Weekly Bible Study Resources

Bible Characters for Your Weekly Bible Study Compiled by Lt Gen C. Norman Wood, USAF (Ret), Burke, VA 22015

For week of January 24 - 30, 2011 SUBJECT: LOVE Sandelin, Charles C., “Love,” POEM, Christian Science Journal, Vol. 30 (June 1912), p. 130. OH, may we know Love at earth's midnight cold? Or see Love by the radiant light of day? Or doth God dwell in heavenly heights away, And all unseen His beauteous works unfold? Aye, we may see Him, like the seers of old, Through eyes that scorn the senses' darkening sway, By understanding's light illumined: nay, Look not afar, Love here thou mayest behold! Thou Love may'st see when mists of self depart, That hide God's image from thy slumbering eyes; When o'er the barren soil Love's stream doth start, And fertile make it till fresh flowers arise Of joy and tenderness upon the heart! Who loving lives, he Love alone espies! CAST OF CHARACTERS Elimelech = Mahlon =

Naomi Ruth = Boaz Obed Jesse David

Chilion =

Orpah Elimelech [Ē lim’uh leck] [“my God is king”)

“Elimelech was an Ephrathite clan member who emigrated to Moab [modern Jordan] when a great famine broke out in Bethlehem of Judah during the period of the judges.” (HarperCollins Dictionary) “That Elimelech would go to Moab demonstrates the severity of the famine and his own desperation.” (All the People of the Bible” “After his death, his two sons married local women. The ensuing story is narrated in the book named after Ruth, one of Elimelech’s daughters-in-law.” (HarperCollins Dictionary) The story tells how, despite the death of all male members of his family, Elimelech’s estate in Bethlehem remained in CSDirectory.com weekly Bible Study resources

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 the family’s hands through Ruth’s marrying Boaz with the permission of Elimelech’s widow, Naomi. Naomi’s kinsman Boaz replaces her husband Elimelech’s closest “redeemer” relative, who might otherwise obtain the land belonging to Naomi and claim it for himself. Naomi [Nā ō’mē] (“pleasant, my joy”) Naomi was the wife of Elimelech and mother-in-law of Ruth, probably in the time of Gideon. Naomi left Judea [central Israel/West Bank] with her husband and two sons, in a time of famine, and went to the land of Moab [Jordan]. Here her husband and sons died. She later returned to Bethlehem with Ruth. “Naomi’s prominence continues [in chapter 2]. Her name is the first word. It links her to a wealthy kinsman named Boaz.” (Women in Scripture) Naomi advised Ruth to work for him and to seek his favor. When Boaz and Ruth eventually married, they had a son, whom they named Obed. “The story of the bond between Naomi and Ruth has become a paradigm of filial love.” (All the People in the Bible) Mahlon [Mah’lahn] (“sickly”) Mahlon is the elder of Elimelech the Bethlehemite's two sons by Naomi. He married Ruth and died childless, in the land of Moab [Jordan]. Chilion [Kil’ē uhn] (“wasting away/the pining one"/Heb. "weakness”) Chilion is the younger son of Elimelech and Naomi, and husband of Orpah, a Moabite woman. He is Ruth's brother-in-law. Upon his death, Orpah returned to her own people, unlike Ruth. Ruth [Rooth] (“friendship”) “Ruth is the heroine of the book of Ruth. The book is a gripping short story, incorporating folkloric features that make for ease of appreciation as common human experience, as well as distinctive cultural features commending Israel’s theology and ethics.” (Oxford Guide to People & Places) The story of Ruth is one of constancy and loving cooperation. She was a woman of Moab [Jordan] who married Mahlon, one of the two sons of Elimelech and Naomi. It was the custom during those times that a widow would return to her own family after her husband’s death. When Elimelech and Mahlon died, she choose instead to go with Naomi, her mother-in-law, to the land of the Israelites. Her words of devotion to her mother-in-law are often quoted, “And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:” (Ruth 1: 16)

