The Book of Ruth: A portrait of our contemporary society
In the opinion of all exegetes, the book of Ruth, although one of the shortest in the Bible, is a true masterpiece of world literature. In Jewish tradition, it is directly related to the feast of Pentecost and is read on this occasion in the synagogue. But since the discovery of the Qumran manuscripts, we have realized that at the time of Jesus and the apostles, this book was made a prophetic reading in relation to the coming of the Messiah and the end of time. Researchers have realized that such a reading was not foreign to the authors of the New Testament and that in particular in the Gospel of John several passages indirectly allude to this, all in all, mysterious book.
The book of Ruth is part of a set of small books called “the five scrolls” which highlight in Judaism the prophetic character of five festivals on the occasion of which they are read. Obviously, the prophetic dimension of these books generally escapes Christians and even specialists, because they are not trained for such reading. This book intends to fill this gap and awaken its readers to another dimension of the book than that to which they are accustomed. We then discover that the book of Ruth is a book of burning relevance which concerns our time and therefore concerns us directly.
Jean-Marc Thobois , the author of this book comes from a long line of Huguenot pastors from Poitou, France. He studied the Bible in London, then the history of Israel and biblical archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1965-1967). A specialist in Hebrew, he participated in the translation of the “Bible à la Colombe”. He is currently working on a new complete translation of the Bible. Jean-Marc Thobois was a pastor from 1967 to 2004, mainly in Brittany. Since 2004, he has exercised an itinerant ministry in France and abroad, giving conferences, seminars and teachings on the Bible, Israel and prophecy. He is married, the father of three children and the grandfather of eleven grandchildren. author's website: teachings-bibliques-jmthobois.com
