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Was the marriage of Boaz and Ruth’s form of Levirate marriage?

steve

Seasoned Member
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I looked up the words kinsman redeemer and the only place that I could find it was in Ruth.

I would contend that the basis for the idea of kinsman redeemer is Deut. 25 where a brother is instructed to marry his brothers widow if she has not had children and raise a son to his brother. He is redeeming his brother’s bloodline, so to speak.
The specific statement was “the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man.
If the brother was unwilling there was some process that involved pulling off his sandal and spit in his face. In Ruth there isn’t any statement about spitting, but taking off the sandal definitely was a part of it.

The original law was only about a brother living with his brother who died, but wouldn’t it be logical if the principal extended to the nearest kin in the absence of a brother who qualified? A near kinsman would fulfill the purpose of keeping her from having to marry a stranger, outside of the family.
Isn’t this the actual basis for Boaz turning down Ruth’s offer until the nearer kinsman had signed off?
 
I looked up the words kinsman redeemer and the only place that I could find it was in Ruth.

I would contend that the basis for the idea of kinsman redeemer is Deut. 25 where a brother is instructed to marry his brothers widow if she has not had children and raise a son to his brother. He is redeeming his brother’s bloodline, so to speak
It might hinge on what the Hebrew or cultural understanding of what brother is. Is brother one who shares a mother or father, or someone from the same broader family lineage? Cousins included?
 
I will weigh in on this briefly in a a day or two. I have to do some research. I don’t see any way that Ruth is a Levirate situation.
 
There are a couple reasons one could make a claim that it is a type of Levirate marriage. The first one being that Ruth was a widow with no offspring from Mahlon. Both concepts would have required the next male of Kin to continue the lineage of Ruth’s late husband. This would be my strongest reasoning on how one could make the case that they are the same. Also, her husband was a Jew so I would argue they are the same.
 
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