Erin Zoromski
NT4227: Genesis to Revelation
Bible Study Installment #4
The Book of Ruth Bible Study #3
(Bible Study Installment #4)
*Note: This Bible study is designed for a small group of 6-8 young adults interested in the arts.
*Focus text: Ruth as a whole (New Revised Standard Version)
*Focus theme: Ruth as a drama
Prayer: To center and focus
I want to get everyone in the group centered and focused before the opening. It will start
with everyone closing their eyes and following my directions on when to breathe. I will do that
about three times before going into a prayer.
Example: Breathe in God’s story. Breathe out God’s story to others. (repeat 3 times)
Thank you God for bringing us together in this space. We hope to have You in our
presence as we journey into the drama of Ruth and to bless us with wonderful
conversation and discussion. In Your name we pray and play. Amen.
Opening: Group Count Game (1 to 20)
When it comes to the opening, I have selected a theatre game I have done with a group in
an acting class and found it to be a very great game to start a class with. Thus, I have provided
the objective, rules, and purpose or reasoning for the game below. I will explain these to the
small group before we start the game too.
Objective: The object of this game is to have the whole group count from one to twenty.
Rules:
o One person may say a number out loud at a time. If two or more speak at the
same time, then the group has to start over.
o Everyone’s eyes must be closed if sitting or standing in a circle, or everyone is
constantly moving about the space if the group decides to do this game
standing up and moving.
o Everyone must say a number at one point during the attempts.
Purpose: The purpose of this game is to create group bonding and become more aware of
everyone’s presence. Along with that, this game focuses on listening to one another, so
this could help inspire the small group to be able to listen to one another without speaking
over each other. This game takes time and patience in order to achieve the goal, so it will
also get the small group more focused and patient when it comes to diving into the story
of Ruth. Lastly, it can be fun to achieve something with a group, so hopefully the small
group is able to count to twenty together to have that sense of accomplishment.
Note: You should let the group attempt this game for about five or ten minutes since it
can be difficult and might require a few attempts in the first place in order to succeed.
Information to Share:
This would be the point that I would share some background information and to explain
Freytag’s Pyramid more when it comes to a general and simple structure of a drama. I also have
provided the image of Freytag’s Pyramid to help give a visual of it. This is especially handy to
have just in case any of the small group members have not been exposed to this kind of dramatic
structure before or to help refresh what they already know.
*Setting: The book of Ruth was most likely written during the Second Temple period
when it was not proper for Jewish people and foreigners to marry one another, which included
Ammonites and Moabites.1 While the setting of Ruth seems to take place during the time of
judges around 1235 -1050 BC2
*Freytag’s Pyramid: I believe that the book of Ruth comes across as a drama because it
follows the structure of one. A famous dramatic structure is Freytag’s pyramid in which it
includes exposition, rising action, the climax, falling action, and resolution.3 From my own
understanding and studies, the exposition is information about the setting and the characters
within the story. The rising action is all the action of the story that leads up to the climax or the
main event or could be possibly be a turning point. Hence, the rising action is all the action that
leads to the resolution. This should then wrap up the main problem or action of the story and
occur at the very end.
When I look at the story myself, the exposition occurs right at the beginning in Ruth 1:1-
5 while the rising action is all the action Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz do before the climax, which I
believe occurs when Boaz redeems the land and settles the deal in chapter 4. This leads quickly
to the falling action and the resolution at the end in chapter 4, where Ruth marries Boaz and has a
son named Obed, making Ruth the great-grandmother of David. However, the group will be
working together when it comes to applying Freytag’s Pyramid to Ruth.
Freytag’s Pyramid (Simple Version)
Reading the Text / Applying Freytag’s Pyramid to Ruth / Discussion Questions:
It is now time to read the text and to apply Freytag’s Pyramid. I have selected the parts of
the story and texts in which each part of the dramatic structure could possibly occur. Thus, the
placement for each step of Freytag’s Pyramid is not necessarily correct or wrong since it is an
1
Yair Zakovitch, “Ruth,” In The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard
Version with the Apocrypha, 4th ed., ed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A.
Newsom, and Pheme Perkins (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 392.
2
Ibid.
3
Suzanne Burgonye and Patricia Downey, Thinking Through Script Analysis
(Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing / R. Pullions Company, 2012), 31-32.
2
interpretation and could possibly go in a different direction. Furthermore, there are discussion
questions after each reading and section of the dramatic structure in order to understand the story
better and to maybe discover new ways in which Ruth could fit the structure of drama.
For each of the readings, I will have volunteers read the selected passages, but they must
read it dramatically since we do not want to have these readings to be boring. If there are
characters speaking, then the reader must create a voice for that character as well.
*Exposition: Read Ruth 1: 1-5
What do we know about the setting from this passage?
Who are the characters and how do you characterize them so far?
What important information is revealed through the exposition?
*Rising Action: (occurs multiple times in Ruth 1:6 – Ruth 3:18)
The small group will take a look quickly on their own through Ruth 1:6 – Ruth 3:18 to find
examples of the rising action.
What action occurs before the climax?
Which rising action or event before the climax do you believe is the most important and
why?
*Climax: (occurs in Ruth 4) Read Ruth 4:1-10
Is this the “true” climax of Ruth or does it occur somewhere else? Why?
Are there multiple climaxes within the book that you can point out within each chapter
and where? Or, is the structure of Ruth more complicated than the simple form of
Freytag’s Pyramid and why?
*Falling Action / Resolution (Denouement): Read Ruth 4:13-22
What action has occurred with the characters before the resolution?
How does the story of Ruth resolve itself or is it a story still waiting for a resolution?
Why do you think that?
After looking at the whole structure of the book, who is the protagonist and who is the
antagonist? Why?
Closing: Design your own Ruth theatre production activity
This then leads to the closing activity of the Bible study on Ruth, which will be based
around this question:
If you were going to produce, design, or direct Ruth as a theatre production, how would
you go about doing this? For example, would you set it in its historical time or would you
set it in a more contemporary setting? Or, what would your costumes look like? (etc.)
I will have paper and drawing supplies provided for the group, so they can design or create what
their play will be or look like. They can either choose to focus on one type of design for their
Ruth play, like costumes or lighting, or they can choose to look at the show as a whole.
However, each person should choose a time and setting for their play, so they are able to design
something specificity for that time and setting. This time and setting does not necessary have to
be a “real” time and setting as well. Once everyone is finished or when the time is up, then the
small group will come back together to explain what they have created.
The purpose for this closing activity is to get the small group thinking more about the
book of Ruth as being a drama and to get them to think more creatively about it. Additionally,
this activity should be a fun and dramatic way to end a Bible study on Ruth overall.
