BOAZ AS GOEL IN RUTH 4: LIBERATION FROM ECONOMICAL EXCHANGE Simeon Theojaya Abstract The agency of goel (kinsman-redeemer) was instituted in the Hebrew Scripture to support the duty of redemption, whether it concerns one’s property (Lev. 25:23-28), an enslaved kin (Lev. 25:47-55), or even bloodshed (Num. 35; Deu. 19:1-13). The focus of this study will be limited on the first issue, as it is elaborated by Boaz’s act in Ruth 4. I will first summarize the story, and then read it in the light of Gutierrez’s liberation theology. The aim of the study is to examine how the underlying principle economical exchange used to work in the exercise of redemption, and how Boaz’s act of liberation takes manifold risks upon himself and surpasses the mechanism of economical exchange. Redemption As Economical Exchange Context Although the word, goel, is exclusively Hebraic, there are “parallel functions” in the Ancient Near East context. 1 With regard to material property, the Old Babylonian Laws of Eshnunna 39 and Khafajah 82 mount the right of an owner to redeem his own property (which was sold under financial necessity), even if it is not for sale. The redemption of a relative is most obviously noted in Khafajah 88, where a son took a loan to redeem his father, but, being unable 1 Leggett, The Levirate and Goel Institutions in the Old Testament, 63ff; also Ginzberg, “Study in the Economics of the Bible,” 375-376.