Obed, Son of Boaz, an Israelite: Should Ruth be Read through the Lens of Deuteronomy’s Laws about Moabites?
Ruth - Rhiannon Graybill
Jonathan Thambyrajah [+]
Broken Bay Institute, Australian Institute of Theological Education
Description
Many interpretations of the book of Ruth turn on questions of the ethnicity of Ruth. Implicit is the idea that the book of Ruth needs to be read through the lens of Deut 7:1–6 and 23:4–7, laws that regulate intermarriage and membership of the “assembly of Israel.” However, after these laws from Deuteronomy are rid of the intellectual baggage of the intermarriage crisis in Ezra and Nehemiah and the story of Solomon’s wives in 1 Kings 11, they do not apply to the situation described by the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is read more clearly without imposing the framework of these laws. Rather, identification of Obed as an Israelite is entirely what should be expected, despite Ruth’s Moabite ethnicity, according to the primordialist assumptions of the book of Ruth (in line with many other texts from the Hebrew Bible).