Guide to Ruth

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The Book of Ruth is short. Really, really short. It only has 4 chapters, which means that it fits on two pages in a full-sized Bible. It reads like a short story, and therefore carries a lot less of the "preachy" stuff common to many parts of the Bible.

Ruth tells the story of (surprise!) a lady named Ruth. Ruth gets married to Boaz, who begat Obed, who begat Jesse, who begat David, who was the ancestor of Joseph, who "begat" (gasp) Jesus!

1 Textual history
2 Synopsis
3 Quotes
4 Use as Megillot Scroll
5 Non-traditional interpretation

[edit] Textual history

Ruth was written during the time of the Judges, likely just after David becomes king. Ruth is one of only a few times in the Bible that a female is the central character. More importantly, the women in the Book of Ruth kick ass. Not as much as Rebeka, perhaps, but they are strong women never the less.

[edit] Synopsis

Ruth is the story of companionship and duty through both marriage and friendships. Naomi is the Mother-in-law of Ruth and Orpah. When her sons die, Naomi tells her daughter in laws to go home. Ruth refuses, claiming her love and duty shall keep her by Naomi's side forever. The two leave together to return to Naomi's homeland, where Ruth is told to marry Boaz, to provide a Heir for Naomi.

The book of Ruth reads like a charming short "novella" something along the lines of the book of Jonah. Those two books even share the plot device of non-Jews demonstrating faithfulness. Ruth remains with Naomi. The Ninevites repent of their abominations. But the Jews definitely considered the book of Ruth to be historical. They included it in the prophetic histories section of the bible immediately following the Torah, from Joshua to 2 Kings, while Jonah was put in with the minor prophets. Isaac Asimov gives the authorship of the book of Ruth a late date, placing it after the return from exile as a matter of fact.

One piece of evidence for a late date is that the author, when describing the beginning of Naomi's journey, says, "Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was" and does not specify an exact town in Moab. A novelist would have just thrown a dart at a map of Moab and used the name that came up. A contemporary of Naomi would have known the name of the town. But a historian of a period much later would have not used a name of her town if he did not know it.

But the key piece of evidence used by Asimov is encoded in the message of the book itself. Ruth was a Moabitess who became Jewish by conversion. The Moabites were sometimes the enemies of the Jews, and they were definitely treated as second-class citizens. The Law of Moses permitted them to glean from the fields after the harvest, which is what Ruth did to support her mother-in-law Naomi. During the course of the story Boaz becomes impressed by the faithfulness of Ruth, falls in love with her, and actually marries her. This goes absolutely counter to the prevailing ethos in the aftermath of the exile, when the Jewish leaders were trying to encourage "pure" marriages to prevent the demographic annihilation of their people. The author of Ruth, then, was a "liberal" who wrote a beautiful and compelling editorial piece speaking out against racism and ethnic supremacy. He (or she) ends the "article" by highlighting that Ruth was genetically (if not legally) the great-grandmother of King David...and thus also the ancestor legally (if not genetically) of Jesus the Christ.

[edit] Quotes

One of the most common quotes used during marriage ceremonies is said by Ruth to Naomi:

"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

[edit] Use as Megillot Scroll

The 5 Megillot, sometimes translated in English as "Festival Scrolls" are works from the Ketuvim (Writings) which correspond to 5 different times of the year when they are read. Ruth is read on the morning of Shavous, commemorating the gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses.

[edit] Non-traditional interpretation

In the last 20-30 years, Christian Gay Rights groups have turned to Ruth as a biblical example of what was, if not actual homosexuality, then at least same-sex love. They argue that since nothing obligated Ruth to go with Naomi, and in fact she was going against her elder's wishes, the only thing keeping her there was her love for Naomi. While little in the Book of Ruth would actually support that the women were gay, the book opens a dialogue for what gay relationships mean at their core: That it is about love of another and not about the sexual acts.

Guide to the Bible