Ruth & Naomi
Celebrating Queerness in the Bible
I want to continue to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month with another positive representation of same-sex relationship and queerness in the Bible, this time the story of Ruth and Naomi. This tale makes up the entire book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible. Naomi’s husband and children have died, widowing her and her two daughters-in-law. Naomi decides to return from Moab, where she’s currently living, to her home town of Bethlehem in Israel. She tries to convince Orpah and Ruth, her daughters-in-law, to return to their birth families as Naomi has no means to support them. Orpah reluctantly agrees but Ruth refuses, swearing a vow of devotion to Naomi.
Naomi and Ruth travel to Bethlehem even though they have no idea how they’ll support themselves or what kind of welcome they’ll receive. After arriving and considering their situation, they decide that Ruth should seduce Boaz, a relative of Naomi, since a marriage to Boaz would provide them both with support and safety. Boaz and Ruth are indeed married and Ruth has a son, whom they name Obed and who turns out to be the great-grandfather of David, future king of Israel. This story is unique in Hebrew scripture because it celebrates one woman’s love for and devotion to another in the midst of a patriarchal society. The love that these two women have for each other is the “entire motivating force for the plot that unfolds,” including, as we shall see, the marriage of Ruth and Boaz.
Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure if Ruth and Naomi had a sexual relationship, but their love for each other is clear. We’re told that when Naomi asked Ruth to return to her birth family, Ruth refused and instead clung to Naomi. The original Hebrew word translated as “clung” is the same word used in Genesis to describe Adam’s relationship to Eve when it says a man clings to his wife and they become one flesh. The Hebrew also quotes Naomi as saying “I” when giving instructions to Ruth on how to seduce Boaz where our modern translations have changed it to “you.” It’s as if the original story in Hebrew treats Ruth and Naomi as a single unit, as if in some fundamental way they are “one flesh.” Their relationship is portrayed as not only comparable to marriage but as an embodiment of it.
This deep-felt and touching example of love and loyalty, found nowhere else in the Bible, has become the model and expression of heterosexual marriage. Ruth’s vow of devotion to Naomi has been used in countless wedding ceremonies over the years. Yet it comes from one woman’s declaration to another. Marriage in the ancient culture of the Bible is so often treated as a financial or business arrangement. Considering how often Christians have condemned same-sex relationships, it’s kind of amusing that we have to turn to a same-sex couple to find Biblical language of a loving covenant, the kind of language we expect today in modern marriage ceremonies.
The way Ruth and Naomi come together, devoted to one another’s welfare, loving and supporting each other, is a positive model for covenantal relationships between all kinds of people. Two women join themselves to one another and refuse to accept cultural norms that limit their potential and define their existence as worthless. Through their courageous life together they affirm our own queer relationships – relationships that don’t conform but instead challenge homophobia, heteronormativity, and patriarchy.
Ruth and Naomi provide a model not only for loving and devoted personal relationships, but also for the formation of non-traditional families. Their story also offers strategies for surviving in hostile environments. In the story of Ruth and Naomi, Ruth’s marriage to Boaz isn’t Ruth giving into cultural norms, but it’s her and Naomi forming a non-traditional family with Boaz to navigate a hostile legal and social environment, just as many LGBTQ people today still redefine what it means to be family in order to live happily and with integrity. Boaz becomes the willing means for “securing the well-being of an enterprising partnership of women.” It’s Ruth who seduces and proposes to Boaz, actively seeking a situation where she and Naomi will be safe and secure. Boaz’s marriage to Ruth isn’t a breaking of her relationship to Naomi, but a way of sheltering it and giving it security.
We see the evidence of this in a couple of ways. When Boaz first notices and talks to Ruth, he praises her for her devotion to Naomi. He already seems to understand their special relationship. Second, the only time the word love is used in this story, it’s used in reference to Naomi and Ruth, not Ruth and Boaz. Furthermore, it’s the women of the town who recognize and name that love, declaring that Ruth loves Naomi and means more to her than seven sons ever would. Finally, the townswomen give thanks to God for watching over Naomi and Ruth and giving them a son, specifically naming Obed as a son born to Naomi, not Boaz, which is an astounding declaration in a patriarchal society. Boaz seems to be a willing and helpful part of the family, but not the leader. Today he might be the male friend who helps a lesbian couple conceive and then stays involved by providing some legal legitimacy in a culture that would otherwise ostracize and condemn them.
Through Ruth and Naomi’s story, we can know that our partnerships, our loves, our families, whether there are children or not, are valid and life-giving. Stories like Ruth and Naomi, a story of how women loving women can be God’s instrument of blessing and redemption, inspire us to continue to demand acceptance of our own relationships and demand justice for queer people and all marginalized people. May we all be blessed in our lives with the joy of life and love that Ruth and Naomi find in each other.
References:
Theodore Jennings, “Jacob’s Wound: Homoerotic Narrative in the Literature of Ancient Israel,” p. 227-234
Mona West, “Queer Bible Commentary,” p. 190-194.
Kittredge Cherry, https://qspirit.net/ruth-naomi-loved-each-other/