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 After making their way home to Bethlehem, Ruth humbled herself by gleaning in the fields of a wealthy farmer by the name of Boaz. Boaz was attracted to Ruth and married her. In due course, Ruth gave birth to a son, named Obed, and through him Boaz and Ruth become the great-grandparents of King David. “Her story ends, however, not with the male elders but with the women of Bethlehem (see 1:19). In transferring Ruth’s child to Naomi, they remind her that ‘your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him’ (4:14-15).” (All the People of the Bible) Orpah [Oar’ pah] (Heb. “nape of the neck”) “Orpah was a Moabitess [a Jordanian], the wife of Chilion. On the death of her husband she accompanied Naomi, her mother-in-law, part of the way to Bethlehem, and then returned to Moab.” (Easton Bible Dictionary) “One feminist judgment deems Orpah’s return sound. It fits societal strictures and offers her a future.” (All the People of the Bible) Boaz [Bō’az] (Heb. “strength”) Boaz was a kinsman of Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, from the tribe of Judah, and the husband of Ruth, Naomi’s widowed daughter-in-law. “He was a wealthy and honorable landowner in the town of Bethlehem.” (Who Was` Who in the Bible) “He was a faithful Jew, and as such would have been careful to obey the laws governing the harvest.” (All the People of the Bible) One spring day he went to his barley field, where his servants were reaping the harvest. He noticed that behind them a comely young woman was gleaning the scattered ears left behind by the reapers. He learned on inquiry that was Ruth, the widow of his relative Mahlon, son of Elimelech, and that she had just arrived in Bethlehem from her native land of Moab [Jordan] with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi. Boaz spoke kindly to Ruth and praised her for her devotion to Naomi. He told her to go on gleaning his fields with his servants, where she would not be molested, and invited her to share their food and water. At the end of the harvest Boaz spent the night on the winnowing floor after the usual feasting. Under Naomi’s guidance, Ruth dressed herself in her best clothes and went to lie at the feet of the sleeping Boaz. Later, Boaz married Ruth. “A son was born to them whom they called Obed. In due course Obed’s son, Jesse, became the father of King David, who was therefore the greatgrandson of Boaz and Ruth (Book of Ruth; I Chr 2:11,12).” (Who’s Who in the Old Testament)

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 Obed [Oh’bid] (serving; worshipping) “Obed was a son of Boaz and Ruth, the grandfather of David, and an ancestor of Jesus.” (Who Was Who in the Bible) He is “a man about whom there is no story in the Bible apart from the record of his birth to Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 4:13-22).” (HarperCollins Dictionary) SECTION II: Ruth vows to follow Naomi to Bethlehem after the deaths of their husbands Elimelech and Mahlon (Ruth 1: 1, 3-6, 8, 16) TIME LINE AND AUTHOR: “Jewish tradition credits Samuel as the author, which is plausible since he did not die (I Sam. 25:1) until after he had anointed David as God’s chosen king (I Sam. 16:6-13).” (MacArthur Bible Commentary) Probably written c. 1000 BC. “This introduction to Ruth [vv.1-5] sets in motion the following events (1:6—4:22), which culminate in Obed’s birth and his relationship to the Davidic line of [Jesus].” (MacArthur Bible Commentary) “Nothing short of the compulsion of famine could have induced a Hebrew to migrate into this foreign country [Moab, v.1] where he would have no right of citizenship, this unclean land where Jehovah could not be worshipped.” (Dummelow Commentary) Leishman, Thomas L., “Ruth and Naomi,” THE CONTINUITY OF THE BIBLE, Christian Science Journal, Vol. 84 (November 1966), p. 588. --Closely associated with "the days when the judges ruled" (Ruth 1:1) in Israel is the vivid account recorded in the book of Ruth in which the leading characters are Ruth herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Although Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, came originally from Bethlehem in Judah, they and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, had settled in Moab to the east of the Dead Sea, and the two young men had married Moabite wives, named Ruth and Orpah respectively. --When Naomi decided to return to the land of her birth, Ruth and Orpah offered to accompany her; but while Orpah was eventually dissuaded from doing so, nothing could shake Ruth’s determination and touching constancy. --Together Ruth and Naomi made their way to Bethlehem, arriving there at the start of the barley harvest. Goldsmith, Ms. Galen (Cambridge, ENG), “The family: home and heaven,” BIBLE FORUM: What the Bible Says, Christian Science Journal, Vol. 121 (February 2003), p. 34. --The story of Ruth is an example of how the entire familial system of ancient Israel worked. In Israel, land was a perpetual gift from God to support families through the generations. It was not to be sold, but its harvest rights might be leased. Famine, probably caused by drought had forced the family of Elimelech and Naomi to leave their home in Bethlehem for Moab, taking their two sons with them. Elimelech died in Moab, leaving Naomi a widow with her two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. The Hebrew men married Moabitish women, Orpah and Ruth. Mahlon and Chilion both died childless, leaving Naomi without an heir to support her. Her only alternative would have been to return to her father's house, but this does not seem to be an option in this story. --Hebrew law provided for this situation by directing the nearest male relative to marry the childless woman and produce an heir in her former husband’s name. CSDirectory.com weekly Bible Study resources

