R-INTRO-7: The Unbreakable Link Between Language And History

“Back in the days when the judges were judging, at a time when there was a famine in the land, a certain man from Beit-Lechem went to live in the territory of Mo’av — he, his wife and his two sons.”-Ruth 1:1

Yesterday we talked about the when the events of Ruth took place.

Today I wanna tackle the question of…when the Book of Ruth was written.

First, we can be confident that Ruth was recorded AFTER the period of the SHOFETIM…

Because verse 1 is obviously looking back to the time of Judges…

This would plant us smack dab in the period of King Saul’s reign.

In addition, King David’s genealogy is mentioned.

So at the earliest, we can know with confidence that Ruth could’ve been written during David’s reign.

Some folks will point to the fact there’s zero mention of Solomon or his genealogy and assert this is proof positive that Ruth had to have been penned during the reign of David.

Well, hold on homies.

That’s kind of a weak argument…

Just because King Solomon’s name is absent is hardly evidence of the date when Ruth was written.

Now other folks will say Ruth was recorded after the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon….

They argue this is because the purpose of Ruth was to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that David and his line had a legitimate right to the throne of Israel.

And let’s not forget that the majority of survivors from Babylon were of the Tribe of Judah.

However, instead of basing things on historical events, there’s another very reliable way to ascertain when a given Bible book was written.

That way is LANGUAGE.

This is the methodology that modern scholars use.

What they do is examine certain phrases and cultural expressions unique to a given era and then determine when a certain Bible book was written.

In Ruth’s case, the big question raised is…was Ruth written in “Classical Biblical Hebrew” or “Late Biblical Hebrew”?

We’re not going to dive to deep into this topic but there is an important takeaway here:

LANGUAGE IS POWERFUL.

In fact, having lived in different countries on three different continents (the Americas, Europe and Asia) there’s one profound thing I’ve learned over the years.

Language is also a good predictor of one’s destiny.

Your mother tongue will for the most part determine where you choose to live, who you marry, who you decide to become friends with, and what kind of work you will do.

Language is also an instant identifier.

Once you open your mouth, people can tell instantly where you’re from by your accent and in some cases even your education level.

Language also evolves over time.

English itself wasn’t even recognized as a separate language until around the 1300’s AD.

And I betcha if you were exposed to some ancient English manuscript today, you wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making heads or tails out of it.

There would be words, expressions and even letters that would have you scratching your head until your hair fell out.

This reminds me of an Intro to Torah class I took during my Bible College days.

During the first day of class the professor told us we could use any English Bible translation EXCEPT the King James Version.

The reason why is simple.

She didn’t wanna have to deal with all of the archaic expressions and sayings that no longer exist in our modern English.

My point is language is always in a state of transition and change.

And it works this way with all languages whether spoken or written, including Hebrew.

That’s why language is a great tool to use to determine when a certain Biblical book was written.

In closing, I think this post is a great opportunity to discover a little bit more about you, my awesome readers.

Reply to this post and let me know which country you’re from and which language is your mother tongue.

I’m super curious and would love to get to know you better..

See ya all next time!