Many people try to make the argument that homosexuality only “sprung up” within the last half of the 20th century. Historians, however, are more than aware that homosexuality has existed for thousands of years. Though some try to make the argument that close relationships between people of the same gender are nothing more than close friendships, one could argue that it would be as unfair to make that assumption as to assume that every letter written between people of the opposite gender definitively demonstrates a romantic entanglement. However, the latter is done all the time as heterosexuality is seen as the societal norm. How can we fairly assume that one is true and not the other? It is with this reasoning that some historians and theologians have analyzed the pages of the Bible to analyze the relationships between the people found within.
In the Book of Ruth a couple of Bethlehem, Elimelek and Naomi, flee the region because of a famine and move to Moab. Soon thereafter, Elimelek died and Naomi’s two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Naomi (Ruth 1:3-4). After ten years, Naomi’s sons died, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law without a means by which to support themselves. Fearing their fate though having faith that God would provide, Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem and asked her daughters-in-law to return to their own families, but they refused (Ruth 1:8-10). Though Orpah eventually decided to go back to her native land, Ruth refused, telling Naomi,
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17).
In some translations, the word “clung” is used to describe how Ruth felt about Naomi, whereas the original Hebrew text uses the word “dabaq,” which is curiously the same word used to describe Adam’s feelings for Eve in the Book of Genesis.
Though none of us can pretend to know precisely what was meant in the original text, it is one of the few times that a word denoting such deep and loving feelings is used for both a group of women. Perhaps it was a deep sense of love that some families do feel for one another or perhaps it meant something more was felt between the two women.
Regardless, it is a curious choice of words.
#Ruth #Naomi #OldTestament #Lesbian #Pride #YouCannotEraseUs
Legends of Pride 