Tobit Complete Overview

While the Book of Tobit was not a part of the Old Testament that Jesus and other ancient Jews had, they preserved and read it as a text based on the Scriptures. Tobit doesn’t have any characters directly connected to the rest of the Bible in any way. However, most of its characters are modeled after famous Old Testament characters - Some of their names will give that away. It's an ancient rom-com filled with ironies that’s all about the love between two Israelites in exile who bring healing to both of their families through their faithfulness to God, the Torah, and the less fortunate. Let’s take a look at the book to see how all of these play out:

CHAPTERS 1-3

The story starts by setting our character Tobit in the Kingdom of Assyria, specifically Nineveh. It recalls how he was taken with the rest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel into exile because of their idolatry and unfaithfulness to God (see 2 Kings 17). It then goes on to show Tobit’s faithfulness in following the Torah, especially how he regularly bought everything the king needed, gave money to the poor, and buried every dead body he encountered. Because he had good standing with the king, he was able to trek to Media far away on a regular basis to make deposits to his trusted friend Gabael. However, it is precisely through his burying dead bodies that a new king searches for Tobit to try and kill him. So Tobit runs outside the city to protect himself and everything he has is confiscated. Because of this new evil king, the way to Media is no longer safe either.

The story says that another king replaced this king when he died and Tobit was safe to come back to his home. In his new home, he hosts a feast for his family for the festival of the Pentecost. Tobit tells his son, Tobias, “Go, and bring a poor person to eat with us” (2:2). But when Tobias returns, he says that he found a dead body that had been murdered out in the market. Tobit takes no time to jump up and put the dead body in his own room so that he can bury it at sunset! Tobias returns home and reads from one of the prophets that would have lived around the same time as him, Amos: “Your festivals shall be turned into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation” (Amos 8:10) and he weeps. After sunset, Tobit buries the body in a grave he dug and is mocked by his neighbors for continuing to bury bodies after having been expelled under the rule of the previous king.

That night, Tobit sleeps under a wall that some sparrows just so happen to be sitting on and they poop on his eyes and he becomes blind. As he’s blind, his wife Anna works hard as a weaver to provide for their family. When she is given a goat as an extra wage, Tobit accuses her of stealing it. He commands her to give the goat back immediately. She insists that it was given to her rightly by her as a bonus and she challenges Tobit: “Where are your acts of charity? Your righteousness? You are known for having these!” (2:14).

Tobit is crushed by the insults of all the other neighbors for burying the dead man and his wife challenging his good deeds. He is in so much anguish that he breaks out in a depressed prayer to God asking that He take his life (3:6)! At this very moment, the narrative takes us all the way to Ecbatana in Media where someone named Sarah is accused by her maid of beating her. She looks down on Sarah for all of her past seven husbands dying and says that she even beat them to death! Sarah is also ashamed by the accusations of her maid and breaks out in prayer to God saying that she cannot take any more of the false accusations and for God to end her life (3:15). The narrative tells us that God then heard that prayer and sent the Angel Raphael to rescue them. We are left to see how it will all play out!

CHAPTERS 4-8

It’s in this next section of the book that everything starts to turn around. Tobit remembers that he had earlier left money with his friend Gabael. Tobit thinks that it will be better for him to tell his son about the money so he can get it before he dies. Tobit calls his son Tobias to him to instruct him on how to bury him when he’s died. He then exhorts Tobias to honor his mother and God, to give to the poor, and to marry someone in his own tribe like the Torah required (see Numbers 36:6). Tobit sends him to find a companion to take him up to Media and Tobias instantly comes across the Angel Raphael but disguised as a regular person named “Azariah”. Azariah tells him that he knows Media and assures him that he is related to Gabael. He proves to Tobit that he is from the same tribe as him so he can be trusted to take Tobias on the journey.

Tobit agrees and sends the two of them on their way with a dog to accompany them. On their way, Tobias is attacked by a huge fish. Azariah tells him to slay the fish but to keep the heart and liver. When it is burned by someone afflicted by a demon, the demon will have to leave that person forever. He says to also keep the gall because it can be put on a blind person’s eyes and make them able to see again. As they continue their journey, Azariah tells Tobias about Sarah: he says that she is related to him and that he is actually next in line to marry her according to the Torah (see Deuteronomy 25:5-6). He then exhorts him to marry her. But he tells him to pray before their first night while burning the fish’s liver and heart to ward off the demon that had been afflicting her.

