C. S. Lewis Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Клайв Стейплз Льюис. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Клайв Стейплз Льюис
Издательство: HarperCollins
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Жанр произведения: Классическая проза
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isbn: 9780007446612
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Gk: Heb Surrounding

       RUTH

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

      IT’S STILL THE WORD OF GOD

      To me the curious thing is that neither in my own Bible-reading nor in my religious life as a whole does the question in fact even assume that importance which it always gets in theological controversy. The difference between reading the story of Ruth and that of Antigone—both first class as literature—is to me unmistakable and even overwhelming. But the question “Is Ruth historical?” (I’ve no reason to suppose it is not) doesn’t really seem to arise till afterwards. It wd. still act on me as the Word of God if it weren’t, so far as I can see. All Holy Scripture is written for our learning. But learning of what? I should have thought the value of some things (e.g., the Resurrection) depended on whether they really happened: but the value of others (e.g., the fate of Lot’s wife) hardly at all. And the ones whose historicity matters are, as God’s will, those where it is plain.

      —from a letter to Professor Clyde S. Kilby, May 7, 1959

      For reflection

Ruth 1:1–4

      WHEN SORROW COMES

      LEWIS, GRIEVING THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE, JOY:

      Ihad been warned—I had warned myself—not to reckon on worldly happiness. We were even promised sufferings. They were part of the programme. We were even told, “Blessed are they that mourn,” and I accepted it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not in imagination. Yes; but should it, for a sane man, make quite such a difference as this. No. And it wouldn’t for a man whose faith had been real faith and whose concern for other people’s sorrows had been real concern. The case is too plain. If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards. The faith which “took these things into account” was not faith but imagination. The taking them into account was not real sympathy. If I had really cared, as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came.

      —from A Grief Observed

      For reflection

Ruth 1:1–4, 20

      6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had considered his people and given them food. 7So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9The LORD grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, 13would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has turned against me.” 14Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

      15 So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth said,

      “Do not press me to leave you

      or to turn back from following you!

      Where you go, I will go;

      where you lodge, I will lodge;

      your people shall be my people,

      and your God my God.

      17 Where you die, I will die—

      there will I be buried.

      May the LORD do thus and so to me,

      and more as well,

      if even death parts me from you!”

      18When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

      19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20She said to them,

      21 I went away full,

      but the LORD has brought me back empty;

      why call me Naomi

      and the Almighty[3] has brought calamity upon me?”

      22 So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

      ALMS FOR THE POOR

      Charity” now means simply what used to be called “alms”—that is, giving to the poor. Originally it had a much wider meaning. (You can see how it got the modern sense. If a man has “charity,” giving to the poor is one of the most obvious things he does, and so people came to talk as if that were the whole of charity. In the same way, “rhyme” is the most obvious thing about poetry, and so people come to mean by “poetry” simply rhyme and nothing more.) Charity