Ruth 4:1-2, 11
“Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, “Come aside, friend, sit down here.” So he came aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.”
The people were able to see what had transpired and could testify that everything had been done above-board. In a way, these people functioned like notaries, in our day, who witness and put their seal on a document, and sign it, verifying that, the transaction was legal and accurate. This was a form of witnessing an occurrences of the Old Testament.
What happened here in Ruth 4 is a form of Boaz being a metaphor of Jesus Christ. Boaz chose ten elders, who were respected men of the town to witness his actions. Since this event took place in Bethlehem, these Jews were probably relatives of David. Boaz was David’s great-grandfather. Boaz took ten of them, whose eyewitness testimony could not be denied in any way, and these men then witnessed his redemption of the land and Ruth.
Jesus did exactly the same thing, except that He chose twelve men of Judah from Galilee. They would do the same for Him, telling all who would hear that He had indeed redeemed His people. Luke 24:44-49 shows that this is exactly what He did. While the normal, legal idea of witnessing appears in the New Testament, Jesus makes use of it to confirm His life and death to the whole world through His witnesses, the apostles.
