Sunday, October 11, 2020

I just love it when ...

... I discover something new in the pages of Scripture, especially when it is a little bit quirky.

So, if you would like a post on the profundity of Anglicanism, please read or reread last week's post on "Participation". 

If you would like some biblical quirkiness then read on.

It begins a little while ago when the Dean of Dunedin, Tony Curtis, gave an illuminating talk on the Book of Ruth. It got me realising that my commentary shelves are a bit light on Ruth and, natch, I ordered a new commentary.

It is the JPS Bible Commentary Ruth by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky (Philadelphia, 2011).

So far I am making my way each night before lights out a few paragraphs at a time through the Introduction - some 70+ pages of erudition, beautifully written.

Yes, yes, I know, normal people read romantic novels and not commentaries on romantic novels!

Anyway, anyhoo.

A vexed question or three in respect of the lovely and flourishing romance between Ruth and Boaz concerns the nature of the law or lore or custom concerning the contracting of a marriage in ancient Israel between people with some kind of kinship tie.

For instance, is the marriage between Ruth and Boaz a "levirate marriage" - a marriage between a man and a childless widow of the man's deceased relative, contracted with the intention of producing a child who will continue the deceased relative's name.

This is discussed in the above commentary from page xxxii to xxxviii and concludes,

"But if levirate marriage does not serve as the rationale for the union between Boaz and Ruth, why does Boaz marry Ruth? And why does he go about it in the complicated, confusing manner described in the book?" (xxxviii)

The next discussion in the Introduction sets out to answer these questions.

Along the way of the levirate discussion my interest was piqued by its discussion of Ruth 4:5 which raises the question whether Boaz says to the nearer "redeemer" on the question of acquiring some land held in the name of Ruth's deceased husband, that, simultaneously, "I will acquire Ruth" or "You will acquire Ruth."

It happens that the Bible I keep at hand by my bed is the Revised English Bible, which I looked up. It reads,

"Boaz continued: 'On the day you take over the field from Naomi, I take over the widow, Ruth the Moabite, so as to perpetuate the name of the dead man on his holding'."

There is no footnote indicating an alternative reading. Something in my memory suggested this was an unusual reading.

Indeed.

The NRSV has,

"Then Boaz said, 'The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man's name on his inheritance."

Although there is a footnote indicating a variation in the Old Latin, Vulgate text, it is not a variation which concerns us here re "I acquire" or "You acquire".

Following the NRSV are the CEB, GNB, NEB, NJB, and NIV.

Is the REB an outlier? If one major translation can differ from others, why not mutually informative footnotes re the viability of the two possible readings?

Back to Eskenazi and Frymer-Kensky. Their explanation of the possibility of two different translations is this:

"it is uncertain whether the unnamed redeemer is told that he has acquired Ruth - or will acquire her, when he redeems the land - or whether Boaz himself is acquiring Ruth. The interpretation depends upon whether one follows the written consonantal text (ketiv), kaniti, which seems to mean, "I will acquire" (namely I, Boaz) or whether one follows the Masoretic reading instructions (kerey), kanita, which means "you will acquire" (i.e. the other man). The latter would mean that the redeemers, as a redeeemer, is obligated to take the widow, an expectation not connected with any biblical law of redemption. Because redemption, not levirate marriage, has been the only subject discussed by Ruth (3:9) and Boaz (3:10-13 and 4:3-5), and because nothing indicates either the other redeemer or Boaz is a levir, Boaz's statement stands in tension with all known biblical laws." (page xxxvi)

That is, for those unfamiliar with how Jewish reading and interpretation of the text of the books we Christians call the Old Testament works, sometimes what is written in the text (usually meaning the Masoretic Text) is deemed to be not right and an alternative reading is offered in the margin of the text, a writing down of a spoken or recited tradition in respect of the text. The latter is the kerey. The former is the ketiv.

