An Atheist Explores the Apocrypha Part Seven: Blinded by the Shite (Tobit 1-5)
Tobit 1-5
Blinded by the Shite
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
Tobit 1
“I Tobit have walked all the days of my life in the ways of truth and justice, and I did many almsdeeds to my brethren, and my nation, who came with me to Nineve, into the land of the Assyrians.”
Having come from the clearly written and generally easy reading Esdras, Tobit seems more prolix in his writing, given to grammatical structures that Yoda would find confusing (“and them gave I at the altar to the priests the children of Aaron”) and with lots of references to people and places; yes, we’re back to Reverend Lovejoy from the Simpsons – “The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, of the seed of Asael, of the tribe of Nephthali; Who in the time of Enemessar king of the Assyrians was led captive out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of that city, which is called properly Nephthali in Galilee above Aser.”
Tobit’s father and most of the tribe of Nephtali end up worshipping “the heifer Baal” rather than Yahweh, but Tobit boasts a bit about how he stayed true to the old ways. He calls himself an orphan by his father, but whether that means his father actually dies, or is merely spiritually dead to him for apostacy is unclear. Tobit gives tithes, and it looks like he devotes fully 30% of his income away, 10% to the Aaronite priests, 10% to spend yearly in Jerusalem (on what we don’t know. Perhaps offerings at the temple, but perhaps he just goes on a drinking and whoring spree?). Finally 10% is given to “whom it was meet”.
Tobit also engages in various acts of charity and also takes it upon himself to bury the dead, particularly when Sennacharib becomes king of Assyria and kills many Israelites for, it seems to be, coming into his kingdom (even though at this point the Israelites have been captured and enslaved by the Assyrians). When the king discovers this, Tobit has all his possessions taken away and is left only with his wife Anna and his son Tobias.
But eventually Sennacherib is killed by his sons, and one of them, Sarchedonus, becomes ruler. Sarchedonus appoints Tobit’s nephew Achiacharus as his steward, and Achiacharus calls for Tobit. We guess to give him some high-up government job, but the chapter ends before we find out. Got all that?
Tobit 2
“Now when I was come home again, and my wife Anna was restored unto me, with my son Tobias, in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, there was a good dinner prepared me, in the which I sat down to eat.”
Tobit is restored to his family, who cook him a nice meal. Tobit, being a generous soul, tells his son to go out and find somebody hungry to share the meat with them, but instead his son finds a man who has been strangled. How Tobias is able to tell the cause of death, we don’t know, but no matter, because Tobit then goes and fetches the body before washing (wise) and eating, because apparently “that prophecy of Amos, as he said, Your feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation”. Possibly Amos wasn’t being that literal.
Later, Tobit buries the body and people mock him for continuing to take care of the dead despite the trouble it caused him before. Because he is ritually unclean after having handled a dead body, he sleeps outside with his face “uncovered”. I don’t know if this means he ritually shaves, or simply that he hasn’t got a blanket over his head.
Possibly the latter, since it is important that he gets bird shit in his eyes. Yes. This happens. “And I knew not that there were sparrows in the wall, and mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a whiteness came in mine eyes: and I went to the physicians, but they helped me not: moreover Achiacharus did nourish me, until I went into Elymais.”
Meanwhile, because Tobit is unable to work due to blindness caused by bird droppings, his “wife Anna did take women's works to do”. Now, hold that bad thought you just had, it sounds like she just takes some sewing work or similar to do, because she returns “them home to their owners”, whatever “them” may be. But it sounds more likely to be damaged clothes, or baskets, or whatever women are supposed to fix, rather than wayward husbands.
Anna gets paid, and she gets given a goat as well as part of her payment, to which Tobit comes over all Fred Flintstone and assumes for some reason that she must have stolen it. To which Anna replies “Where are thine alms and thy righteous deeds?” I.e. what have you brought back (at least that’s how it reads to me).
Tobit 3
“It came to pass the same day, that in Ecbatane a city of Media Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father's maids”
Before we get to Sara daughter of Raguel, there’s a bit where Tobit prays to God, but doesn’t seem certain of what he wants. “Punish me not for my sins and ignorances, and the sins of my fathers, who have sinned before thee”, he says, and then a couple of verses later “deal with me according to my sins and my fathers': because we have not kept thy commandments, neither have walked in truth before thee”.
