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The Truth About Ruth

Data Over Dogma

August 19, 2024

The biblical story of Ruth can be a confusing one for modern readers. Is Ruth a hero? Is she a schemer? She goes from gleaning in her dead husband's kinsman's field to marrying the guy in a matter of days. What are we to glean from that? And what, exactly, happened on the threshing room floor?

Speakers Dan Beecher, Dan McClellan

TopicsSociety & CultureHistory

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Dan Beecher (1:00)

We scared them away, everybody.

Dan McClellan (1:02)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (1:02)

With all of our gold, we terrified them, and they ran like cowards.

Dan McClellan (1:08)

What were all those trunks that they were carrying out of Jerusalem? Never mind. You didn't see any of that.

Hey, everybody. I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:20)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:21)

And you are listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of that ever present. Misinformation about the same. How are things?

Dan Beecher (1:35)

Things are good. Ever present. It's a good day to to discuss the Bible.

Dan McClellan (1:41)

Today was a good day, as the great poet once once said, to discuss the Bible. And we're going to be discussing a couple of different parts of the Bible today, is my understanding.

Dan Beecher (1:52)

Yes, indeed. We've got a we've got a chapter and verse or rather a chapter and a chapter and a chapter. We're just doing a whole book.

Dan McClellan (1:59)

A whole book of the Bible.

Dan Beecher (2:00)

Yeah. And then we're going to do a Who's That? And we're going to we're going to go through a a name that you have mentioned, Sennacherib.

Dan McClellan (2:11)

Sennacherib.

Dan Beecher (2:11)

To me, you've mentioned them on the show a bunch of times. And it has always just been a random bunch of syllables to me.

Dan McClellan (2:19)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (2:20)

And so hopefully you can clear up what we're talking about when you say that word, because it sounds it sounds like maybe snack chips or a some sort of cracker. Yeah.

Dan McClellan (2:33)

So yeah, something you might see a commercial for it on a football game.

SPEAKER_2 (2:37)

Right.

Dan McClellan (2:37)

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_2 (2:39)

Yeah.

Dan McClellan (2:39)

We're going to talk a little bit about that. So so everybody can have a little background. So in the future, when I rail about Sennacherib, you can be like, Ah, I remember where to place that.

Dan Beecher (2:49)

Yeah, that was so. So yeah, stick around for that. But for right now, let's start with chapter and verse. We're doing Ruth, everybody. This is the the Book of Ruth. It's only four chapters long, and it's interesting. The first two chapters are about as straightforward. It feels to me like and you can correct me on this, Dan, because, you know, there's always something that I miss. But it feels like the most straightforward thing in the world. We start out in Jude in in in Bethlehem, in Judah. And we've got a family. We've got a guy named Elimelech, and Elimelech has a wife named Naomi. And and then they've got two sons.

Mahlon and Chilion. Chilly Dog.

Dan McClellan (3:44)

Mahlon and Chilion.

Dan Beecher (3:47)

Okay, says you.

Dan McClellan (3:48)

Which by the way, one of the interesting things to point out about this is their sons names mean in Hebrew, sickly and frail.

Dan Beecher (3:58)

Yes, I did see those footnotes there.

Dan McClellan (4:03)

Okay, so right off the bat, like they're telling you something. There's a little bit of foreshadowing.

Dan Beecher (4:10)

It does feel like, it feels like one of the things they're telling me is we're making this up. That's what it feels like.

Dan McClellan (4:16)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't get used to these characters. They're MacGuffins. They are, you know, it's like if you had a, what was the, what show has the MacGuffin Institute? Oh, that's Community. Silly me, yeah. So there's a, there's a, an institute that comes in for this specific narrative art called the MacGuffin Institute.

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