(1.) The Gospel Story of ‘Tobit’: Introduction
(1.) The Gospel Story of ‘Tobit’: Introduction.
“O Lord, You are righteous, and all your works are just. All Your ways are mercy and truth. You are the Judge of the world, because Your judgments are true and just forever.” (Tobit 3:2).
The OT Apocrypha. The book of Tobit is included in the Apocrypha, 10-12 books written between the Hebrew Bible (OT) and the New Testament, from 400 BC to the birth of Christ. The word “apocrypha” means “hidden” or “doubtful.” Jewish tradition holds that “the Holy Spirit departed Israel” after the last prophet Malachi, and so the books of the Apocrypha are considered inspired, and are not included in their Tanakh, the official Hebrew Bible. Devout Jews, though, believe that the apocryphal books are useful for devotion, instruction and as an important historical reference, even if not inspired by the Spirit of God. The Protestant Reformers like Luther and Calvin believed strongly that their protest Bible needs to be founded on the Tanakh, so they likewise did not consider the books of the Apocrypha to be inspired, authoritative or a part of their official Scripture. Their bias against apocryphal books from the Old Testament continues to this day and are not included in any Bibles other than the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bibles. When Martin Luther composed his Luther Bible, though, he believed the OT Apocrypha to be worthy reading for Christians, and so he placed a separate section of the Apocrypha between the two Testaments. On the other hand, the Orthodox and Catholic Churches believe these so-called “apocryphal” books to be inspired, authoritative Scripture and not “doubtful” in any way in terms of deserving inclusion in God’s Word. Rather than referring to these books as “apocryphal,” the Orthodox and Catholic Bibles consider them to be a “second canon” and include the following ten books… Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, and significant additions to Esther and Daniel. Scholars believe that the Apocrypha are extremely helpful in gaining an understanding of the gospel era, the early Church, and 1st century Israel. Since Jesus was deeply rooted in 1st century Judaism, then it makes sense to be aware of anything that will reveal the cultural tendencies, the language, the customs and the history leading up to the Jesus movement. The OT Apocrypha connected the dots between the two Testaments, and set the stage for the entrance of Christ and His early believers. The OT Apocrypha shaped the culture that we see in the New Testament and so is interesting background for the NT in general. In fact, Jesus and His fellow Jews in Israel were quite familiar with the Apocrypha through the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible and considered it inspired and necessary for the Faith. Which leads us to the Septuagint, since this Greek translation of the Bible included all the Apocryphal books before Christ’s birth.
The Septuagint (LXX). This was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was widely popular during Jesus’ era and beyond. This translation was considered inspired Scripture and commonly used for devotional and historical reference. The Septuagint was composed between 250 – 100 BC by a legendary group of 72 Jewish scholars of the Greek language. They first met in Alexandria, Egypt mid-2nd century to translate the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, and then the entire Bible was finally completed by other scholars around 100 BC. The Septuagint was composed so that Greek-speaking Jews spread around that part of the world could read Scripture for themselves. The OT apocryphal books were included in this official Greek Bible, and so they were accepted as inspired Scripture as well. Most of the New Testament quotes of the Old Testament (about 80%) were directly from the Septuagint, including many times when Jesus Himself quoted from the Septuagint. The Hebrew version of the Bible was read in the synagogue, and the Septuagint was read practically everywhere else. In the early Greek-speaking Christian Church, it was the Septuagint that was adopted as their official Bible.
The Background of the Book of Tobit. The main character is a righteous father named Tobit, which means “Lord is good.” This wonderful story of Tobit and his son Tobias was written by an anonymous author who was devoutly Jewish and living in Palestine around 200 BC. The book was thought to be originally written in Greek until the 1950’s, when more original documents written in Hebrew/Aramaic were discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The genre of the story has been described in many ways: an extended parable; a work of historical fiction; a moral fable; a religious folktale; a biblical novella; an ethical legend. However we might want to describe this story, it does indeed play fast and loose with historical details and is not meant to be taken literally as a factual story. Nonetheless, Tobit is considered by many in the Christian tradition to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and is therefore useful, inspiring, instructive, and important in the life of a Christian believer. The setting of the story is 8th-century BC in Ninevah, the capitol city of Assyria. The pious Jewish man Tobit and his family were exiled from their home in Galilee during the Assyrian invasion and conquest. But wait… can we learn anything true from fiction, which is not historically true?
Learning from Legends? Why should we even bother to seriously consider moral tales and historical fiction? Can stories be inspiring even if not necessarily inspired? Various authors offer these profound reasons to lift up the legends in our lives:
Legends are carriers of truth we’ve forgotten how to see with modern eyes.
Myths often point to deep truths that go beyond mere facts and end up informing those facts.
Stories can have emotional truth and psychological truth that stretch beyond literal accuracy.
Legends contain essential truths that cannot be expressed otherwise.
We can learn from stories because we ourselves are a part of a universal narrative and so can easily join into a story, learn from it, and participate in it within our own lives.
Legends are able to stand the test of time because it communicates universal truths about the human experience that historical facts or literal reality cannot fully capture.
When a story rings true to real life, the reader makes the personal connections, and the fictional can then represent reality.
The fictional often specializes in providing the reader with living symbols.
Abraham Lincoln once said that a fool learns from his own mistakes, and a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. In stories, we can learn from the mistakes of fictional characters, we can witness the consequences of moral failure, we can be inspired by the triumphs of sound moral decisions.
When a reader’s imagination is captured by a story, the rest of that reader soon follows along, including one’s conscience, one’s ability to reason, and one’s strength of will.
The Gospel Story in Tobit. In the general outline of Tobit’s story, we see a virtuous and loving father who decides to send his one and only son to another land so that his son may find a bride, deliver her from a demon’s curse, and return home in a holy marriage that honors the father and results in freedom and fulfillment for the bride. Does that plotline sound familiar to anyone? “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17). The story of Tobit reminds us that the heavenly Father, since the foundation of the world, has planned on sending His only Son into the distant land of our world to rescue us from Satan’s curse, marry us in a spiritual sense, liberate us from a doomed destiny, and then return with us as the Son’s Bride to the eternal home of the Father. Tobit provides us with a foreshadowing of the gospel story in all its glory, and even hints at the story’s end of our eventual escape from eternal destruction.
Tobit‘s Hints of the Gospel Way. Not only do we find a clear outline of the gospel story in Tobit, but many other aspects of the Christian Way that are vital to our faith: some solid fatherly wisdom; the sacred marriage; the ministry of angels; miracles of healing using material objects; the importance of almsgiving; the dangers of the evil Destroyer; the Golden Rule; the obedient son; and much more. As with all imaginative literature written for our benefit and enjoyment, we all need to remember to enjoy the poetic licenses of the author and then sip of its meanings like from a fine wine. Although, because it is a fascinating and unpredictable tale, we may find at first reading that we would rather gulp it down in satisfaction like a stout beer.