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ANDRÉ LACOCQUE, Ruth: A Continental Commentary (trans. K. C. Hanson; Continental Commentaries; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). Pp. xx + 187. $28.00.
This book is an elegant English translation of André LaCocque's Le Livre de Ruth, coordinately published in the Commentaire de l'Ancien Testament series (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 2004). The author, professor emeritus of OT at Chicago Theological Seminary, is well known for his "creative" expositions of "subversive" biblical texts. The book under review provides a good example of his characteristic approach-it is well written, well researched, synthetic, insightful, broad in scope, and well acquainted with the relevant literature. Intrigued and attracted to the plethora of social institutions in Ruth, L. writes this commentary to show his readers that the book of Ruth is a veritable "commentary on the Law" (p. 19).
In the past, several reviewers have criticized L. for being opinionated and extravagant and, well, rather loose with the text. Unfortunately, some of these adjectives apply to the present work as well. For example, L. asserts that Ruth's opening line ("In the days when the judges judged") is "quite fictitious" (p. 18) not because there is historical evidence for such a claim, but because he chooses to champion a redaction theory in which the "attitudes and actions" of Ruth's main characters "make no sense" in any period prior to the postexilic (p. 19). Without mentioning alternative possibilities, L. simply proceeds on the basis of a historical reconstruction that, with...