The Kinsman-Redeemer of Bethlehem
The Book of Ruth introduces Boaz as a wealthy man of Bethlehem and a close relative of the family of Naomi's late husband, Elimelech. When Ruth, Naomi's Moabite daughter-in-law, gleaned in his fields during the harvest, Boaz treated her with marked kindness, having already heard of her loyalty to Naomi.
As a goel, or kinsman-redeemer, Boaz held the legal authority to restore Elimelech's line and secure the family's patrimony. A nearer relative held the first claim of redemption but declined it out of concern for his own inheritance, freeing Boaz to act. At the threshing floor Ruth asked Boaz to redeem her as his wife; acknowledging her character—that all the elders of the town knew her to be a worthy woman—he settled the matter legally at the city gate and married her.
Ancestor of David and of Christ
The son of Boaz and Ruth was Obed, who became the father of Jesse, the father of King David. Boaz thereby entered the royal Davidic lineage and is counted among the ancestors of Jesus Christ.
In the genealogy of Matthew, Boaz's parents are named as Salmon and Rahab, the latter a non-Israelite and one of the four women highlighted in the ancestry of Christ. The sequence runs from Abraham through Judah, Perez, and Salmon to Boaz, and onward through Obed, Jesse, and David to Christ. The presence of both Ruth and Rahab in this line has been read as underscoring divine grace working through unexpected, non-Israelite figures within the ancestry of the Messiah.
Name and Tradition
The name Boaz was also given to the left of the two bronze pillars set before Solomon's Temple, the other being named Jachin; suggested meanings for the name include 'in strength' or 'in him is strength.'
Rabbinic tradition associates Boaz with Ibzan of Bethlehem, the just judge named in the Book of Judges.
Commemoration Among the Forefathers
The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers falls between December 11 and 17 and commemorates the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh—those who lived before the Law and under the Law, especially the Patriarch Abraham. It is a significant observance of the pre-Nativity season, honoring the whole genealogical line preceding the Incarnation, among whom Boaz is numbered as the great-grandfather of David.
The Orthodox Church in America marks the feast with its own Troparion and Kontakion and assigns it a representative date of December 11 as a movable Sunday, while individual forefathers such as Boaz may additionally be listed on fixed calendar dates, including December 14.
