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Matthew 1:5 to Ruth 4:21

NT Text: Matthew 1:5

OT Source(s):

Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Reference Type: Allusion

Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression

Significance: Matthew 1:5 reproduces the closing toledot of Ruth nearly verbatim — "Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed" (Ruth 4:21) — while adding what the Hebrew genealogy omits: the women. "Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth" writes the Moabite grandmother into the royal record alongside Rahab. The connection is source-incorporation: Matthew demonstrably draws his Salmon-to-David sequence from the genealogy of Ruth 4:18-22, which first tied the book's redemption story to the Davidic line. What this verse pair establishes is redemptive-historical progression: the seed-line advances through famine, emptiness, and Gentile inclusion to David and on to Christ, vindicating Ruth's hesed-driven entry into Israel ("your people will be my people," Ruth 1:16). The Boaz-as-kinsman-redeemer typology is real but belongs to the redemption narrative itself (see the Boaz Trajectory Table below), not to this genealogical notice.