Book of Tobit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hebrew Bible or Old Testament for details see Biblical canon
Jewish, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Torah/Pentateuch Joshua (Jesus Nave) Judges Ruth 1-2 Samuel 1-2 Kings 1-2 Chronicles Ezra (1 Esdras) Nehemiah (2 Esdras) Esther Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Minor prophets
Roman Catholic and Orthodox include but Jews and Protestants exclude: Tobit Judith 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Wisdom (of Solomon) Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) (Wisdom of Sirach) Baruch, includes Letter of Jeremiah (Additions to Jeremiah) Additions to Daniel Additions to Esther
Orthodox (Synod of Jerusalem) include: 1 Esdras (see Esdras for other names) 3 Maccabees 4 Maccabees (in appendix but not canonical) Prayer of Manasseh Psalm 151
Russian and Ethiopian Orthodox includes: 2 Esdras (see Esdras for other names)
Ethiopian Orthodox Bible includes: Jubilees Enoch 1-3 Meqabyan
Syriac Peshitta Bible includes: Psalm 152-155 2 Baruch This box: view • talk • edit</div>

Image:Filippino Lippi 016.jpg

The Book of Tobit (or Book of Tobias in older Catholic Bibles) is a book of scripture that is part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon, pronounced canonical by the Council of Carthage of 397 and confirmed for Roman Catholics by the Council of Trent (1546). Tobit is regarded by Protestants as apocryphal. It has never been considered an integral part of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible by mainstream Jews, but Aramaic and Hebrew fragments of the book were discovered in Cave IV at Qumran in 1955. These fragments are generally in agreement with the Greek text, which exists in three different editions.

1 Narrative
2 Significance
3 Date of composition
4 Texts
5 Geographical problems
6 Naming
7 See also
8 Notes
9 External references

[edit] Narrative

The book tells the story of a righteous Jew of the Tribe of Naphtali named Tobit living in Nineveh after the deportation of the northern tribes of Israel to Assyria in 721 BC under Shalmaneser V. (The first two and a half chapters are written in the first person.) He was particularly noted for his diligence in attempting to provide proper burials for fallen Jews who had been slain by Sennacherib, for which the king seized all his property and exiled him. After Sennacherib's death, he was allowed to return to Nineveh, but again buried a dead man who had been murdered on the street. That night, he slept in the open and was blinded by bird droppings that fell in his eyes. This put a strain on his marriage, and ultimately, he prayed for death.

Meanwhile, in faraway Media, a young woman named Sarah prays for death in despair. She has lost seven husbands to the demon of lust -- Ashmodai (a demon frequently associated with homosexuality, who abducts and kills every man she marries on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. God sends the angel Raphael, disguised as a human, to heal Tobit and to free Sarah from the demon.

The main narrative is dedicated to Tobit's son, Tobiah or Tobiyah (Greek: Tobias), who is sent by his father to collect a sum of money that the latter had deposited some time previously in the far off land of Media. Raphael represents himself as Tobit's kinsman Azariah, and offers to aid and protect Tobias on his journey. Under the guidance of Raphael, Tobias makes the journey to Media. Along the way, he is attacked by a giant fish, whose heart, liver and gall bladder are removed to make medicines.

Upon arriving in Media, Raphael tells Tobias of the beautiful Sarah, whom Tobias has the right to marry, because she is related to his tribe. He instructs the young man to burn the fish's liver and heart to drive away the demon when he attacks on the wedding night. The two are married, and the fumes of the burning organs drive the demon away to Upper Egypt, while Raphael follows him and binds him. Meanwhile, Sarah's father has been digging a grave to secretly bury Tobias (whom he assumes will be dead). Surprised to find his son-in-law alive and well, he orders a double-length wedding feast and has the grave secretly filled. Since he cannot leave because of the feast, Tobias sends Raphael to recover his father's money.

After the feast, Tobias and Sarah return to Nineveh. There, Raphael tells the youth to use the fish's gall to cure his father's blindness. Raphael then reveals his true identity and returns to heaven. Tobit sings a hymn of praise, and tells his son to leave Nineveh before God destroys it according to prophecy. After burying his father, Tobias returns to Media with his family.

[edit] Significance

Catholics list the book of Tobit among the "historical books" of the Bible, but most scholars regard it more as a religious novel with certain historical elements. Many of the historical details in the book contradict what is known about the history of the period from extra-Biblical sources but Catholic Bible scholars have provided a variety of ways for explaining these apparent discrepancies from these relatively modern texts.

The book is also closely related to Jewish wisdom literature; nowhere is this clearer than in Tobit's instructions to Tobias before his departure for Media in chapter 4. The value of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is particularly praised in this instruction; the Catholic Church often uses readings from this section in its liturgy. Because of the book's praise for the purity of marriage, it is often read during Catholic weddings.

