TOBIAS. — A pious Jew who gives his name to the deuterocanonical book of the Old Testament that recounts his story. In the Vulgate the title is Liber Tobiae, while in ancient Greek manuscripts it appears as Τωβίρ (ο Τωβίρ) and in later ones as Βίβλος λόγων Τωβίρ, with the genealogy, homeland, and deportation of T. In the Vulgate, both father and son are called Tobias; in Greek, however, Τωβίας refers only to the son, while the father is called Tobit, a form derived from a Hebrew name whose abbreviated form was Τωβίρ and whose full form was Τωβιβίβαι (Ezra 3:60) or Τωβιβίβαι (2 Chron. 17:8) = Ἀλάθεν ἐ βουνο. The Book of Tobit narrates the trial of the just man, whom God providentially raises up and consoles. It is divided into three coordinated parts forming a harmonious whole.
Tizzani, Vincenzo – Contemporary portrait, preserved in the Canonica of S. Pietro in Vincoli – Rome.
1. **Virtue and Afflictions** (1:1–3:17 [Gk.]; 1:1–3:23 [Vulg.]).
Tobit is an Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali, deported to Nineveh under Shalmaneser, where he remains steadfast in the observance of the Law, as he had been in his homeland. He marries Anna and has a son named T.; he engages in business, protected by the Assyrian king (1:9–15). Faithful to God and his countrymen even under the persecution unleashed by the new king Sennacherib against the Israelites, Tobit buries their corpses (1:16–19); for this he is sought for death and stripped of all his possessions. After the tyrant is killed by his own sons, Tobit returns to his house and recovers his goods (1:20–23). Returning exhausted from burying abandoned corpses, he falls asleep with his head against the wall of his house and is blinded by bird droppings falling into his eyes. Poorly treated by physicians, Tobit becomes blind. Afflicted by the mockery of friends and his wife, who suggest that his acts of piety are in vain (2:1–14), he offers an anguished prayer to God (3:1–6). At the same time, Sara, daughter of Raguel, in Ecbatana of Media, who has been married seven times and widowed seven times on the same day of marriage, and who is tormented by the insolence of her maidservant, also turns to God (3:7–15). God hears their prayers (3:15 ff.).
2. **Providential Intervention of God, Who Sends the Angel Raphael (v. RAPHAEL) to Their Aid** (4:1–12:22 [Gk.]; 3:24–12:22 [Vulg.]).
Tobit sends his son T. to Media to collect a sum of money from Gabael (v. GABELO), his kinsman (4:1–5:3). T. is accompanied by the angel Raphael in human guise, concealing his true identity, and they set out together (5:4–22). On the evening of the tenth day they reach the Tigris; T. approaches the water to wash his feet and is threatened by a large fish. At the angel’s command, he seizes it, disembowels it, and keeps the heart, liver, and gall as potential remedies (6:1–9). In Ecbatana, the angel persuades T. to lodge with Raguel, his kinsman, and ask for Sara’s hand in marriage. He teaches him how to drive away Asmodeus (v.), who had killed Sara’s first seven husbands: by burning the fish’s heart and liver and praying before consummating the marriage (6:10–7:8). The marriage is concluded to everyone’s satisfaction (7:9–8:19); T. remains two weeks with his father-in-law while Raphael goes to collect the money from Gabael (8:20–9:6). Tobit and his wife anxiously await their son’s return (10:1–7); T., having taken leave of his father-in-law, returns to Nineveh with his wife, arriving ahead of the others. He runs to embrace his father and smears the fish’s gall on his eyes, restoring his sight to the great joy of all (10:8–11:17). Raphael reveals his true nature and vanishes (ch. 12). Tobit breaks into a hymn of thanksgiving (ch. 13).
3. **Epilogue**. Near death, Tobit gives his final instructions to his son T. and dies. After his mother’s death, T. emigrates to Media to live with his father-in-law and dies in old age after hearing the news of the fall of Nineveh (ch. 14).
The original of Tobit (in Hebrew or Aramaic) has been lost. St. Jerome’s translation, made from an Aramaic text (or version) (PL 29, 33), is included in the Vulgate (v.). The Greek version survives in three forms or recensions. The first is found in Codex Vaticanus (B) and Codex Alexandrinus (A), in most minuscules, and in Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1594 (3rd century); this was the text used in the Greek Church and from which derive the Syriac (for 1:1–7:5), Ethiopic, and Coptic versions. The second is in Codex Sinaiticus (S), with two lacunae (4:7–19; 13:8–11); it underlies the Old Latin, which is a valuable witness for its critical reconstruction, and from it also derive Aramaic and Arabic versions. The recension of S is more diffuse in its narrative, with a more vulgar diction and a more Semitic coloring; that of BA is more concise and of better quality. Rahlfs, *Septuaginta*, I (Stuttgart 1935), places the BA form at the top of the same page and the S form at the bottom. Which of the two is closer to the original is a matter of great debate among scholars. Among recent Catholic exegetes, Galdos (*f. bibl.* p. 40) prefers B; Miller (*f. bibl.* pp. 21 ff.) and Vaccari (who provides a fine Italian translation) prefer S; the latter is the prevailing tendency. In the Vulgate, the entire narrative from the beginning is in the third person, whereas in Greek the preface (Tobit 2:6) is in the first person; the Vulgate contains more parenthetical material, while the Greek has more biographical detail. Although the Vulgate’s Tobit has particular value, it transmits the original source less purely than the Greek (Vaccari; A. Clamer [V. BIBLICA.], pp. 397 ff.). The third recension, consisting of a few minuscule manuscripts (44, 106, 107), is secondary and incomplete; in it, the beginning (1:1–6:6) belongs to the second form, as in the Syriac version (Peshitta), which from 7:13 onward gives a text almost identical to that of the third. The Hebrew texts now known are late translations (from the 5th to the 12th century).
