Didactic Intertextuality

Abstract

In this chapter, 1 look at intertextual resonances with proverbial wisdom, notably from the sayings collection (10:1–22:16) showing how the didactic method of proverbial maxims as found in Proverbs (ethical emphasis) is applied in Ruth. The character of Ruth reveals that she is not simply a woman of worth (a comparison often made of Ruth with Prov 31) but she is a more profound exemplar of the values embodied in proverbial wisdom. Ruth links up with the wisdom ideal, not simply through her female figure/worthy womanliness/wife and mother role. It is of interest here how a narrative text links up with more abstract moral qualities as found in Proverbs. Rather than producing a maxim and then finding a story to illustrate it, a story is illustrated by a wider paradigm. This gives the story didactic ‘thrust’ (Cheung) for the reader. Whether these connections were in any way meant by an author is a separate question to the fact that these resonances are found in the text in its present form. I shall treat them as synchronic intertextual resonances with the possibility open that diachronic resonances may also have been intended. I am coining the phrase ‘didactic intertextuality’ to explain this phenomenon, which is potentially much wider than simply this one example and might be applied to other narratives.