This is the hypothesis used by the sociologist, theologian and philosopher Andrés Ortiz Lemos (Quito, 1976), in a brave theological experiment that he recorded in Gospel according to Ruth, a text with the characteristics of a novel, bordering on the installation of a myth. There is no trace of sarcasm, no esotericism, no catechetical pretensions in this book. Maybe it’s a short story, that is, a fiction that didn’t happen. This is the kind of literature in which stories from other times are inserted, trying to shed light on the meaning of the work. The complex construction, the complexity of which should not be confused with complication, reveals the richness of the presented content.

It is not a gospel, although several passages are arranged in the format of Bible chapters and verses. And it will not be a paraphrase of biblical stories, despite resorting to biblical events or circumstances. The birth of Ruta, daughter of Josip and Marija, coincides with the massacre of innocents from which she escapes precisely because she is a woman. Thus, the flight to Egypt does not appear as an escape from the massacre, but is motivated by the girl’s dubious legitimate belonging. In Alexandria, she was admitted to Philo’s rabbinical school, where she released her critical curiosity. He does not remain memorized in the knowledge of the law, but finds questions in the empty gaps of the holy scriptures: do animals speak? Where did Cain’s wife come from? The very presentation of these “details”, which cause a skeptical smile, shakes the fragile narrative structure of “God’s Word”.

Gospel according to Ruth It is not a black-and-white exegesis of the Bible, nor does it reveal an intention to insert, or be inserted, heresy, a possibility no longer heroic since the disappearance of the Inquisition’s pyres, but it makes a crucial point. He seems to be saying, okay, this is fiction, the Messiah was not a woman, but he could have been, since God transcends the sexuality of the human body, right? An unpleasant idea, although not unsolvable. However, one question remains: why is the male gender preferred? Can the infinite power of God solve the matter of the hermaphrodite messiah? But this text is not reduced to that topic, nor does it use a gender perspective. Although this might lead one to think that, in fact, the phenomenon of redemption would have been very different if the Anointed One (Christ) had been a woman, in a world where, without scandal, a husband could beat his wife. until I kill her. Nor is it just a theological question, this narrative slides from one level to another without sudden jumps. Subordinate, but always present and always gravitating, is the level I will call epistemological: the theme of truth in relation to divinity appears several times from children’s doubts about the future? messiah, who finds that the God of the holy books authorizes his “followers” to lie, and even rewards lying. While in the last pages, the impossibility of objective truth seems assumed, reduced to subjective visions. This gospel deserves, as can be seen, a careful and impartial reading in order to discover all its conceptual richness. (OR)