Ruth... the Moabitess!

  

Well... now we enjoy Ruth. (and note, though it is four chapters long, we will read all of it for today... it's a quick read, fear not!)  Ruth was my favorite of the post-exilic texts to study in seminary. That's right-- post-exilic. It is set in the time of the Judges, which is also why it is located where it is in our Bibles. But for all sorts of linguistic reasons ("aramaisms" that are way too late to be from the time of Judges) and societal-cultural reasons, most scholars place Ruth's authorship in the post-exilic era. 

 

So... looking ahead to Post-Exilic Israel... Ruth is, in essence, a counter-argument to the Deuteronomistic Historians who, also writing and editing after the Exile, cast their stories in the theme of, "You were unfaithful to God and worshipped foreign gods and even married foreign women... and that's why the destruction and exile happened..."  Ruth is also very pointedly speaking out against the policies we will read about in Ezra and Nehemiah, in which Israelite men who had married foreign women had to divorce their wives and abandon their families...

 

Enter Ruth...the Moabitess... a foreign woman who proves to be incredibly faithful, valiant, brave, resourceful... The refrain, "Ruth, the Moabitess" happens so many times in the telling of this story, that it reads like a call and response narrative that may be echoing its earlier life in the oral tradition...every time the story teller says, "Ruth...." the crowd answers, "the Moabitess!" 

 

And Ruth the Moabitess is something! I hope you enjoy this story. It's a gem. A delightful biblical morsel along the way (and a great big relief after Judges!). And it has a wonderful punch line--enjoy finding out about Ruth's most famous grandson (or second-famous, if you count his great-great-grandson....Take that, Ezra and Nehemiah!) 

 

Oh, and a little Hebrew idiomatic note... "feet" as used in Ruth are a euphemism for a more likely body part that makes this story a whole lot racier. She wrote. Euphemistically.

 

Thank you, as ever, for being on this journey.

 

Paige+

 

 

 


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the Rev. Paige Blair

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