Ruth as a type of the Gentiles and the legal problem of her entry

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Origen opens his commentary on Ruth by identifying Ruth as a type of the Gentiles and then raises the legal difficulty that the law forbids a Moabite from entering the assembly of God.

And the name of the second was Ruth. Ruth bears a type of the Gentiles, for she left behind her ancestral customs and was joined to the Israelite way of life. But we must ask how Ruth, being a Moabite, entered the assembly of God when the law forbids a Moabite from entering. And seeking this, I apply the saying: “The law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the lawless and disobedient” (1 Timothy 1:9).

Greek

ΡΟΥΘ. ‹12.989› Καὶ ὄνομα τῇ δευτέρᾳ Ῥούθ. Ῥοὺθ τύπον φέρει τῶν ἐθνῶν· ἥτις κατέλιπε τὰ πάτρια, καὶ ἡνώθη τῇ Ἰσραηλιτικῇ ἕξει. Ζητητέον δὲ πῶς, τοῦ νόμου ἀπαγορεύοντος μὴ εἰσελθεῖν Μοαβίτην εἰς Ἐκκλησίαν Θεοῦ, ἡ Ῥοὺς Μοαβίτις οὖσα εἰσῆλθε. Καὶ τοῦτο ζητῶν χρῆσαι τῷ· "∆ικαίω δὲ νόμος οὐ κεῖται, ἀλλὰ ἀδίκοις καὶ ἀνυποτάκτοις."

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About this text

A short fragment in which Origen reads Ruth as a type of the Gentiles and asks how a Moabite could enter the assembly of God.

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) wrote this commentary on the biblical book of Ruth. He was an early Christian theologian and teacher in Alexandria, Egypt, and he produced a large body of biblical interpretation. This surviving fragment addresses a difficulty raised by the book of Ruth: how Ruth the Moabite could enter the assembly of God despite the law's prohibition.

The fragment takes up a legal problem. The law forbids a Moabite from entering the assembly of God, yet Ruth the Moabite entered. Origen interprets Ruth as a type of the Gentiles, since she left her ancestral ways and was joined to the Israelite way of life. He proposes to resolve the difficulty by applying the principle that the law is not laid down for the righteous but for the lawless and disobedient.

A reader will meet Ruth, the Moabite woman whose name is given to the second woman in the biblical book. Origen quotes 1 Timothy 1:9 as an authoritative text, using it to support his argument. To follow the discussion, it helps to know that the law means the law of Moses, the assembly of God means the covenant community of Israel, and the righteous means the person for whom the law is not imposed as a constraint.

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Translated from PG 12 (Greek)

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