Doctrinally, the book is cited for its teaching on the intercession of angels, filial piety, and reverence for the dead.

[edit] Date of composition

It is generally believed that the book was written in the second century BC, on the basis of the scrupulous attention to ritual details and the stress laid upon giving alms. However, neither the date nor location of composition is certain. There are some scholars who maintain that this work really was written during the eighth century BC.

[edit] Texts

The book was probably originally written in Aramaic. It appears that Jerome's version for the Vulgate was made from an Aramaic text available to him. Four fragmentary texts in Aramaic and one in Hebrew were found at Qumran.<ref>[A.A. Di Lella, New English Translation of the Septuagint].</ref>

The surviving Greek translations are found in two versions. The shorter form, called Greek I by Robert Harnhart in his edition of the Septuagint, is found in Codex Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Venetus, and most cursive manuscripts. The Greek II version, which is 1700 words longer, is found in Codex Sinaiticus and closely aligns with the Hebrew and Aramaic fragments found at Qumran. Apparently the Old Latin (La) manuscripts are also translated from the longer Greek II version. Most English translations since 1966 have relied on the Greek II version.<ref>[A.A. Di Lella, New English Translation of the Septuagint].</ref>

[edit] Geographical problems

Some ancient texts of Tobit that give Midian (the Transjordan region) instead of Media and Batanea instead of Ecbatana; therefore the Rages of these texts would be modern day Damascus. It's probable that these were the original readings because the book would contain geographical impossibilities otherwise. If such is the case then the reading of Ecbatana would have come about from the phrase "ex Batania".

One such text is the Heb. Londinii (or HL) version. See Marshall, op. cit., 786; a text found by Gaster in the British Museum, Add. 11,639. A description and translation of the MS, which belongs to the C13th AD, is given by Gaster in PSBA, vol.xviii., 208ff., 259ff., and vol.xx., 27ff.

[edit] Naming

The book of Tobit was called "Tobias" before the time of Jerome. The most ancient Greek manuscripts of the book has been lost, but scholars believe there were some minor differences in the original text, for example in the replacement of the name "Tobit" with the name Tobias. It is for this reason that older translations influenced by the most ancient Greek text entitle the book Tobias instead of "Tobit" as is common in most modern English translations.

The Old Greek Septuagint used Tobias rather than Tobit (see the Catholic Encyclopedia's article Alleluia). Lancelot C.L. Brenton, (The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1851)), uses the Masoretic form, Τωβίτ, an Aramaic spelling. This is consistent with Brenton's use of Codex vaticanus, which replaces many Old Greek readings and books with later works based on extant Hebrew and Aramaic texts, such as the Theodotiontic. For example, Brenton's Book of Daniel is not the Septuagint's version, but the newer Theodotion's, although original portions, or perhaps the whole book itself, of Tobit was written in Greek. Τωβίας is simply the Greek spelling of Aramaic Tobit. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Jerome's Vulgate and ancient Hebrew Fagii call father and son by the same name, thus: "Tobias, son of Tobias." This would account for Tobias (or Tobiah) and Tobit as versions of one name. However, the version now included in most versions of the Apocrypha has a reading "Tobit son of Tobias" and entitles the book after the main character Tobit. The exact reading of the original Old Greek book may defy reconstruction. Thus a discussion about the modern version of the book should rightly have the modern title "Tobit." However this article is a discussion of the Septuagint and its original Old Greek form, not the Aramaic-Greek or Hebrew manuscripts. To replace the old title with the new is to make assumptions about the Old Greek readings of the text. Therefore, to avoid anachronism, the Old Greek title is to be used here rather than the Aramaic of modern versions.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Toby derives from Τωβίας, which is the original Greek title of Tobit. It is the basis of all ancient daughter versions of the Septuagint; a "daughter version" is a translation of the Septuagint. Thus the Septuagint's titles reflect the Greek usage and not that of some other language. Its text and titles were the official standard of the Church, East and West. Its titles are retained today in the books of the Pentateuch and Psalms. The Latin Vulgate of 425 AD likewise retains most of the Greek names, including Tobias. Tobias is a common personal name in the Western world where the newer Tobit is unheard. For example, note the example of the phrase "Toby night" for Tobias night among Roman Catholics. Tobias and its English derivative Toby have been used since the conversion of the Anglos-Saxons to Christianity. Furthermore, "Toby" is used in Nehemiah 6:14 of Wycliffe's translation (1395),which is the oldest complete English version of the Bible, but Tobit is nowhere to be found in that Bible. Tobit appears for the first time in the West in Coverdale's translation (1535). He was the first English translator to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew, rather than the Greek or Latin, as had been done previously. Therefore the modern title Tobit is anachronistic in discussions of the Old Greek form of the Septuagint.