HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE
BIBLE STUDY
13
Is the book of Ruth really a story about lesbian
love? Homophobic ministers throughout the land cry out a resounding "NO!” Yet,
these same ministers, in the midst of the next wedding at which they preside,
will just as likely share these words of scripture with the loving couple, as an
example of faithful commitment: "Don’t make me leave you or forbid me to
follow you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your
people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and
there will I be buried. May God do so to me and more also, if even death
separates me from you." (Ruth 1:16-17).
These words from the book of Ruth were uttered by one woman to another.
Let me be quick to point out that there is no evidence of a sexual relationship between the women in the text. The text doesn’t address the subject at all. I realize this is very confusing to those homophobes who believe that the "cure" [sic] for homosexuality is to refrain from homosexual sexual activity. I once had a minister tell me that one cannot be a homosexual if one doesn’t engage in homosexual behavior. Not true! One's sexual orientation determines the direction in which our romantic feelings develop, and with whom we would bond and nest, and sexual activity may or may not have a part in that bonding. Heterosexuals are drawn to bond romantically with those of the opposite gender, while homosexuals are drawn to bond romantically with their own gender.
There have been untold numbers of homosexuals throughout the ages who subverted their own needs and desires to try to conform to what they were taught were societal or biblical strictures. They married or not, living lives of quiet desperation, spiritually and emotionally starved. The fact that they either led celibate lives, or lived in heterosexual marriages, did not and does not negate their homosexual orientations. Whether or not Ruth and Naomi had a sexual relationship is not the point. It is the evidence of their love and devotion towards one another that is the point.
The Daily Study Bible Series’ Ruth’s author, A. Graeme Auld offers an interesting observation:
Ruth has been read in many different ways. This is partly because readers and students over the ages have brought their own very different attitudes and questions to the reading of the book. Another part of the reason is the very craft of the storyteller. Part of the skill shown in telling the tale consists in letting it address different readers in different situations…part of the humor and excitement of (this) good story may result from the unaccustomed and out-of-the-ordinary way its characters behave.
With the above observation in mind, we again ask the question: is the book of Ruth really a story about lesbian love? Let us examine the story and see what it has to teach us. As the story unfolds, during a famine in Israel, a man named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and their two sons to Moab hoping to find a better life. Soon he died. The sons married Moabites, Orpah and Ruth. Within ten years both the sons die also.
In this patriarchal culture, women couldn’t make it on their own. Unless they were forced into prostitution to survive, widows looked to kinfolk to support and take care of them, so Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem, and tells her daughters-in-law also to return to their mothers’ houses. They begin to protest, but Naomi insists, pointing out that she is too old to produce more sons for them to marry. Orpah relents, kisses Naomi goodbye and returns to her family. Ruth on the other hand, utters those beautiful words of love, shown above:
"Don’t make me leave you or forbid me to follow you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May God do so to me and more also, if even death separates me from you." (Ruth 1:16-17)
Note the reading of the phrase, if even death separates me from you. The wording of the phrase in the KJV reads: if aught but death part thee and me, while the NIV renders it: if anything but death separates you and me. The New Oxford Annotated Bible NRSV reads: if even death parts me from you. While some translations indicate that these are merely alternate readings, the implications of one over the other are significant. Ruth determines not only to follow Naomi "to the ends of the earth," but even further. She will move to a strange land where she will be a foreigner, where foreigners were often rejected and treated as outcasts. She renounces her gods and chooses to align herself with Naomi’s God.
When we read of the death of someone in the scripture, that person is usually said to be "gathered to their forebears.” Ruth will have none of this. Given the choice of being reunited with her natal family, with her husband, or with Naomi, she chooses Naomi. Even in death she will be with Naomi. Her commitment to Naomi is everlasting.
The Daily Study Bible Series reports:
"…the climax of Ruth’s protestation comes not with her taking Naomi’s God to be her God–that seems to follow naturally after taking Naomi’s people as her people–but with her declaration that this is forever. Ruth’s words go beyond the familiar ("'till death do you part") of the marriage service. She and Naomi will not be parted even in death…Ruth’s commitment is total, not just in intensity but also in duration."
The sentence: May God do so to me and more also, if even death separates me from you, when spoken was accompanied with a physical motion of one hand mimicking a chopping motion to the other arm, perhaps in the way one today would say, "May God cut off my right arm, if ever I would leave you."
When Naomi sees how determined Ruth is, she relents. Their arrival in Bethlehem causes quite a stir in the town and the women rush out to them saying, "Is this Naomi?” She replies, "Don't call me Naomi any more, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full but God has brought me back empty..." (1:19-21a) The name Naomi in Hebrew means pleasant, but the name Mara means bitter.
