You will write a minimum of a 2500-word interpretive commentary on the Old Testament book of Ruth, in current Turabian format, that will include 4 major components:

1. an introduction to the historical setting (approximately 200–300 words)
2. an exegetical outline of the book (to provide structure for the commentary)
3. an interpretive commentary on Ruth chapters 1–4 (approximately 500 words per chapter)
4. a conclusion that supports at least 3 applications to the Christian life (approximately 300–500 words)

The documents that are attached provide instructions for the Interpretive Commentary on Ruth and an example of a similar assignment on the book of Obadiah. The example assignment is simply to provide a visual idea of what the Interpretive Commentary on Ruth might look like.   

Week 7: Ruth Commentary (200 pts.) 

Submit your completed Interpretive Commentary by the close of Module Seven. Keep in mind that you are not writing a sermon; you are writing a commentary. You can produce sermons from the commentary, but the commentary is not sermonic. The application portion of this paper is at the end of the assignment; the commentary itself is interpretive. Read through your sources and highlight insightful comments that you want to include in your commentary. You will need to be selective so that the commentary is not primarily a string of quotes. If you are using digital media, you can cut and paste these comments into your outline. You should have 3-4 citations for each chapter of Ruth. Seek to have balanced research by having your citations evenly distributed throughout your commentary. Make sure that you provide proper citations and footnotes for all sources.

As you write your interpretive commentary, include the following 4 components: 1) an introduction to the historical setting (approximately 200–300 words); 2) an exegetical outline of the book (that provides structure for the commentary with content-oriented subheadings); 3) an interpretive commentary on Ruth for chapters 1–4 (approximately 500 words per chapter); and 4) a conclusion that supports at least 3 applications to the Christian life drawn from the interpretive analysis performed in the commentary (approximately 300–500 words). It is recommended that you use subheadings or subtitles to organize your commentary. Regarding the outline, this provides structure and a framework for your commentary that is more detailed than the four chapter breaks alone. Look for breaks and transitions in subject matter (setting, characters, etc.) and literary markers as you organize your outline. Paragraph breaks in the translation that you are using may provide the structural breaks for your outline.

See the Obadiah sample commentary for ideas on how your Ruth commentary might develop in structure, form, and content. This is only a sample—allow yourself some flexibility in how your Ruth commentary best reflects your own work, analysis, and creativity.