Ruth: A Subversive Romance: Bethlehem

In the year 455 bc, as Jewish exiles returned to Judah, Ezra and Nehemiah enacted an aggressive separation policy requiring Israelite men to divorce their Moabite wives and banish the children born of these marriages. This policy was a literal application of the Torah edict that no Moabite be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh. This prohibition was applicable if a person had even a single Moabite ancestor within ten generation. Thus the book of Ezra ends with a list of 117 men who divorced and banished their foreign wives along with their children. But apparently not everyone agreed with this policy. Because it was at this time that someone composed the book of Ruth—a love story that beneath the surface is a subversive romance.