The purpose of this research is to examine meanings identified in the biblical book of Ruth. The plan of the research will be to summarize the narrative content of the story and to position it in the scheme of biblical history, and then to discuss the basis for its inclusion in the Judeo-Christian scriptural canon, as well as its theological significance and ways in which it exhibits evidence of God's work in human interaction, both in its original historical context and in its relevance to the modern period.
The book of Ruth as a stand-alone entity is dominated by the theme of disinterested compassion. Ruth, whose identity is alien to Israel, nevertheless undergoes hardship and loss in the service of an Israelite, and she is eventually rewarded for that. The book of Ruth is something of a success story and advertisement for virtue. Equally, this text is a kind of introduction to the pivotal story of King David. David is a central figure in Jewish history, one of the few biblical figures whose historicity can be confirmed by non-biblical records; David's birth is thought to have been roughly coeval with the origins of Roman settlement (Campbell 502). Ruth was his great-grandmother, and it is easy to see why the family provenance of the future king of the Jews, who would exercise dominion over non-Jewish peoples as well as Jews, would be so necessary to establish as a feature of textual authority.
The book of Ruth can also be characterized as a mechanism of connection between Jewish and Christian tradition. The text locates the house of David firmly in Israel, in the town of Bethlehem, associated with the birth of Christianity. This story of direct ancestors of Jesus points up the special quality that will later be associated with the New Testament messiah. Jesus, the descendant of Israel's great king (Matthew 1:5-6), is also the descendant of the great ethos of compassion that is valorized in Ruth. Ruth's loyalty, kindness, and g...