Ruth

• Introductory Matters
• • Date
  • • Set in period of judges (1:1)
    • Many scholars believe story was written after Babylonian exile
    • • Reasons for
      • • Language of book has a number of Aramaisms
        • Custom of removing sandal in a business transaction is explained (4:7) - apparently the explanation was necessary for a later generation that would not have understood the custom
        • Openness toward foreigners seems to be a critique or reaction to the approach of Ezra and Nehemiah
      • Author may have written in 5^th century B.C.E. but used older materials
  • Literary form - novella like the Book of Esther
  • Synagogue usage
  • • Festival scroll for Feast of Weeks (later called Pentecost)
    • Probably used in conjunction with this feast because book is concerned with harvest, from failed harvests to abundant harvests
• Meaning of the Book
• • Meaning of the names (to some the symbolic names indicate an invented story)
  • • Two sons Mahlon ("sickness") and Chilion ("consumption") die young in Moab away from the Promised Land
    • Naomi ("peaceful") renames herself Mara ("bitterness") after loss of her husband and two sons
    • Naomi's daughter-in-law Orpah ("disloyal") remains in Moab rather than returning to Israel with Naomi, but Naomi's other daughter-in-law Ruth ("compassion") leaves Moab to accompany Naomi
    • Boaz ("in him is strength or quickness") rescues the two widows Naomi and Ruth from difficulty by marrying Ruth
  • Major teaching - "God is present in emptiness and fullness"
  • • Movement of the story
    • • Story begins with emptiness (e.g., famine in Israel, death of a husband and two sons in a foreign land)
      • Story then moves to the fullness of a good land with plenty of food and a renewed family
    • God's involvement
    • • In emptiness, God is present (1:20-21) and leading those who are faithful (2:12,20; 3:10; 4:11-12)
      • In fullness, God is also present and praised by the faithful (4:14)
  • Subsidiary teachings
  • • David is the eventual product of the marriage of a Jew with a foreigner (he is Boaz and Ruth's great grandson)
    • • Apparently God does not want all mixed marriages broken up (contra Ezra and Nehemiah)
      • Matthew emphasizes this mixed marriage in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:5) - Jesus had come for all
    • Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz all emerge as good people who are more concerned about the welfare of others than their own welfare - they are models of living the faithful religious life - 1:16-17 is particularly a beautiful statement of faithfulness

Artwork from the Bible Picture Library of Line Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97