic and Talmudic documentation Johuah in fact married Rahab, and they were ancestors of several great prophets.
The idea of Rahab marrying Salmon is part of New Testament hagiography.
Very little is depicted of Israelite society, and much more of Egypt and Jericho.
I do not like the depiction of her having known Joshuah before the Israelite conquest of Jericho, or of having been Prince Hazor's consort.
But this is all part of Slaughter's poetic licence.
Neverthless the book is richly written and imaginativly descriptive of ancient life in Canaan and Egypt.

[Philippe Jonquet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like his view of the story

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the Biblical account of Rahab.