Ruth

Book excerpt: In Ruth, Tod Linafelt offers an interpretation of the book which he calls "unsettling," in that he refuses to settle on a single meaning in a book so fraught with complexity and ambiguity. Ambiguity built into grammar, syntax, and vocabulary carrie over into the larger issues of characterization, theology, and the book's purpose. He also argues that Ruth is intended to read as an interlude between Judges and Samuel. Esther, by Timothy Beal, focuses on a story of anti-Judaism in an ancient world that raises contemporary questions about sexism, ethnocentrism, and natioinal identity. Beal questions the text without assuming that there will be univocal answers, allowing for complexity, perplexity, and the importance of accidents. Beal emphasizes the general and the tenative over the continuous. Using rhetorical criticism as a way into the text, Beal also focuses on its narrative structure.