Who wrote the Book of Ruth in the Bible?

Answer 1

The author isn't known. It has been suggested that Samuel or David were involved in its final edition.

AnswerThe book of Ruth seems to have originally been part of the Book of Judges, and laterremoved as a separate book. Since this suggests that the author of Ruth was the same author as that of Judges, some traditionalists say that the book was written by the prophet Samuel. However, the text indicates that King David was well known, thus placing the authorship after the death of Samuel. Since modern scholars say that the Book of Judges was really written by an anonymous author now known as the Deuteronomist, this would suggest the Deuteronomist as the author, but such a conclusion has little support.

The Book of Ruth contains a mixture of Hebrew styles, both archaic and modern as well as some Aramaic.

If the archaic Hebrew is part of the original book, with the later Hebrew and the Aramaic inserted later, it would have been written somewhat early in the first millennium BCE, but this would still not inform us exactly who wrote the book.

On the other hand, the later Hebrew and Aramaic texts could have been part of the original text, with the archaic Hebrew added later to give the book the appearance of antiquity, in which case a date around 500 BCE is preferred. The content of the book supports the late date of authorship.

A plausible conjecture is that the Book of Ruth was written by a woman, but there is no evidence to support this. We simply do not know who the author was.