So the Moabites and Ammonites are two foreign groups that are explicitly prohibited from entering the congregation in Deuteronomy 23. Their lack of hospitality had already led to a prohibition of intermarriage in the Torah itself. And the Moabites were hated for their ill-treatment of the Israelites when they were traveling to the Promised Land. Moab was a hostile neighbor on IsraelвЂ™s southeastern border. You have to consider the effect that these opening verses would have had on an ancient Israelite listener or reader. TheyвЂ™re going to reside in the country of Moab, where the Moabites live, and their two sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. So in the story you have a famine in Judah and that causes a Bethlehemite man, Elimelech and his wife Naomi, and their two children to leave Judah. Whatever its origin, how did this book function for Second Temple Jews? As the story of a foreign woman, whose foreign status is continually emphasized throughout the book, (Ruth the Moabite, Ruth the Moabitess) - as a foreign woman who acts nobly and enters the community of Israel by choice, this story would have stood in opposition to the negative view of foreigners, the ban on intermarriage and the purely genealogical definition of Israelite identity that was promulgated by Ezra and Nehemiah in the post-exilic period. It tells you that this happened in the days of Judges, but it was certainly written later, and whether it was post-exilic or pre-exilic is not certain, so weвЂ™re going to be asking the questions of a canonical critic. The Book of Ruth is set in the days of the Judges thatвЂ™s the opening line of the book. But as you can see, from this giant chart, thereвЂ™s quite a bit.ДЇirst, letвЂ™s begin with the Book of Ruth. IвЂ™m going to try to unite them by elaborating certain themes as we move through them. But I want to try to unite a lot of these disparate parts of the Bible, the many small books clustered here at the end that weвЂ™ll be considering. Professor Christine Hayes:В All right, letвЂ™s go ahead and get started thereвЂ™s a lot to cover. Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) RLST 145 - Lecture 23 - Visions of the End: Daniel and Apocalyptic Literature

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