Judges 19-21 and Ruth Canon as a Voice of Answerability

By Jennifer M. Matheny and Nazarene Theological Seminary

Previous scholarship hints at the connection between Judges 19-21 and Ruth (as set in dialogue), but there has yet to be a study to articulate this relationship. Through a Bakhtinian-canonical perspective, a comparative analysis of these texts unveils intertextual correlations. Lexical and thematic connections include shared idioms, contrasting themes of חרם ("ban") andחסד ("loving-kindness," "covenant-faithfulness"), silence and speech, abuse and potential for abuse, gendered violence and feminine agency. This case-study reveals that Ruth, as a text and as a woman, embodies a voice of answerability to the silenced and abused women in Judges 19-21

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004521704
• ISBN13: 9789004521704
• Release Date: August 2022
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 296 Pages