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59 Putting Ruth in Her Place: Some Observations on Canonical

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59 Putting Ruth in Her Place: Some Observations on Canonical 59 Putting Ruth in Her Place: on Some Observations Canonical Ordering and the History of the Book's Interpretation J. Andrew Dearman & Sabelyn A. Pussman Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary adearman@austinseminary. edu [email protected] ' As is well known, an early definition of the term canon applied to Jewish and Christian Scripture is that of an authorized list.' From that perspective, the place of the book of Ruth in Jewish and Christian canons of Scripture has seldom been doubted. In the long history of transmis- sion and sequence of scriptural texts, however, the exact .. placement of Ruth within a canon has varied widely until , the development of the printing press and the fixed orders known today. Modern Hebrew Bibles, where Ruth is a part . of the Ketubim, preserve an order of books inherited from the medieval period. That order was only one of several in use during the period. Most modern Christian Bibles fol- low the order of the Vulgate, where Ruth is placed after the book of Judges. Jerome noted that this placement of Ruth among the Old Covenant books was followed by both Jews in Palestine and Christians (using Greek and Old Latin texts). .. In the and medieval of Judaism the book early periods ' of Ruth moved within canonical orders as much as, if not more than, any other book in the Bible. In what follows ----- ' E. Ulrich, "The Notion and Definition of Canon," in L. M. McDonald ' and J. A. Sanders, ed., The Canon Debate (Peabody,NiA: Hendrickson, 2001), 22-35. 2 For a comprehensive study of the various orders of Israel's Scriptures among biblical canons, see P Brandt, Endgestalten des Kanons. Das 60 we will provide a concise survey of the book's placement in various canonical orders and offer some analysis on the theological and historical reasons for them. In conclusion we will propose that the variety of Ruth's placement in canonical orders reflects, at least on occasion, interests sim- ilar to those currently expressed in such methods as reader response theory, canonical criticism and intertextuality. Ruth's various places in canonical orders are one aspect of three larger primary patterns of arranging Israel's Scriptures. The book's place is different in each one; indeed, Ruth's place can also vary within each category.. Chronological judgments of origins and sequences in these matters are vexed issues and only play a secondary role in the analysis that follows. Pattern I is a literary or non- chronological ordering of the canonical books. Simply put for Ruth, this means the book is not placed with Judges (cf. Ruth 1:1). In medieval Jewish collections, where Ruth is typically placed with the five Megillot as part of the Ketubim, assumptions of the book's authorship/origins vis-a-vis the other four books do sometimes play a role in the sequence of the Megillot. In other arrangements of the Ketubim and Megillot, authorship and historical setting do not play a role (see Pattern III below). Liturgical usage seems to be the decisive influence on placement. Pattern II, then, is a chronological ordering, supported by either the assumed authorship of the book in antiquity (e.g. Samuel) or by its claimed setting in sacred history as part Arrangementder Schriften IsraeLsin der jiidischenund christlichenBibtl (BBB 131; Berlin: Philo: 2001). For Ruth in particular, see the study by L. B. Wolfenson, "Implications of the Place of the Book of Ruth in Editions, Manuscripts, and Canon of the Old Testament," HUCA 1 (1924), 151-178. For an analysis of post-biblical Jewish interpretation of Ruth, see D. R. G. Beattie,Jewish Exegesis of theBook of Ruth (JSOTSup 2; Sheffield:JSOT Press, 1977). .
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