The author gave the reader a snapshot perspective—one family, in a small town, at the threshing floor—as opposed to the broader narratives found in Judges. Naomi has been compared to a female Job. She lost everything: home, husband, and sons—and even more than Job did—her livelihood.
She cried out in her grief and neglected to see the gift that God placed in her path—Ruth. Ruth herself embodied loyal love. Her moving vow of loyalty Ruth —17 , though obviously not marital in nature, is often included in modern wedding ceremonies to communicate the depths of devotion to which the new couples aspire. Obedience in everyday life pleases God.
When we reflect His character through our interactions with others, we bring glory to Him. The book of Ruth showed the Israelites the blessings that obedience could bring. More to the point, none of them seems to be able to restore the family by producing an heir. The ancient world had no mechanism for religious conversion or change of citizenship; the very notion was unthinkable. A Moabite was always a Moabite, wherever he or she lived. She is joining herself to Naomi not only on the private family level, but also on the national peoplehood level.
In this coming together of family and peoplehood, we are again reminded of the stories of the patriarchs, in which the family represents the people. In the patriarchal stories the main concern was the establishment of the family line—the quest for an heir whom God will designate as the one through whom the people of Israel will be born. The amazing thing about these accounts is that, although lineage is defined through the males, it is the women who take responsibility for the continuity of the family and the guardianship of its lineage.
It is the women, often despite their husbands, who ensure the birth of the next generation and who direct the proper line of inheritance. Leah, during a hiatus in her childbearing, does the same by giving her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as a concubine. In all, Leah and Rachel provide Jacob with 12 sons and one daughter , who will in turn father the 12 tribes—the people of Israel. The story of Tamar and Judah is also a story of family continuity achieved by the determination of a woman.
Tamar bears twins, Perez and Zerah, after she masquerades as a prostitute to seduce her father-in-law, Judah, who had failed to fulfill his promise to give her his youngest son Shelah as a husband after his two older sons had died while married to her Genesis The references in the Book of Ruth to Rachel, Leah and Tamar serve not only to welcome Ruth into the Judahite community by linking her with the mothers of that community, they especially lead us to view Ruth in the mold of the heroic women who ensured the preservation of the people of Israel.
Thanks to Ruth, the family of Naomi strangely, the text does not put it in terms of Elimelech or Mahlon survives. An heir implies an inheritance, and in the Bible that means land. At the end of the Book of Ruth, the themes of land and family come together. The story comes full circle: The family that left its land and had no descendants returns to its homeland and acquires an heir and a patrimony.
This would be uplifting even on the level of an individual family; but like the patriarchal stories, the Book of Ruth speaks to the national level as well. This is no anonymous family that is restored—this is the family into which King David will be born. One genealogy begins with Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth, and culminates three generations later in David; the second goes back to Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar , then leads to Salmon, father of Boaz, and after ten generations also culminates in David.
David represents both the United Monarchy at its height and the promise of its eternal existence. The story of Ruth provides for David the same pattern that produced the patriarchal line and the line of Judah—namely, the perpetuation of the family through the deeds of women—and it thereby joins the covenant with David to the covenant with Abraham. The promise to Abraham of progeny and land is renewed in the promise to David of the dynasty and the kingdom.
The theme of family continuity becomes the theme of national continuity. The Book of Ruth is the bridge between the era of Israel as family or tribe and Israel as nation. Far from being peripheral to the main narrative sequence of the Bible, Ruth dramatizes its principal theme: the continuity of this people in their land. Adele Berlin was the Robert H. A groundbreaking literary critic, her book Poetics and Interpretation in Biblical Narrative is a seminal text.
She is one of the few women to serve as the President of the Society of Biblical Literature. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
What is the full meaning of Ruth? The name Ruth is a Hebrew Baby Names baby name. Who is the author of Ruth in the Bible? How is Ruth related to Jesus? The two of them travel to Bethlehem together, where Ruth wins the love of Boaz through her kindness.
She is one of five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew, alongside Tamar, Rahab, the "wife of Uriah" Bathsheba , and Mary. What is the story of Ruth about? As a child, Ruth Elana Eden is sold to a group of pagans and reared to be a priestess to their gods and idols.
But, as an adult, she meets the Hebrew Mahlon Tom Tryon , and is intrigued by his morality and monotheism. She eventually falls in love with him and adopts his faith. However, the couple soon find themselves persecuted -- Mahlon is imprisoned and Ruth is cast into the wilderness. After Ruth's attempt to free Mahlon goes horribly wrong, she redoubles her commitment to God.
Why did Boaz marry Ruth and not Naomi? You ask why the author left the timeline vague and when the story really happened? I think there is a possibility that the author himself didn't know when the story happened, so he left it at that "In the days when the judges ruled. Bach Sounds suspiciously like the beginning of an answer My original assumption was that based on the vague timeline, it is unfaithful to the original writer and intended audience who left it vague for whatever purpose to try to determine a more exact timeline, although I'm not sure I still feel that way.
Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Ken Banks Ken Banks 1, 3 3 silver badges 15 15 bronze badges. Source: here Another source has determined that Boaz was about 50 years old when he met Ruth. Conclusion The events in the book of Ruth happened around BC, nearly two decades after the death of Joshua when Boaz was about 40 to 50 years old and five decades after Israel fought against Moab before entering the promised land. Source: here If we allow the variances for human error, and for gaps in the details the Holy Spirit did not provide, we can still pin point the time period between the judges of Othniel and Ehud.
Community Bot 1. Gina Gina 7, 2 2 gold badges 11 11 silver badges 31 31 bronze badges. Nat Geo article speaks of the Great Drought that ended the Bronze age. Ancient pollen analysis places this about years ago, or BC. It lasted fifty years. So if it was - BC, then Ruth might come near the end of this drought. Hmmm - interesting.
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