Tobit
The Book of Tobit is one of the later books of the Scriptures. It goes back two centuries before the Common Era. The original text, written in Aramaic, became lost but it had been translated into Greek.
In the last two centuries before Jesus, the dispersed Jews among the nations grew to be much more numerous than those who were living in Palestine. Even when living in foreign countries, far from the Promised Land, was considered a disgrace, they were doing quite well. Just as it would be the case later in the Christian world, many in the Jewish world discovered the benefits of that new vocation as minorities in the pagan world and to be the witnesses of divine revelation in the world. The families who wanted to remain faithful in their observance of the law were relying on their communities where the synagogue weekly worship was celebrated with reading the Scripture together.
However, they were aware that for the most part, the future of Judaism depended on the families’ transmission of their identity as people of God. It was necessary to prevent the Jews from intermingling with the people who surrounded them and to keep them from forgetting their vocation. In particular, the father of the family was to bear witness to the faith that he lived each day.
The author of the Book of Tobit wanted to provide the Jews with a model. To write his story, he took his inspiration from a story of “The Grateful Dead.” A generous man had discovered an unburied corpse and he had buried it with dignity. Later on, in the course of a journey, a stranger approached him, started to walk with him and he freed him from various dangers. When this generous man wanted to compensate him, the stranger revealed to him that he was the dead man whom he had buried and then he disappeared.
The author of the Book of Tobit used this plot and he introduced the angel… The old story of Tobit has not lost its value at a time when many Christians do not know anything about the path that Jesus proclaimed to us. We have relied too much on “the Church,” on the catechism being taught by priests, and very often, parents are not able to transmit the word of God.
