General Notes

Ruth, book of the Old Testament. Neither the author nor the precise date of composition is known. According to an ancient Jewish tradition, the author was the Hebrew judge Samuel. Although the book is descriptive of the period “when the judges ruled” (1:1), scholars have assigned the composition of the book to the monarchy (10th century to 8th century bc), to the postexilic era (5th century to 4th century bc), or to various dates between the two. Ruth follows the book of Judges in Christian versions of the Old Testament, but in the Hebrew Bible it is found in the third part of the canon, which is known as the Writings.

Ruth is an ancient Hebrew short story (based, perhaps, on an earlier folktale). The book tells of a family from the ancient town of Bethlehem in Judah that takes refuge in the country of Moab during a famine. While there, the sons of the Judean family marry Moabite women. When the father and the two sons die, Naomi, the bereaved mother, determines to return to her home in Bethlehem. She urges her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab with their own people, but one of them, Ruth, insists on returning with Naomi (1:16-17). In Bethlehem, Ruth's devotion and kindliness soon attract the attention of Naomi's near kinsman Boaz (2:1-4:12). Despite the fact that Ruth is a foreigner, Boaz, a Jew, marries her, and she becomes the great grandmother of King David, of whose family Jesus Christ was born. This is noted in the genealogy given at the beginning of Saint Matthew's Gospel.

The book of Ruth has been variously interpreted. It has been regarded as a literary protest against the restrictive marriage reforms instituted in the time of the postexilic Jewish leaders Ezra and Nehemiah; as pure entertainment; as an idyllic romance; as a retelling of an ancient fertility myth; and as an example of the ideal convert. As a story, it provides an entertaining account of the series of events that led up to the inclusion of a Moabite in the ancestry of King David. The emphasis on the fact that Ruth is a foreigner, her acceptance by the people of Bethlehem despite this fact, her place in the genealogy of King David, and the acceptance of the book as part of the Hebrew canon all suggest a deeper and more complex purpose than entertainment or protest.



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