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 SECTION III: Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem (Ruth 1: 22) TIME LINE AND AUTHOR: “Jewish tradition credits Samuel as the author, which is plausible since he did not die (I Sam. 25:1) until after he had anointed David as God’s chosen king (I Sam. 16:6-13).” (MacArthur Bible Commentary) Probably written c. 1000 BC. “This title [Ruth, the Moabitess, v.22] also appears at 2:2, 21; 4:5,10. Ruth stands out as a foretaste of future Gentile conversions (cf. Rom. 11).” (MacArthur Bible Commentary) The barley harvest is “normally the middle to the end of April.” (Ibid) Farley, Marco F., “Ruth—she never felt unloved,” CONNECTING TO THE BIBLE, Christian Science Journal, Vol. 117 (November 1999), p. 32. --…it’s not really a story of a woman who was very devoted to her mother-in-law, forsaking homeland to go with her. • Nor is it a tale of a mother-in-law who contrived to get her daughter-in-law married to a kinsman so he could provide for both of them. --The real significance of Ruth story for me is summarized in Mary Baker Eddy’s words “Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance.” (My 149: 31) --…the Hebrew concept of God—a God who is not a material object, or a material manipulator, but Spirit. • …by choosing to go with Naomi, Ruth was turning her back on an unreliable, material sense of love. ---Confident of being guided and protected spiritually by God, she did not feel unloved. --True affection is concerned about good for another as well as for oneself; one does not degrade the other, possess the other, or compromise his or her own spiritual integrity. St. John, Mrs. Edmonde (Plano, TX), “Time of Harvest,” BIBLE FORUM, Christian Science Journal, Vol. 127 (February 2009), p. 10. --Agriculture literally and figuratively became the economic and Biblical backbone of Israel. • Farming had an enormously strong influence on daily life, social behavior, religion, and the law. ---And although individuals, royalty, and priests owned land, the Israelites believed that ultimately the land belonged to God. • So, not only did the Israelites plow, sow, and reap, but in doing so, each one entered into a relationship with God, who in turn guaranteed an abundance of whatever was essential to daily life. ---Religion was an integral part of the Israelites’ agricultural life. • No wonder the Bible is replete with analogies to planting, sowing, reaping, shepherds, sheep, and other rural examples. Boaz encourages Ruth to glean in his field (Ruth 2: 2, 3, 8, 9-12 and when, 14-18, 23) TIME LINE AND AUTHOR: “Jewish tradition credits Samuel as the author, which is plausible since he did not die (I Sam. 25:1) until after he had anointed David as God’s chosen king (I Sam. 16:6-13).” (MacArthur Bible Commentary) Probably written c. 1000 BC. "Two widows, newly at home in Bethlehem after Naomi's ten-year absence, needed the basics of life. Ruth volunteered to go out and glean the fields for food (cf. James 1:27). In so doing, she CSDirectory.com weekly Bible Study resources

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 unintentionally went to the field of Boaz, a close family relative, where she found great favor in his sight." [vv.1-23] (MacArthur Bible Commentary) "The Mosaic Law commanded that the harvest should not be reaped to the corners nor the gleanings picked up (Lev 19:9,10). Gleanings were stalks of grain left after the first cutting (cf. 2: 3,7,8,15,17)." (Ibid) “”Barley harvest [v.23] usually began about mid-April and wheat harvest extended to midJune—a period of intense labor for about two months.” (Ibid) Stopfel, Virginia (Bible researcher),"Biblical women: portraits of our heritage," Part one, Christian Science Journal, Vol. 116 (March 1998), p. 24. --When Ruth and Naomi arrive in Bethlehem, it is barley harvest. • Quickly we learn of Boaz, a kinsman of Elimelech. ---But Ruth takes the lead now and tells Naomi she is going to glean in the field of someone “in whose sight I shall find favor.” [Ruth 2:2 RSV] • For the first time since Ruth disobeyed Naomi, we glimpse Naomi’s affection for Ruth. ---She says, “Go, my daughter.” --When Ruth lands in the field of Boaz, he asks in true patriarchal style, “Whose maiden is this?” • She must belong to someone—a possession, not a person. ---A servant identifies her, not by name, but as a foreigner and allied with Naomi, another woman. • Boaz directs Ruth to his fields. Petch, W., “’According to your faith,’” Christian Science Sentinel, Vol. 25 (26 July 1913), p. 925. --WE are always rewarded according to our desire. --Sometimes the calamities which take place in the world of sense bring [a] lesson…very forcibly to our notice, as when, for instance, the objects around which one has centered his earthly all are taken from him in a night. • God, Spirit, can never be the object of material sense. ---The reverse of the false sense of substantial gain is the promise of perpetual peace made by divine Love to those who worship or desire that Love in spirit and in truth. • As we read in the book of Ruth, "The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust." --The beliefs of life and love as less than the reflection of the infinite, have no reality, no substance. • The word of Truth ever is: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." SECTION IV: God rewards Boaz and Ruth with a son (Ruth 4: 13-15, 17 and they) TIME LINE AND AUTHOR: “Jewish tradition credits Samuel as the author, which is plausible since he did not die (I Sam. 25:1) until after he had anointed David as God’s chosen king (I Sam. 16:6-13).” (MacArthur Bible Commentary) Probably written c. 1000 BC. “God is mentioned by the townspeople at the end of the transaction between Boaz and another kinsman. They petition God to grant offspring to Ruth, thereby building up Naomi’s ‘house,’ or family (4:11-12). The people affirm the belief that offspring are the result of divine action. And, indeed, this is the case. The only direct action that God takes in the entire book is to cause Ruth to conceive (4:13).” (Theological Bible Commentary) CSDirectory.com weekly Bible Study resources