Even so, they've arrived just in time for the barley harvest, and Ruth volunteers to glean in the fields, as they had no other food. In obedience to Leviticus 19:9-10, reapers, when they cut down the grain in the fields, were not to pick up all the grain but to leave what had fallen to the ground for the poor and the alien to glean to feed themselves, and this is what Ruth endeavors to do.
Coincidentally, the field belongs to Naomi’s relative, Boaz. He arrives at the field, and when the servant he questions tells him that she is the Moabite who had accompanied Naomi back from Moab, he invites Ruth to remain and continue to work the field under his protection. Boaz also instructs his reapers to leave extra grain where she will be sure to find it.
It is important to remember that women at this time and in this culture were considered the property of the men and could not function on their own. With the men in their lives dead, if the women are to survive they need to find a man or men to provide for them. Naomi, since she is postmenopausal, really is in dire straits. Women were valued for producing children. Since she no longer is able to produce offspring, she really has no value to the culture. Thus the promise Ruth made to Naomi is all the more important, as it is just about Naomi’s only chance for survival.
When Naomi finds out Ruth has been working in Boaz' field, she devises a plan. When the harvesting is completed, Boaz will be working in the threshing mill of an evening. Ruth is to hide there until he has eaten and gotten himself drunk (his heart was merry (3:8)), then she is to climb into bed with him and uncover his feet (a euphemism for genitals). When Boaz discovers her presence, she asks him to "spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next of kin.” In effect, she asks him to marry her.
Boaz recognizes that this is one more example of Ruth's loyalty and attempt to provide for Naomi, and says "May you be blessed by God, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich." (Ruth 3:10)
Since it is Boaz who makes the comment, we can safely assume that Ruth had some choice in the man she might marry, and we might ask ourselves, why would she go after a much older man, rather than one her own age? It can't be for his wealth, since, according to Boaz, she might have gone after a rich young man. Could it be that her only need was to be "taken in" and become pregnant and not to have someone with whom to build a life together? Naomi would be the one with whom she would build her life.
Boaz is not the next of kin. Nevertheless, he invites her to spend the night, promising to take care of things, and to take care of her, one way or another. Next morning he has her leave while it is still dark so as not to impinge on her respectability. But before she leaves, he gives her a gift of grain, telling her, "Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed."
The Daily Study Bible Series describes this incident by saying that Boaz sent Ruth away
“...with a practical pledge of grain–a token of fertility and fruitfulness–telling her that she should not return to her mother-in-law "empty.” This is exactly the word Naomi had used herself bitterly as she described how God had brought her back to Bethlehem. Naomi had left Bethlehem full and been brought back empty (vs. 1:21). However Ruth was not returning to her empty.”
(Perhaps in more ways than one?)
The next day, through some wheeling and dealing Boaz acquires Ruth, along with some property which had belonged to Naomi. They marry, and eventually Ruth has a son. From a legal standpoint, in Hebrew culture, the son would have been considered the son of Ruth's dead husband. Then we read:
The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to God, who today has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap to care for him. The women of the neighborhood said, "Naomi has a son.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David. (Ruth 4:14-17)
The women praise Ruth to Naomi, calling her better than seven sons. She has provided Naomi with security for the rest of her life: she has provided Naomi with a son. How can that be? Genetically, he is Boaz’ son. Legally, he is the son of Ruth's dead husband. Physically, he is Ruth’s son. But the women, recognizing the relationship between Ruth and Naomi, say that he is Naomi‘s son.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV footnote reads, "Seldom would non-family members, especially a group of unrelated women, name a newborn son. Uniquely in the Hebrew Bible, Ruth’s child is also announced as being born to a female (Naomi)."
Is this a story of lesbian love? Even the Oxford Annotated notes that the story is unique in that Ruth’s child is announced as being born to a female–Naomi. Obed is considered the child of two women–Ruth and Naomi. From beginning to end, this love story tells of what two women are willing to do for each other to take care of each other, from Ruth’s pledge of eternal love and steadfastness, to Ruth going into the fields to work to provide for them, to her choice of the elder Boaz as the sperm-donor for the child they need to ensure their security. And, finally, in the end, the women of the neighborhood let us know that they know that this is the love story of two women, by announcing that Obed is not Boaz’, nor Ruth's husband's, but Naomi’s son.
It is not insignificant to note that not only do Ruth and Naomi become the parents of Obed, the grandfather of David, subsequent generations reveal that they are the fore parents of Jesus.
This ends today’s study. Next week: Would a eunuch by any other name…….????