The Genealogical List in the Book of Ruth
Argues that the ten-generation genealogy closing the Book of Ruth is deliberately symbolic rather than strictly historical, paralleling the ten-generation lists in Genesis 5 and 11 to mark the dawn of the Davidic era, and proposes that the Nahshon-to-Salma link is the genealogy's point of compression, resolving the well-known chronological difficulty raised by Ibn Ezra.
Ron argues that the ten-generation genealogy closing the Book of Ruth, from Perez to David, is constructed symbolically rather than as a strict historical record, echoing the ten-generation lists in Genesis 5 and 11 to signal the dawn of a new era. He proposes that the link between Nahshon and Salma is where the list compresses many unrecorded generations, resolving the chronological problem long noted by Ibn Ezra and Ramban.
Zvi Ron received semikhah from the Israeli Rabbanut and his Ph.D. in Jewish Theology from Spertus University. He is an educator living in Neve Daniel, Israel, and the author of Sefer Katan ve-Gadol (Rossi Publications: 2006). He is Deputy Editor of Jewish Bible Quarterly.
Cite this article
Zvi Ron. "The Genealogical List in the Book of Ruth." Jewish Bible Quarterly 38, no. 2 (April – June 2010): 85–92.
Zvi Ron. "The Genealogical List in the Book of Ruth." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, 2010, pp. 85–92.