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 Streeter, Clara Schrader, “’Whose daughter art thou?,’” Christian Science Journal, Vol. 36 (September 1918), p. 274. --Nearly six centuries after the days of Rebekah….Ruth went to glean in the fields of Boaz….Being told how Ruth, after the death of her husband, had clung to her mother-in-law and had left Moab to come to Bethlehem when Naomi returned, he spoke kindly to her and told his reapers to protect and favor her. • Later he married her, and their son Obed was the grandfather of David, king of Israel. ---Ruth, like Rebekah, marks the summit of race progress for her time, but with greater strength of character, for she is able to make a clear and positive separation between the false and the true, between the idolatry of the Moabites and the worship of the one God of the Israelites. • By so doing she realized a larger womanhood, a more spiritual worship, a higher service. She helped to build up the house of Israel, establish the seed of promise in its own land, make the erection of the temple possible, and safeguard the pure descent of "the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star," that was to be sent to lift human thought above the earthly and sensual into the liberty of sons and daughters of God. Carroll, Olene, “A tale of two couples,” Christian Science Journal, Vol. 123 (February 2005), p. 9. --They were an unlikely couple. He, a wealthy, independent farmer. She, a poor widowed foreigner. Probably no one dreamed they would marry, but, surprises are what make a good story worth telling. --Ruth and Boaz did eventually marry, but, like most, their love story started well before the wedding. The tale of Ruth and Boaz is one of only a few in the Bible that provides an in-depth look at a couple’s relationship before marriage. This allows the reader to witness what attracted each partner to the other, and to witness how their bond of trust developed. And as one so often finds in the Bible, it turns out that these particular happy endings started with the divine—not with the participants’ relationship to one another, but with their own individual relationships to God. --Like Ruth and Boaz—and such other Biblical couples as Isaac and Rebecca, and Abigail and David— like Mary and Joseph each had a relationship with God, which guided their relationship with their spouse. SECTION V: Jesus resurrects the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7: 12-16) RELATED SCRIPTURE: I Kings 17: 17-24; II Kings 4: 32-37; 13: 20, 21 TIME LINE: The Year of Popularity and Fundamental Principles (Jesus’ 2nd year of ministry), 28 AD at Nain [5mi SSE of Nazareth, Israel] in Galilee “Now Jesus raises the dead, [in] anticipation of the series of claims he makes in 7:22, this time echoing not Isaiah but I Kings 17:17-24, Elijah raising the son of a Sidonian widow. In his inaugural sermon Jesus had already appealed to Elijah raising this widow's son (4:25-26), there making the point that 'there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah,…yet Elijah was sent to none of them.' Luke is echoing both 1 Kings 17 and Jesus' sermon in ch. 4.” (Eerdmans Commentary) This story is unique to Luke. It “comes from Luke’s special material, L; it is without parallel in the gospel’s tradition. ” (Interpreter’s One Volume Commentary) “Soon afterward” (v. 11) hints that Luke is not quite sure when it happened. In v.12 the phrase carried out refers to the fact that “Jewish tombs were always outside the walls, and burials were required to be performed within 24 hours.” (Dummelow Commentary) "This [he…touched the bier, v.14] was a ceremonially defiling act, normally." (MacArthur Bible Commentary)

