Ruth (Apollos Old Testament Commentary | AOTC)
Overview
On the surface, the book of Ruth tells the tale of an unlikely marriage between a destitute Moabite widow and an upstanding citizen of a Judean village. The deeper import of the story, however, has to do with the internal boundaries that define the people of God. Is Israel a closed community, held together exclusively by bonds of kinship, or a nation that welcomes faithful outsiders into its sphere of belonging? Ruth appropriates marriage as the symbolic vehicle of a transformation in Israel’s self-understanding from a community articulated by Naomi’s declaration that her daughters-in-law marry within their own people, to the acclamations by the people of Bethlehem that endorse Boaz’s marriage to a Moabite. L. Daniel Hawk undertakes a detailed narrative analysis of Ruth that goes beyond the description of its content and stylistic features to illumine its deep structure and use of metaphor. Informed by contemporary studies on ethnicity, he discovers a work of remarkable sophistication that employs a story of intermarriage to address opposing ideas of Israelite identity. Hawk’s meticulous attention to patterned structures, stylistic devices and characterization reveals the strategy by which the narrator constructs a vision of Israel that looks beyond rigid internal boundaries to the welcome of faithful foreigners as agents of blessing.
Top Highlights
“The book of Ruth plays directly off these sentiments and turns them on their heads. In Ruth the reader encounters a Moabite who joins the Israelite community and devotes herself to Israel’s God. She personifies the faithfulness (ḥesed) that defines the heart of ideal Israel. She marries an upstanding Judean male and becomes the great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king. Although she is ‘Ruth the Moabite’ throughout the narrative, the final mention of her name does not include the ethnic signifier. In the end she is only ‘Ruth’ (4:13), fully identified with the covenant community (Glover 2009: 294, 302–303).” (Page 23)
“The form of Ruth—a migration narrative with a genealogical attachment—evokes associations with the ancestral narratives of Israel’s patriarchs. As an ancestral narrative, Ruth provides the backstory of the Davidic monarchy, corresponding to the roles that the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob play with respect to the formation of Israel as a covenant people. Ruth looks forward to the establishment of monarchical Israel and Yahweh’s promise to David, much like the patriarchal narratives look to the establishment of tribal Israel in its land.” (Page 19)
“In the process the main characters undergo their own transformations in identity. Ruth the Moabite woman enters Israelite space and becomes the mother of Israel’s dynastic monarch. Boaz, the upstanding Israelite male who occupies Israelite space, breaks the Deuteronomic commandment, acquires a Moabite wife and fathers a son of mixed heritage. Naomi, an Israelite woman who has lived in Moabite territory, re-enters Israelite space and re-enters the community.” (Page 26)
- Title: Ruth
- Author: L. Daniel Hawk
- Series: Apollos Old Testament Commentary
- Volume: 7B
- Publishers: Apollos, IVP
- Print Publication Date: 2015
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible. O.T. Ruth › Commentaries
- ISBNs: 9780830825257, 9781783593071, 9780830893775, 0830825258, 1783593075, 0830893776
- Resource ID: LLS:AOT08RU
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-01-20T00:49:56Z
Dr. L. Daniel Hawk (PhD, Emory University; MDiv, Asbury Theological Seminary) is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. Much of his writing focuses on the literary analysis of biblical narratives, with attention to the ways that narrative texts construct corporate identities and grapple with the problem of human and divine violence. These concerns converge in several books on the book of Joshua, including Joshua (Berit Olam, Liturgical Press, 2000) and Joshua in 3-D (Cascade, 2010), as well as in his collaboration on Postcolonial Evangelical Conversations (InterVarsity, 2014). His scholarship finds traction through an active speaking schedule and participation in justice and reconciliation initiatives.