The man walked towards the gate of the city on his way to his fields. It was the harvest and there was much to be done. The foremen needed instructions, the workers needed tools, and someone needed to keep a watch out for bandits and other thieves who may be marauding in the area.
As he got to the gate, he hears a voice calling to him: “Turn aside, friend, and sit down here.” He recognizes him immediately as Boaz, one of his kinsman. While not exactly close, they were in the same clan in the tribe of Judah. Not sure what this is about, he sits at the gate where business was conducted. He’s surprised when Boaz calls together 10 elders of the city and asks them to sit also. This must be serious business indeed.
The man is further surprised and excited to hear what Boaz has to say. The field of Elimelech is available to be redeemed. Being the closest male relative alive, he can redeem it for the family. This will help increase his holdings and provide an even greater income and increase his status in the clan. Boaz asks if he wishes to redeem it. Calculating the size and amount of produce it will yield, he immediately answers that he will redeem it.
But there’s a catch. Boaz informs him that with the field he must also marry Ruth the Moabitess, who was the wife of Elimelech’s son so that his name will carry on. By the laws of this time, any child Ruth bears will inherit the field. If he does not have any other children, the man’s own inheritance could be in jeopardy.
This changes everything. Boaz stares at the man, almost looking into his soul. He comes to a quick decision. No...the risk is too high. The man informs Boaz that he cannot redeem the field. Since Boaz is the next closest relative, the man passes on his right of redemption to him and confirms it by giving over his sandal in front of the witnesses. The deed is done and Boaz is free to marry Ruth. Their child, Obed, becomes the father of a man named Jesse who is the father of several children, the youngest of whom is named: David.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Bible Backdrop. In this episode, we will be talking about the family structure in the Bible and why it was so important. As in the story of Ruth and Boaz, we see several elements of the importance of family: tribes, clans, kinsman, and land redemption. We’ll talk about these and other topics throughout this episode.
When we think of family today, we usually think of our immediate family. Husband, wife, and kids. While that was a building block, the families during Bible times were much more extensive. Extended families often lived together and included several generations. People grew up around their aunts, uncles, grandparents and even great-grandparents. The extended families lived and worked together or very near each other. In Luke 2:41-52 we see an example of this: Jesus, Mary and Joseph have all gone to Jerusalem for the Passover along with the extended family. They leave and because the caravan is so large, they assume he’s with his cousins. After traveling all day, they come to discover he’s missing. Three terrifying days later, they find him in Jerusalem in discussion with the teachers in the Temple. This shows how large extended families could be at this time if they were gone a whole day without knowing He was missing.
After the extended family comes the clan. There’s really no definitive formula about what makes a clan. It is simply several extended families with a common ancestor. Let me give an example: My paternal great-grandfather, grandfather, father, uncles, my brother and myself and our families would have made up an extended family. If my grandfather had a brother then all his relations would have been part of the extended family as well. If my great-grandfather had brothers, then all their families along with ours would have made up a clan and he would be the patriarch of that clan (assuming he was the oldest). Why do I only call out the men and their families? Because any women born at that time would have married into another extended family or clan.
All the clans put together make up the tribe and in ancient Israel, they are descended from the sons of Jacob whom God renames Israel. In the Bible, 10 of the tribes that gain a landed inheritance are named after sons of Israel while 2 (Ephraim and Manasseh) are named after sons of Joseph. One tribe, Levi, does not have a landed inheritance as they are given the mantle of priests and God is their inheritance. Tribe loyalty was extremely important. Many times, tribes fought each other as often as they would fight outside enemies. In 2 Samuel 16 and 20 we see 2 different Benjamites curse David and rebel because the monarchy passed out of their tribe to the tribe of Judah. Needless to say, this didn’t go well for the men.
Tribes would also band together to dispense justice. In Judges 20, we see the other tribes band together against the tribe of Benjamin due to a great sin that was committed. They gave the tribe the option to give up the guilty men, but loyalty to the tribe was paramount so Benjamin went to war with the rest of Israel. Read the story to find out how it ended. (Hint: Again, not well).
Family structure was important because it was connected to the land which was economic production. The extended family was the basic unit when it came to land ownership. Instead of individual ownership, it belonged to the family. Actually, it all belonged to God as described in Leviticus 25:23 “The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.” All the land was managed by the extended family units. Severing this connection between the family and the land severed their connection to God. To prevent this, laws were developed to keep the land within the family. The best examples are the redemption laws. Many of them are spelled out in Leviticus 25:24-28 and 47-52. Another law where redemption plays a part is the law of levirate marriage as spelled out in Deuteronomy 25: 5-10. If a man died and had no male offspring, the brother of the man or the closest kinsman should marry the woman and provide offspring in his brother’s name and so continue the family inheritance. This is what we see in the story of Ruth and Boaz from earlier. A kinsman was offered the field but would have to marry Ruth to continue the family inheritance. He was not willing to do so and this was allowed for in the law, although it could come with some public shaming. In this case, Boaz, as the next closest kinsman, could redeem it instead and he did so and the other kinsman was able to avoid being shamed.
As mentioned in the episode on the Philistines, the fighting between tribes led to the request for a king to unite everyone. One of the biggest transitions was the centralization of power. Under the tribal system, each one was autonomous and economic activity was located in the tribe. Now with a king, there were new taxes that required an administrative layer at the national level. As a result, the family structure and the idea of land inheritance began to break down. A class of wealthy landowners tied to the monarchy rose up at the expense of smaller farmers. They used power and influence to increase their holdings. A good example of this is in 1 Kings 21 with the story of King Ahab using treachery to take Naboth’s land because he would not sell his inheritance. Naboth still felt strongly about his attachment to the land and the king had to drum up charges of treason to gain the land he coveted. The courtiers and those close to the king were the ones that testified and were almost certainly rewarded.
A few notes before wrapping up this episode. First, the birthright normally passed to the oldest son. The birthright was the designation as the leader of the family and they received a double portion of the inheritance. However, the father could designate another son if he wished. This happened to Reuben who was Jacob’s first born son. He committed an act that caused him to forfeit his birthright and Jacob gave it to Joseph who was the first born of Rachel, the wife he truly loved.
Second, while the patriarch had authority over the family, the matriarch wasn’t exactly without her own authority. The senior woman of the clan had authority over the women and children in her family. We see this in Genesis 21 when Sarah tells Abraham to send away Hagar and Ishmael. The woman’s sphere was the household and everything related to it and she made decisions in that sphere. The matriarch made the day to day rules for the clan and resolved disputes between women.
So now to recap: Family structure was extremely important during Bible times. The extended family was the basic unit when it came to land inheritance. A number of extended families made up a clan while a number of clans made up the tribe. 10 of the tribes with a landed inheritance were named after Jacob’s sons while 2 were named after Joseph’s sons. The tribe of Levi had no landed inheritance as they were priests who had God as their inheritance. There were many laws about buying, selling and redemption of the land. One of these laws was levirate marriage and this allowed the land to stay in the family even if someone died without an heir. This is how Boaz married Ruth from whom the Davidic line came to be. When the monarchy came to be, it included a set of taxes and an administrative state at the national level causing the idea of land inheritance to break down. The birthright included a double portion of the landed inheritance plus the patriarchal authority over the family. Finally, the matriarch had her own position of authority within the family and the household.
And that’s it for this episode of Bible Backdrop. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed learning more about the Bible. If you have any questions or want to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, you can help out the podcast by subscribing and writing a 5-star rating and review. Word of mouth is still the best way for this podcast to grow, so please tell a friend and have them subscribe. Thank you again for listening and have a great week!