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 This story reveals Jesus’ sensitivity to the widow’s marginal existence. This miracle was done in front of “much people” and similar to the raising of Lazarus in the presence of a multitude of witnesses. The bier is a pallet, not a coffin. This raising from the dead is in contrast to the struggle and difficulty experienced by both Elijah and Elisha, and indicates Jesus’ authority with the single word of power: “Arise.” “The object of recording that the young man spoke [v.15] after arising was to give evidence that he was really alive.” (King James Bible Commentary) “And he delivered him to his mother: Verbatim echo of the Elijah story (See 1 Kgs 17:23). Throughout, Jesus’ compassion is directed not only to the dead man but to his mother.” (People’s NT Commentary) “This [there came a fear on all, v.16] does not mean that they were merely afraid but that they were overcome with the reverent awe that acknowledged they were in the presence of God.” (Ibid) “Finally, let us give attention to the literary location of 7:11-17. In addition to having its own message, this unit anticipates the next story about Jesus’ message to John the Baptist.” (Interpretation Series: Luke) "a widow" of Nain "Nain was a small village in Galilee about seven miles southwest of Nazareth [and 25 miles SW of Capernaum on the hill “little Hermon” as it slopes down to the plain of Esdraelon to the southeast, not in Galilee proper; now a squalid collection of mud hovels]. Luke tells us that Jesus traveled to Nain from Capernaum, where he had cured the slave of a Roman centurion. Before Jesus enters the village gates, he encounters a funeral procession. Luke relates the circumstances to show how pitiful the situation is. 'A man who had died was being carried out' (v.12), accompanied by his mother, a widow." (Women in Scripture) “Luke goes on to relate that Jesus had compassion upon her, as [he] always did upon a woman in distress.” (All of the Women in the Bible) “Among the many widows who were in Israel (Luke 4:25), quite a few of them crossed the pathway of Jesus in the days of [his] flesh. He seemed to have a special, tender care for these women whom death had impoverished, and who often became the prey of the unscrupulous, and victims of the fraudulent.” (The Women of the Bible) "The image of a widow as a symbol for the poor who are completely dependent on God is more developed in Luke than in any other Gospel." (Women in the New Testament) "When a woman's husband died in first-century [BC] Jewish communities, the wife was designated a widow, a term with strict social/economic meaning. A 'widow' was a woman no longer under the authority of a male, either her father or her deceased husband. Although Jewish law recognized that widows lived legitimately by their own authority, this freedom from male authority could leave a woman in a vulnerable social position." (Women in Scripture) Thompson, Abigail Dyer, “Overcoming ‘the last enemy,’” Christian Science Journal, Vol. 57 (April 1939), p. 7. --The demonstration that was made for the young man of Nain presents [an interesting] background. • He is described in the Gospel of Luke as “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.” ---This young man had probably carried what seemed to him a heavy responsibility, because of his being the only son of his mother, and in consequence had strongly resisted the thought of death. • At the gate of the city of Nain, Jesus met the funeral procession, and as though that had been the purpose of his coming, he paused, and the funeral procession stopped also. CSDirectory.com weekly Bible Study resources

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Bible Characters for your weekly Bible study — January 24 - 30, 2011 ---Turning to the bereaved mother, with is usual tenderness and compassion he sympathetically said, “Weep not.” • Then he stepped to the bier and declared with authority and power, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” And what followed immediately? The Scriptures tell us that “he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.” Goldsmith, Mrs. Beverly (CSB, Lecturer, and Contributing Editor; Brisbane, AUS), “Easter gladness, not sadness,” Christian Science Sentinel, Vol. 101 (29 March 1999), p. 12. --The understanding that Jesus’ experience is about Life not death, about triumph not defeat, about gladness not sadness, vanquished the gloom. --Jesus’ momentous resurrection experience gives hope, for it proves man’s indestructible, spiritual nature. His revival and recovery are an outstanding demonstration of life triumphant over suffering and death. --In the period leading up to the crucifixion, Jesus healed many people of all kinds of maladies. He not only cured the sick and the dying, but also restored to life Jairus’s daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and his good friend Lazarus (see Luke 8:41,42,49-56, Luke 7:11-17, John 11:1-44). These instances of healing, like Jesus’ resurrection itself, were the natural outcome of spiritual understanding and the practice of God’s law. They confirm that divine Life, God, is eternal and triumphant over death. --Eternal life is not just a nice religious concept; it is demonstrable truth. BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Bibliography is provided only in the notes of the first Sunday of the month. *The weekly Bible Lessons are made up of selections from the King James Version of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

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