RUTH AND THE GOSPELS

 I thought that an interesting exercise might by to look for possible correspondences between these widely separated books in the Bible. Here are a few such parallels gleaned from the scholarly literature, although I am sure there are probably additional examples that have been mentioned before.

Ruth 1:1

Hubbbard notes that in the Bible famines were “often believed to be God's judgment [as in Mark 13:8]...though in this case the author was silent about the cause.” And, in fact, the end result of this particular famine was the birth of the Savior of the world.

Ruth 1:8

Ruth tells her daughters-in-law in this verse, “May the LORD deal mercifully toward you” just as Luke 1:72 talks about His “mercy promised to our ancestors.” Pao and Schnabel relate these two statements to one another.

Ruth 1:15-16

Campbell compares the difficult choice Ruth has to make in these verses to that required of Jesus' disciples (see Matthew 10:37-39; 19:29; Mark 10:29; Luke 14:26,33).

Ruth 2

Understanding the incident of Jesus and His disciples plucking grain to eat on the Sabbath depends partially on knowing about the law allowing the poor to glean from harvested fields (Lev. 19:9-1). This is also the key background needed to be able to make sense out of the events in the second chapter of Ruth.

Ruth 2:4

“The second part of the prayer [in 2 Thessalonians 3:16] involves a typical Jewish greeting: 'The Lord be with you' (Judg . 6:12; Ruth 2:4; Luke 1:28).” (Weima)

Ruth 2:12

Boaz says to Ruth in this verse, “May the LORD reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Pao and Schnabel add, “Rabbinic texts use the image of finding refuge under wings for proselytes who come under the wings of the Shekinah [i.e. the glory of God's presence].”

Blomberg relates this to a NT passage by saying, “The imagery of [Matt.] 23:37, in which Jesus longs to have gathered Jerusalem's children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, echoes the imagery of, for example, Deut. 32:11; Ps. 36:7; Ruth 2:12; Isa. 31:5...”

Ruth 2:14

Hubbard concludes that the drink in question “was either a refreshing sour drink or a vinegar-based sauce into which bread was customarily dipped.”

Discussing the meaning of the Hebrew term for the drink, Campbell says, “It is clear that homes is liquid or semi-liquid, and that it tastes good...In Ps. 69:22, however, it designates a drink a thirsty man would not want; the Gospel accounts of drink offered to Jesus on the cross (Mark 15:36; Matt 27:48...; and John 19:29-30) make take their rise from this psalm, but they manifest a discrepancy as to Jesus' attitude toward the offer. It is enough to assume that it was a refreshing sour drink.”

“Jesus' words to his disciples in [John] 6:12, 'Gather the leftover pieces, so that nothing may perish' echo those of the narrative in Ruth 2:4, 'She ate all she wanted and had some left over.' It was customary at Jewish meals to collect what was left over.” (Kostenerger)

Ruth 3

Blomberg: “More interesting than the men are the women in Jesus' genealogy [as related by Matthew in the first chapter of his Gospel account]. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba ('Uriah's wife' [1:6]) were Gentiles, but also women who were under suspicion, rightly or wrongly, of illicit sexual relations (see, respectively, Gen. 38; Josh. 2; Ruth 3; 2 Sam. 11). Mary was not a Gentile, but she did experience the stigma of a conception out of wedlock...”

Ruth 3:9

Leith notes, “The reference to God's protective wings...[in Ruth 2:12, see above] is echoed in 3.9 when Ruth asks Boaz to 'spread' his cloak (lit. 'wing') over her.”

Ruth 3:10

“The point was that Ruth acted neither from passion nor greed. Rather, sacrificially setting aside personal preferences, she chose a marriage of benefit to her family. She reckoned her own happiness as secondary to provision of an heir for her late husband and Naomi. Such a model of selfless concern for the needs of others recalls...[Jesus'] teaching that the 'greatest' in the kingdom is everybody's servant (Matt. 23:11; Luke 22:24-27; cf. John 13:12-17).” (Hubbard) In that regard, note the number of times in Ruth 2-3 various Hebrew words are employed for the word “servant, slave, bondservant, etc.”

Ruth 3:13

Seifrid says that the opening phrase of Romans 14:11 “pointedly appropriates the oath 'As the LORD (Yahweh) lives' (e.g., Judg. 8:19; Ruth 3:13; 1 Sam. 14:39; Jer. 4:2). In most contexts the Lord's self-binding oath introduces a warning of coming judgment, whereas in Isa. 49:18 it introduces the promise of Zion's salvation.” In the case of Ruth 3:13, both implications may actually be in mind.

Ruth 4:1

The Anchor Bible calls the relative-redeemer in this verse “so-and-so.” Campbell explains, “The Hebrew is peloni almoni, two rhyming nouns of similar but not identical formation without intervening conjunction ['and'].., to be found only in I Sam 21:3, II Kings 6:8, and here, along with the contracted form palmoni in Dan 8:13. The meaning has been determined partly from the contexts of these biblical passages, but more from the way certain versions (some LXX manuscripts: hodeina, 'such a one,' - cf. Matt 26:18...); from the persistence in the Talmud of the first element..; and from the Syriac and Arabic cognate...The effect is to indicate one who (for whatever reason) will not or cannot be named.”

Ruth 4:1-12

“In Matt 22, some Sadduces try to trick Jesus by asking him a hypothetical question relating to the levirate law of Deuteronomy 25:5. And, as Blomberg points out, “The most famous application of the levirate laws in later OT literature appears in the wonderful short story of Ruth. Boaz must make sure that a nearer kinsman of Ruth does not want to marry her, so that he can have the privilege (Ruth 4:1-12).”

This same NT narrative is found in parallel passages Matthew 22:23-33 and Mark 12:18-27.

Ruth 4:17

Campbell: “They [i.e. the townswomen] gave him the name Obed.” In this regard, Campbell refers to the example of “Luke 1:59, where Elizabeth's neighbors and kin appear to be involved with the proposal to name her child [i.e. John the Baptist] Zechariah, after his father, only to be deterred first by Elizabeth and then by Zechariah himself.”

Ruth 4:18-22

But perhaps the most interesting passage in Ruth for both Jews and Christians consists of these final words, which come as somewhat of a surprise for those who have never read the book of Ruth before. In these verses is revealed the fact that this simple pastoral tale is, in fact, extremely important for later generations in that King David was actually born from this union of Ruth and Boaz. Both Matthew 1:1-6 and Luke 3:25-38 contain this fact, but whereas Luke's genealogy only mentions Boaz, that of Matthew pointedly includes Ruth herself in the enumeration. And the slight differences in these two lists indicate that there may be, in fact, two different ways of tracing a direct lineage from Abraham to Jesus' (step-)father Joseph.”

Campbell discusses the vexing question of whether the offspring of Ruth and Boaz would properly be reckoned to either Boaz or to Ruth's deceased first husband. He answers: “Apparently to both” and notes “that levirate marriages always resulted in a sort of dual paternity. Something of the same conclusion is to be drawn from Genesis 38, where the twins born to Tamar are implicitly to be reckoned to her first husband Er, but in all the Judah genealogies, from Gen 46:12 to Matt 1:3, Perez and Zerah are reckoned to Judah.”