The Greek transliteration Boaz (Βόοζ) represents the Hebrew name Boaz, meaning "in him is strength" or "swiftness." Boaz was a wealthy landowner of Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah, the son of Salmon and Rahab, who married the Moabite widow Ruth and became the great-grandfather of King David. His name appears in the genealogies of Jesus Christ in both Matthew 1:5 and Luke 3:32.
Boaz is one of Scripture's greatest pictures of the kinsman-redeemer (go'el, H1350). By fulfilling the Levirate custom and marrying Ruth, Boaz redeemed both the land of Naomi's husband and the Moabite widow Ruth, restoring both to the covenant community and covenant inheritance. His voluntary, costly action of redemption — redeeming one who had no claim on him by birth, an outsider from a despised nation — is a profound foreshadowing of Christ's redemption of the Gentiles. The strength his name implies found its greatest expression in sacrificial generosity.