CHAPTERS 7-9

Tobias and Azariah come to stay with Sarah and her family and they have a feast. Tobias takes no time to mention his request to marry Sarah. Despite the father’s worry about his death, he insists on marrying her promptly. So, while all of Sarah’s family is in distress and weeping and crying, they give her over in marriage. Tobias and Sarah go up to their room and burn the fish liver and heart. The demon flees all the way down to Egypt and Raphael follows after him and binds him up. Tobias then leads Sarah in prayer and they bless God for marriage and ask that it be long and happy.

Outside the room, Sarah’s parents dig a grave to prepare to bury Tobias as they assume he will die that night. However, they send their maid to their room to see if they are alive and the maid finds them both sound asleep together. That evening, they fill up the grave they had dug and bless God. Their marriage feast lasts fourteen days and the father gives Tobias half of all he has.

Tobias sends Azariah to go and bring the money from Gabael that he originally needed to acquire so that his parents don’t worry. Gabael returns with the money loaded on camels and, when he sees Tobias, he blesses him, his wife, and his family.

CHAPTERS 10-14

We then see Tobias’ parents worrying that he has died, but they don’t give up hope. Tobias knows that his parents are worrying for him. So he pressures his father-in-law to let him go home to be with his family again. On coming back, Tobias is reminded of the fish gall again and he applies it to his father’s eyes and watches him be healed again. They all celebrate their return and their marriage once again.

The next day, Tobit reminds his son Tobias to pay Azariah for going with him and even give him a bonus. But when Tobias tries to pay him, Azariah reveals that he was the Angel Raphael. He says that he heard the prayer of Tobit and Sarah when they asked for death and took it to God on their behalf. He goes on to say that he was testing Tobit through the insults of the townspeople when he decided to bury the dead body he found on Pentecost. Then, Raphael ascends into heaven and Tobit praises God.

Tobit then calls Tobias and all of his seven sons to his bedside and exhorts him one last time before he dies. He tells him again to give to the poor and to move back to Ecbatana in Media as Nineveh and Assyria will be judged just as the prophet Nahum had said. He reminds them of God’s faithfulness to call back Israel to Jerusalem where the nations will join in worshiping God forever. Then Tobit dies.

It’s in the very final part of the book that we see Tobias living in Ecbatana with his in-laws. They die and he inherits everything he had. He lives a long time and even sees Nahum’s prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh come true.

Throughout the story, you see how all these different characters are modeled after earlier characters in the Bible. For example, Tobit is a lot like Job in that he is tested and challenged by his wife despite his good deeds. Anna is a lot like Hannah - Not only are their names spelled similarly, but she is falsely accused of stealing a goat that she had worked hard for. Tobias is a lot like Isaac who goes with the messenger Azariah to find a wife from his family and they come back with provisions from the wife’s family. Finally, Sarah doesn’t only have the same name as Sarah from Genesis but she cannot have a husband in the same way that the wife of Abraham could not have a son. She is even accused by her handmaid of abusing her just like the story of Hagar. There are tons more connections to characters and places like Reuel the father-in-law of Moses and even Eden but I’ll leave those for you to find on your own.

It’s at the very end that the symmetry of the entire narrative exposes itself. All of Tobit’s faithfulness in the first section only results in him losing his good standing, possessions, and even his sight; all of this is reversed by the end of the book. So remember that Tobit always gave to the poor and provided for the king. Despite this, he is sent out of his city and only his wife can work to provide for him, but in the last section, he receives not only the money that he had left with Gabael but also the money that his son Tobias was given by his father-in-law. Remember how he buried the dead? That only resulted in the king trying to have him dead and him even losing his sight and wanting to die. At the end of the book, his eyesight is restored and he has a daughter-in-law and seven grandchildren and he lives to an old age! In the same way, Sarah who had lost seven husbands and who had seemingly brought shame to her whole family, is given a good husband, seven sons, and a family that is faithful to God.

All of this is hinged at the center of the book, where Tobias is attacked by a big evil fish that tries to kill him. However, it is the guts of this fish that tried to bring death that is the very source of salvation from the demon when Tobias marries Sarah and the cure for the blindness of Tobit.

And that brings us to the point of the story. Just as Tobit encourages his grandsons at the end of the story, we recall from the very beginning his father Tobiel, and his son Tobias. While Tobit means ‘my good’, his father’s name means ‘God is good’ and his son Tobias’ name means ‘the LORD is good’. The book is about how God uses all the evil in this world that comes upon his faithful followers and turns it into good. It emphasizes caring and giving to those lower in society and shows how when we look out for the poor and those in hard times, God looks out for us in our hard times. When we are faithful to His Torah, He blesses us accordingly. “God is good”. That’s what the Apocryphon of Tobit is all about.