The loss of the original and the textual divergences often prevent definitive positions in exegesis and in the definition of the literary genre.
Tobit is an edifying story, written to inculcate religious-moral lessons that emerge from events reflected upon. Tobit reveals himself as a living example of complete fidelity to the prescriptions of the Law; his experiences demonstrate divine providence and justice, which do not leave piety and especially mercy toward the fellow Israelite unrequited. The value of almsgiving and piety toward the dead, gratitude for divine benefits, the duties of parents toward their children and vice versa, and the right intention with which one should enter into marriage are insistently taught. Strictly religious doctrines inculcated by Tobit are: the existence and ministry of angels among men, the nefarious influence of evil spirits, the Sinai covenant restricted after the schism to the sole Kingdom of Judah (the schism was an apostasy: 1:5 BA) and to the Israelites who persevere in their jihadism, spiritually united with Jerusalem, the city chosen by God (1:4 BA), and with the house of David (1:4 S). Tobit would go to Jerusalem for worship, according to the divine prescription (1:6). Yahweh is called “our God,” “our father forever” (13:4), “king of Israel” (14:9, according to the Old Latin); he punished Israel for its iniquities, but the punishment, temporary and medicinal, was to convert and purify his people (13:3, 5 ff.). The community that rises again in Judah, on the land of Abraham (14:5, 7 S), centered in the Temple (14:5 b), will no longer fail, according to the prophecies of the prophets; it will be holy (14:7 S) and will realize the relationship begun at Sinai.
“His people will bless the Lord, and the Lord will exalt his people” (14:7 BA). The resurrected Israel is the final step toward the kingdom of the Messiah; then all the nations will flock to the new Jerusalem of sapphires and emeralds, with walls of precious stones, resounding with praises to the Most High (13:13–23; cf. 14:6).
The didactic character of Tobit is undeniable. Modern exegetes, in defining the literary genre, increasingly agree in recognizing in it a narrative with a historical background or core, freely elaborated with accessory embellishments whose main purpose is directed toward teaching the aforementioned truths. This balanced position takes into account the arguments of the proponents of the two extreme tendencies—complete historicity and a merely novelistic character—and particularly the manifold relations of AHIKAR (v.), to which it clearly alludes (14:10 ff.; Ahiqar a relative of Tobit: 1:21; cf. 2:10; 11:19). Both books mix the narrative element with the didactic, with the former prevailing in Tobit and the latter in Ahiqar. This would lead to placing both books in the same literary genre: the moral tale with a historical background. But to render an absolute and definitive judgment is impossible due to the inconclusive state of the original text of Tobit (Vaccari).
In this literary genre, it is not so much the narrative details that matter as the teaching inculcated. Thus the angel who assists in the form of a man and his remedies represent divine intervention; the flight of the demon Asmodeus (a local popular motif) is connected with moral motives (6:16 ff.); the death of Sara’s seven previous husbands was caused by their lack of thought for God and the holy purposes of marriage.
The unknown Jewish author of Tobit wrote after the exile (4th–3rd century BC). The destruction of Nineveh (612 BC) is long past (14:6, 16); chapters 13–14 presuppose the destruction of Judah, the exile, and the return with the restoration.
The book of Tobit is not included in the Jewish canon; Protestants relegate it to the “Apocrypha.” But the Catholic Church, both Latin and Eastern, has always venerated it from the beginning as inspired (Polycarp, Ad Phil., 10:2, cited, Tob. 4:10; 12:9; Hermas, Pastor, mand. V, 11:3, and viii, I, 1:6, cited, Tob. 4:19; 5:17; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 21, cited, Tob. 4:19, etc.; so too Origen, Cyprian) and placed it in the first lists or canons of sacred books (Councils of Hippo [393] and Carthage [397 and 419], Innocent I [405], Council of Florence [1441]), up to the definition of the Council of Trent (1546), repeated by the Vatican Council (1870). The doubts of some Fathers (limited in time, i.e., 4th–5th century, and in space, churches in contact with the Jews) were caused by the lack of an authentic, officially defined list and by the influence of the Jews, who excluded Tobit from their biblical canon.
With Tobit, the Church offers us, for our instruction, a delightful model of narrative prose, full of religious and moral teachings (St. Bede)… Similar to the book of Ruth in the sweetness of domestic scenes, Tobit surpasses it in the variety and interweaving of events and in the abundance of moral teachings. It also transports us to a much broader stage, unfolding the scene among the families of Israelites deported by the Assyrian conqueror to the eastern provinces of his vast empire (cf. 2 Kings 17:6) (A. Vaccari).