Eskenazi and Frymer-Kensky observe, on p. 76, 

"As a rule, the Masoretes and Rabbinic halakhah consider the kerey the preferred reading of the text."

So, the NRSV etc (indeed, Eskenazi and Frymer-Nkensky themselves) follow the kerey. The REB is a bit of an outlier, following the ketiv.

There you go!

Isn't that more interesting than an ordinary romantic novel?

But, wait, there is more. Next week, or soon after, I will come back to some other points of great and relevant interest in the Book of Ruth.

Maybe our reflection till then could be, 

"What is the actual text of Scripture, from which we seek a "literal" translation?"


4 comments:

David Wilson said...

There is an interesting article on Wikipedia on Qere [sic] and Ketiv:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qere_and_Ketiv

The most famous example is, of course, what you read when YHWH is written - and it is not always 'adonai'.

The article states: "the qere/ketiv was also used to correct obvious errors in the consonantal text without changing it"(but the editors note the need for citation for this).

Biblehub has a lot of English translations:

https://biblehub.com/ruth/4-5.htm

There is a fair variation here, but I cannot find one which understands it as being Boaz taking Ruth. This includes the JPS Tanakh 1917 (and also the more modern version). They ought to know!

It is clear in the LXX that it is not Boaz, rather 'it is necessary for you to take her'.

The question is which reading makes better sense of the reluctance of the man to buy the field. Does he marrying Ruth pose the threat, or would Boaz marrying Ruth pose the threat.



Father Ron said...

Thining, Bishop, about the need for love in the Church, today's reflection by the Jesuits on their 3-minute Retreat website offers this pericope:

"Love changes everything. It changes all that we do and say. Jesus embodies the love of God for us. This love was seen in Jesus' preaching and healing, his interaction with sinners, and his compassion for the poor. Jesus so loved his Father that his only mission was to do the will of the One who sent him. Jesus reveals to us the face of God. As we come to know God through Jesus, we are drawn into love with the Father. As we grow in this relationship, our love spills over to others, and the circle of love keeps growing."

Father Ron said...

...And then, there is this Daily Word from Pope Francis to corroborate the essential message of the Gospel:

SUNDAY OCTOBER 18, 2020

'No one is excluded from the house of God… God even calls those who are bad. “No, I am bad; I have done many [bad things]...”. He calls you: “Come, come, come!”… God is not afraid of our spirits wounded by many cruelties, because he loves us; he invites us. And the Church is called to reach the daily thoroughfares, that is, the geographic and existential peripheries of humanity, those places at the margins, those situations in which those who have set up camp are found where and hopeless remnants of humanity live. It is a matter of not settling for comforts and the customary ways of evangelization and witnessing to charity, but of opening the doors of our hearts and our communities to everyone, because the Gospel is not reserved to a select few.”

Pope Francis '



Tom Cooke said...

This is fascinating. There are many places in the book of Ruth where looking at the Hebrew is *indispensable* in really getting to grips with what's happening. My favourite example is where Boaz says to Ruth, "You have taken refuge under the wings [kanaph] of YHWH" and later she says to him (literally) "Now you take me under *your* wing [also kanaph, for edge of garment]." If you don't know it's the same word, you miss something really important! (The only English version I'm aware of that brings this out is the Christian Standard Bible)

Ruth 4:5 is definitely tricky, and I've read up on the possibilities as you have. Probably this is too 'free' a translation, but I'd really like to render it "*Whichever one of us* acquires the land from Naomi and from Ruth, he has to marry Ruth (the dead man’s widow) in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property." (Boaz makes it about Levirate, even though legally it really *isn't*!)

An even more free rendering (but I think in the spirit of Ruth) is Boaz saying, "If you want Naomi's land, you have to be prepared to do *everything* God intends for her and for Ruth - provision, home, family, children - you can't pick and choose. Oh, you don't want to do that? Well, *I* will - Ruth's mine now, and I'll give her what she longs for, what she asked me at the threshing floor."