The Book of Tobit Unveiled
by
James Scott Trimm
One of the most delightful narratives in the collection known as “The Apocrypha” is the Book of Toviyah (Tobit). The Book of Toviyah is the account of Toviyah a righteous Ephraimite of the Tribe of Naphtali, and his father Toviel, both living in the Assyrian exile which followed the deportation by Sargon II in 721 B.C.E. (2Kn. 17:1-6). Toviel refused to participate in the rank idolatry of his brothers, and continued to send tithes to Jerusalem. He was especially charitable, diligent in tithing and almsgiving. He hosted a feast in honor of Shavuot, and sent his son Toviyah into the streets to bring a poor Israelite to feast with them (perhaps inspiring Yeshua’s parable). He risked his life, position and fortune to bury poor Israelites murdered and left unburied in the streets. Despite his righteousness, Toviel was blinded when bird droppings landed in his eyes.
At this same time, far away in Media, there is a certain woman named Sarah who has married seven husbands, all seven of whom died, having been killed by the demon Ashmodai before the marriage could be consummated (perhaps inspiring the question about a woman who had lost seven husbands which a certain Sadducee asked Yeshua in Mk. 12:20-22). The angel Raphael, disguised as a man, is sent by Elohim to heal Toviel and free Sarah from Ashmodai’s oppression.
Toviel sends his son Toviyah to Media to collect some money that is owed to him there. A certain Azaryah joins Toviyah, claiming to be from one of his kinsmen, but in reality he is Raphael in disguise. When they arrive in Media, Raphael introduces Toviyah to Sarah, and the two of them are married. With Raphael’s help the demon is eradicated, and the marriage is consummated.
Toviyah returns with his bride and Raphael helps him to heal his father’s blindness. Raphael then identifies himself as an angel and returns to the heavens.
This book appears in the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Peshitta and the Latin Vulgate.
Five fragmentary copies of Tobit have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, one in Hebrew and four in Aramaic.
The Book of Tobit has come down to us in many versions and revisions, which widely diverge from each other as to their details.
Tobit comes to us in a long version (Codex Siniaticus; Old Latin) and a short version (Codecies A, B and V, Latin Vulgate). There is also a variation between a 3rd person version (Latin Vulgate) and a 1st person version (Codex Siniaticus, Old Latin).
There is also another late Greek version which combines elements of the long and short versions and is in the 1st person (Codecies 44, 106 & 107 and the Aramaic Peshitta).
Scripture Nexus has had great success in tracking down Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts for Tobit.
To begin with there are the fragmentary copies found at Qumran mentioned above in Hebrew and Aramaic.
The fragmentary Hebrew copy found at Qumran (4Q200) preserves the following fragments: 3:6, 10-11; 4:3-9; 5:2; 10:7-9; 11:10-14; 12:20-13:4; 13:13-14, 18; 14:1-3.
Other, more complete Hebrew texts of Tovi have come to us from the middle ages:
Munster Tobit – First published in Constantinople in 1516 and re-published by Sebastian Munster in Basel in 1516. (This is the same Munster who published the original Hebrew texts of Matthew and Hebrews as well). This version appears in the following manuscript sources:
Biblioteque Nationale Paris; Hebrew Ms. No. 1251
Cairo Geniza Tobit (T-S A 45.26) (c. 1200 C.E.)
Two fragments covering 5:17-6:13 & 9:6-11:15
Fagius Tobit – First published in Constaninople in 1517 and re-published by Paul Fagius in 1542.
British Museum Add. 11,539 – 13th Century Hebrew ms. of Tobit.
There is also a Hebrew text of Tobit which was extracted from a midrash.
A number of Aramaic copies of Tobit are also available.
The four fragmentary copies found at Qumran (4Q196, 4Q197, 4Q198 & 4Q199) preserve the following passages: 1:17, 19-22; 2:3, 10-11; 3:5, 9-15, 17; 4:2, 5, 7, 21-5:1, 9; 6:6-7, 13-7:5, 13; 12:1, 18-14:3, 7.
