SUMMARY
Boaz presents a legal argument to Naomi’s and Ruth’s nearer next-of-kin.
ANALYSIS
What Boaz does with the law while sitting at the gateGates are openings in walls or fences for entrance and departure. In the Bible (as in Ruth and the prophets) the city gate was a commercial center where business and social transactions took place. In Amos the gate is the location of the law court... is astounding. He names how the law works in relation to Ruth without actually making an argument. He mixes together the issues of inherited property (wealth) and taking on the wife of a deceased brother (perceived burden). Technically the law of the levirate names the responsibility of brothers residing in the same householdA household is a living unit comprised of all the persons who live in one house. A household would embrace all the members of a family, including servants and slaves. In the book of Acts, stories are told of various persons and their households, like.... But Boaz, accepting the understanding of Naomi and the invitation of Ruth, expands the notion of brotherhood to include within its purview the nearest living male relative, the go’el, the redeemerA redeemer is someone who literally buys back, wins back, or frees from distress. The Hebrew term for redeemer (go'el) means to deliver or rescue. It may be a person or God who performs the act of redemption.. He takes the meaning of the responsibility far beyond mere blood relationship. In the terminology of baptismJesus was baptized (literally, "dipped") in the Jordan River by John the Baptizer, at which time he was acclaimed from heaven as God's Son, the Beloved. Much later baptism became one of the sacraments of the Church, the action by which a person is incorporated... one might say that he is arguing that water is thicker than blood. His knowledge of Ruth as a woman of loyalty, commitment, and value influences his own reading of how the law is to be interpreted. The law serves the larger purpose of covenantal love.
