Scholarly interpretations of Boaz’s sexuality in the book of Ruth largely assume that Boaz experiences sexual desires for Ruth specifically and for women generally. This essay will highlight the heterosexual bias that has commonly framed scholarly interpretations of Boaz and that imposes heterosexual attraction into the text. This essay illustrates that Boaz’s sexuality, far from an obvious aspect of the text, is largely produced through interpretive imagination. Although some scholars have questioned Ruth’s sexuality and her relationship with Naomi, Boaz’s sexuality has largely remained under-analyzed, leaving in place the assumption that the text is clear about his desires for women.
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R. Alpert, Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 49. The text of Ruth that Alpert is referencing in 1:16–17 reads, “But Ruth replied [to Naomi], ‘Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the Lord do to me if anything but death parts me from you.’” All biblical quotations in this essay follow the JPS translation of Ruth.
R. Alpert, Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 50.
See for example, D. Biale, Eros and the Jews: From Biblical Israel to Contemporary America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), p. 15; M. West, “Ruth,” p. 191; C. Exum, Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2nd edn, 2012), p. 139.
J. Koosed, Gleaning Ruth: A Biblical Woman and Her Afterlives (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2011), p. 55.
J. Koosed, Gleaning Ruth: A Biblical Woman and Her Afterlives (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 54–55.
T. Eskenazi and T. Frymer-Kensky, The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2011), p. 32.
R. Hyman, “Questions and Changing Identity in the Book of Ruth,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 39 (1984), pp. 189–201 (195).
D.N. Fewell and D. Gunn, “A Son is Born to Naomi: Literary Allusions and Interpretations in the Book of Ruth,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 40 (1988), pp. 99–108 (106).
R. Hubbard, The Book of Ruth (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), pp. 242–243.
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Scholarly interpretations of Boaz’s sexuality in the book of Ruth largely assume that Boaz experiences sexual desires for Ruth specifically and for women generally. This essay will highlight the heterosexual bias that has commonly framed scholarly interpretations of Boaz and that imposes heterosexual attraction into the text. This essay illustrates that Boaz’s sexuality, far from an obvious aspect of the text, is largely produced through interpretive imagination. Although some scholars have questioned Ruth’s sexuality and her relationship with Naomi, Boaz’s sexuality has largely remained under-analyzed, leaving in place the assumption that the text is clear about his desires for women.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 1170 | 206 | 22 |
Full Text Views | 328 | 20 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 250 | 57 | 7 |