Another, more complete Aramaic copy has come to us from the middle ages:
Oxford, Hebrew Ms. Bodeleian 2339 (which is actually Aramaic rather than Hebrew)
There is also the Peshitta Aramaic version, but for reasons discussed below, we know it was translated from the Greek.
Bodeleian 2339 is a short version in the 3rd person. Jerome had his Jewish assistant translate an Aramaic copy of Tobit into Hebrew so that Jerome could then translate it into Latin. This Aramaic version may be a representative of the same Aramaic version which Jerome used for the Latin Vulgate.
Munster is in the first person. The copies found at Qumran (both Hebrew and Aramaic are in the first person and follow the long version.
In just the first two verses I quickly found evidence that the Munster Hebrew text of Tobit is a representative of the original Hebrew and that the Greek is a translation from it.
In Tobit, 1:1 the name “Aduel” appears in the Greek text while in Munster’s Hebrew the name is “Ariel”. The Hebrew letters corresponding to “d” and “r” look very much alike in Hebrew and the Greek translator must have mistaken the “r” (r) for a “d” (d) (“Ariel” is a common Hebrew name, while “Aduel” is not).
In Tobit 1:2 The Greek reads “from Thisbe”. A Note in the Oxford annotated version says “Thisbe is unidentified” which is a nice way of saying “there is no such place”. However the Hebrew does not have “from Thisbe, a city of Naftali” but MITUSHBI IR NAFTALI “an inhabitant of Naftali”. The Greek translator must have been unfamiliar with the Hebrew word MITUSHBI (מתושבי) (Strong’s 8453) (“an inhabitant”) instead he took the “M” as the Hebrew prepositional-prefix meaning “from” and the T-SH-B-I to refer to “Thisbe”” (a Greek name). The Peshitta version of Tobit gives itself away as a translation from the Greek because it has “Aduel” in 1:1 and “Thisbe” in 1:2.
There are many passages in the Ketuvim Netzarim which seem to refer back to statements in the Book of Tobit.
For example when Ya’akov says:
“Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.”
(James 5:4 KJV)
He may well be alluding to Toviel’s advice to his son Toviyah:
“Let not the wages of any man, which hath wrought for thee, tarry with thee, but give him it out of hand: for if thou serve God, he will also repay thee: be circumspect my son, in all things thou doest, and bewise in all thy conversation.” (Tobit 4:14 KJV)
When Yochanan states in Revelation:
“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.” (Rev. 8:2 KJV)
We may gain some insight into who these angels were from Toviyah:
“I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.”
(Tobit 12:15 KJV)
Yochanan’s description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation:
“And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God:…
And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;:
The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.: And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”
(Rev. 19:1; 21:19-21 KJV)
Certainly recalls Toviyah’s similar description:
“And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall say, Alleluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which hath extolled it for ever.”
(Tobit 13:17-18 KJV)
Of course Yeshua’s “Golden Rule” “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Mt. 7:12 HRV) has long been recognized as a positive restatement of Hillel’s statement “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor” (b.Shabbat 31a) but many are unaware that even earlier this wise saying had been passed from Toviel to his son Toviyah “that which you hate to be done to you, do not you to others” (Tobit 4:15 HRV).
The Book of Toviyah can give us a great deal of insight into our understanding of the Ketuvim Netzarim (Writings of the Nazarenes – The so-called “New Testament”). Work is currently underway at Scripture Nexus on an Interlinear Hebrew/English Tobit keyed to Strong’s Word numbers.
But when they write down truthfully all my words in their languages, and do not change or diminish ought from my words but write them all down truthfully –all that I first testified concerning them. Then, I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much wisdom. And to them shall the books be given, and they shall believe in them and rejoice over them, and then shall all the righteous who have learnt therefore all the paths of uprightness be recompensed.’
(1Enoch 104:10-13)
Enoch was speaking of this generation. I have been given several projects that will put more of the Word of YHWH into the hands of the people, with online interlinear texts etc. There is much work to be done, and less time than ever in which to get it done.
The time is near at hand in which “the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” (Isaiah 29:18)
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