Tobias

In this post, we read the Book of Tobit. As we will do for the following Books of Judith and Esther, we will not dwell on the problem of their historicity in every detail (we leave it to the scholars), but we will examine the text as is. We remember that what matters to the Bible is to communicate the Lord’s message for human sake, not a mere chronicle of events or some scientific knowledge (see the previous post about the Judges).

Our story begins in Nineveh, where the Assyrians deported Tobit, an Israelite belonging to the tribe of Naphtali, and his family: Anna his wife and his only son Tobias. Tobit saw, when he was young, the separation of the two Hebrew kingdoms after Solomon’s death. Despite his belonging to Israel (the northern kingdom) he remained faithful to the Jerusalem Temple and to all the commandments of the Law. Even in the land of his deportation, he is generous and trusty. «In the days of Enemessar, I did many alms deeds to my kindred: I gave my bread to the hungry, and my garments to the naked. If I saw any of my race dead, and cast forth on the wall of Ninevah, I buried him». One «night I returned from burying him, and slept by the wall of my courtyard, being polluted; and my face was uncovered. I didn’t know that there were sparrows in the wall. My eyes were open and the sparrows dropped warm dung into my eyes, and white films came over my eyes. I went to the physicians, and they didn’t help me». Tobit prays the Lord to die; he is fed up with his neighbors’ mocking and with his and his people’s suffering. Far from him, in the city of Ecbatana, Sarah, his brother Raguel’s daughter, is asking the same thing of the Lord. She wants to die because an evil spirit kills all the men she marries in their first night with her. «The prayer of both was heard before the glory of the great God. Raphael also was sent to heal them both, to scale away the white films from Tobit’s eyes, and to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and to bind Asmodaeus the evil spirit». God accepts the prayer for a full and joyful life, not for death. The promising opportunity to realize God’s plan is the withdrawal of some money left in Media by Tobit several years before. Tobit assigns that task to his son Tobias, who finds Azarias as a guide for the journey (indeed he is Angel Raphael in disguise). During the journey, they grab a big fish; the angel asks Tobias to «Cut the fish open, and take the heart, the liver, and the gall, and keep them with you».

 

 

When they arrive in Media, Azarias proposes his traveling companion to lodge in Raguel’s house and to ask in marriage Sarah his daughter (Tobias is the closest relative who has the right to do this). He protests, because he knows the previous husbands’ fate and he does not want to make his father suffer for his only son’s death. The angel, however, reassures him: «when you come into the bride-chamber, you shall take the ashes of incense, and shall lay upon them some of the heart and liver of the fish, and shall make smoke with them. The demon will smell it, and flee away, and never come again any more. But when you go near to her, both of you rise up, and cry to God who is merciful. He will save you, and have mercy on you. Don’t be afraid, for she was prepared for you from the beginning; and you will save her». It happens as the angel said; Raguel, who dug a grave expecting Tobias’s death, has to change his opinion with great joy. Azarias goes to take the money, because Tobias has to attend the wedding feast for fourteen days.

Tobit is initially afraid because of his son’s delay, but when Tobias comes back God’s blessing is complete. In fact, he has his father’s money, he married his cousin Sarah (freed from the evil spirit) and Tobit can see again, thanks to the fish’s gall. It is the right moment for Raphael’s revelation. «Bless God, and give him thanks, and magnify him, and give him thanks in the sight of all that live, for the things which he has done with you. It is good to bless God and exalt his name, showing forth with honor the works of God. Don’t be slack to give him thanks. It is good to keep close the secret of a king, but to reveal gloriously the works of God. [...] Alms delivers from death, and it purges away all sin. Those who give alms and do righteousness will be filled with life; but those who sin are enemies to their own life. [...] And now, when you prayed, and Sarah your daughter-in-law, I brought the memorial of your prayer before the Holy One. When you buried the dead, I was with you likewise. And when you didn’t delay to rise up, and leave your dinner, that you might go and cover the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me. I was with you. And now God sent me to heal you and Sarah your daughter-in-law. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and go in before the glory of the Holy One». Raphael in Hebrew means “God heals”; he is indeed an effective intercessor to cure diseases, to find wife/husband and in general a full life. The angel ascends to heaven and Tobit writes a beautiful «prayer for rejoicing», that I invite you to read in chapter 13 of the book. When his parents die, Tobias moves with his family to his father-in-law’s house. The prophets, in fact, foretold the Assyrians’ ruin and Nineveh would not be safe in the future (the Babylonians will conquer it). In the next post, we will tell Judith’s story.