Dual Motives

• In Event: Graduate Student Lightning Session: Gender and Sexuality

Abstract

Many biblical narratives contain the literary phenomenon of dual motives: the biblical narrator presents two motivations for a character’s actions – one personal, the other ideological (either religious or nationalist, but purely altruistic). This phenomenon appears in different forms, insofar as the motives in question may be explicit, implicit, or both, and each manifestation must be analyzed independently.
The specific phenomenon I wish to analyze is where the narrator creates, through word choice or plot design, an anticipation of dual motivations at the outset, but as the story progresses only one of these motivations is realized.
The text we will analyze as example of this phenomenon is Ruth 2-3. Both the language and plot of the book of Ruth create the strong impression of an ideological-religious motive for Boaz’s actions. However, interwoven with these cues are compelling indications of Boaz's personal-romantic motivation. Yet at the peak moment, when the personal motive should come to the fore, this option is rejected, and the ideological-religious element becomes the single motive.

Author

• Noa Oman