{"id":3049,"date":"2009-10-27T23:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T23:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/for-the-love-of-boaz\/"},"modified":"2009-10-27T23:28:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-27T23:28:00","slug":"for-the-love-of-boaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/for-the-love-of-boaz.html","title":{"rendered":"For the Love of Boaz"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0073407364?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0073407364\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">textbook<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0073407364\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"> I\u2019m using for my class on the Bible refers more than once to \u201cromance\u201d and \u201cfalling in love\u201d as elements of the <em>Book of Ruth<\/em>. This is a common interpretation from the standpoint of many modern cultures, but does it really have any basis in the text? It seems that it is perhaps easier to make a case for something like romantic love between Ruth and Naomi based on details in the story, than it is to make a case for Boaz having \u201cfallen in love with\u201d Ruth.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Is there \u201cromance\u201d in this story, or do we only \u201cfind\u201d it there if we read it into the text?<\/p>\n<p>Readers are also invited to offer humorous captions for either of the two paintings below, which depict the meeting of Boaz and Ruth.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arthistoryarchive.com\/arthistory\/christian\/images\/JuliusSchnorrvonCarolsfeld-Ruth-in-Boazs-Field-1828.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.arthistoryarchive.com\/arthistory\/christian\/images\/JuliusSchnorrvonCarolsfeld-Ruth-in-Boazs-Field-1828.jpg\"><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.windsorfineart.com\/artists\/chagall\/Meeting-of-Ruth-and-Boaz.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.windsorfineart.com\/artists\/chagall\/images\/Meeting-of-Ruth-and-Boaz.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-3888572244890701324?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The textbook I\u2019m using for my class on the Bible refers more than once to \u201cromance\u201d and \u201cfalling in love\u201d as elements of the Book of Ruth. This is a common interpretation from the standpoint of many modern cultures, but does it really have any basis in the text? It seems that it is perhaps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>For the Love of Boaz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The textbook I&#039;m using for my class on the Bible refers more than once to &quot;romance&quot; and &quot;falling in love&quot; as elements of the Book of Ruth. This is a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/for-the-love-of-boaz.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For the Love of Boaz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The textbook I&#039;m using for my class on the Bible refers more than once to &quot;romance&quot; and &quot;falling in love&quot; as elements of the Book of Ruth. This is a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/for-the-love-of-boaz.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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