Ruth

This year I am reading from the New English Translation (NET).  It’s a free copy on my phone, but I’ve found some very interesting translation points so far.  Today I read one of the most unusual.  At the final critical point in the story of Ruth Boaz meets the nearer kinsman-redeemer at the gates of Bethlehem (4:1-12).  The NIV has Boaz call this man “my friend”.  But in the NET Boaz calls him “Mr. John Doe”.  The note on that passage says;

“The expression is not the name of the nearest relative, but an idiom which literally means ‘such and such’ or ‘a certain someone’ which is used when one wishes to be ambiguous (1 Sam 21:3; 2 Kings 6:8).  Certainly Boaz would have known his relative’s name, especially in such a small village, and would have uttered his actual name.  However the narrator refuses to record his name in a form of poetic justice because he refused to preserve Mahlon’s name by marrying his widow.  This close relative, who is a literary foil for Boaz, refuses to fulfill the role of family guardian.  Because he does nothing memorable, he remains anonymous in a chapter otherwise filled with names.  His anonymity contrasts sharply with Boaz’s prominence in the story and the fame he attains through the child born to Ruth.”

So the man who chose to give up all of his inheritance to keep Mahlon’s name alive was not forgotten, but the one who feared such loss of prominence received exactly what he feared.  That reminds me of Jesus’ words; “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)

Stuart