The Bible’s queerest story? The book of Ruth

An Old Testament book finds God in an LGBT mood

At Christian weddings, the bride and groom often recite a speech from the Bible. The verses Ruth 1:16–17 have married many couples.

Brides and grooms, endlessly, say the lovely words:

“For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

It’s a bit ironic, as it’s a speech between two women.

Ruth & Naomi, stained glass window at St Mary, Over, Cambridgeshire

Could the Bible’s story of Ruth and Naomi be a queer love story?

I must say, when I first heard the idea, I was surprised. Surely not in the Bible. But as I’m going through the scholarly literature on the book of Ruth, which often notices the weird gendering, I have to notice facts.

In Ruth 1:14, Ruth “clung” to Naomi, just as a man “clings” to a wife in Genesis 2:24.

Then the very fact of two people loving each other is very unusual. The reason that the speech of Ruth 1:16–17 is read at weddings is because no such language is ever found between male-female couples. In the Bible, married couples don’t typically love each other. As the…