So punish or not punish, Tobit? Recall that Tobit has kept the covenant whereas his father was a Baal worshipper, so when Tobit says that he hasn’t followed God’s commandments it seems like he’s beating himself up over nothing. I guess sparrows don’t crap in the eyes of the righteous, or something like that?
Further, Tobit prays that “command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become earth” and as a consequence of this “that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place”. These verses don’t gibe with Christian theology. First; Tobit asks for God to forgive his sins, and thinks that this is a possibility. This doesn’t fit with the need for Jesus to be sacrificed in order for sins to be forgiven, if it could already happen. Second, despite being a sinner, Tobit believes that he will be “dissolved” and taken to “the everlasting place”. Does he mean the oblivion of death? Or is he thinking of some kind of eternal life after death? Again, if the latter, somehow he has been led to believe that this is possible without the intercession of the figure of Christ. And if this is the case, it raises the question; what does the Christ myth actually add to the theology that wasn’t already there? What it seems to do is to take that notion of redemption and the “everlasting place” and stitch it to its own particular route, rather than allow whatever the existing mechanism is that Tobit hopes to employ.
Anyway, meanwhile in Ecbatane, there’s Sara, who’s been married seven times before and her husbands have all died before the marriage has been consummated. Apparently, this is due to an evil spirit Asmodeus (who, here, seems to be one evil spirit among many and not a pseudonym of the Devil). Sara’s handmaids seems a bit more savvy and pass on gossip that “Dost thou not know, said they, that thou hast strangled thine husbands?” Yeah … possibly she was really unlucky, or….
However, a seven-times widow is not a very popular option for a wife and so Sara laments that she, her father’s only daughter, will end up disgracing the family, and prays to God.
God sends Raphael, I assume an archangel, to wrap up the two stories and so Sara marries Tobias, and at this point Tobit comes home, presumably recovered from sparrow poo.
Tobit 4
“In that day Tobit remembered the money which he had committed to Gabael in Rages of Media”
Tobit remembers an old debt, and, because he seems to be thinking self-destructive thoughts, calls Tobias to give him a bit of fatherly wisdom and to, in passing, mention the debt.
As per usual for the Bible the “wisdom” is a collection of aphorisms and admonishments with a mixed level of utility. It’s probably because these things are never backed up with anything more than “because I said so” that I tend to look askance on them so.
Tobias is told to take a wife from within the tribes of Israel, because, apparently, “lewdness is the mother of famine”. I’m not sure how that one follows, but apparently marrying foreign women leads to crop failure. The rest of the advice is largely about not getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk, paying hirelings their wages on time and giving charity to the poor.
These last are probably a prelude to Tobit’s last words in this chapter, that he owes ten talents to Gabael in Media. Oh, by the way, this will probably bankrupt you when I’m dead, but don’t worry, God will be happy with you – “And fear not, my son, that we are made poor: for thou hast much wealth, if thou fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is pleasing in his sight”.
To which Tobias will obviously say “Gosh, thanks Dad.”
Tobit 5
“Tobias then answered and said, Father, I will do all things which thou hast commanded me:”
I’m an idiot that can’t read. It’s Gabael who owes the money to Tobit, not the other way around. And so Tobias agrees to take a letter written by Tobit and go and collect the money for him. Tobit asks that his son find a companion for safety, and Tobias (unknowingly) runs into the angel Raphael and asks him to help.
Tobit is most insistent to know Raphael’s lineage, and so Raphael tells him that he is “Azarias, the son of Ananias the great, and of thy brethren”. Tobit is satisfied with this; he knows Ananias, and offers Raphael a drachm a day to protect his son. Apparently angels need money, or Raphael doesn’t want to blow his cover, and so they agree. Raphael (aka “Azarias” and Tobit, and Tobit’s dog, set off on their journey.
Anna weeps to see her son set off into what we must assume to be dangerous territory, but Tobit comforts her by saying “the good angel will keep him company, and his journey shall be prosperous, and he shall return safe”. Since Tobit earlier also gave Tobias and Raphael the same blessing, I think we can safely assume that Tobit does not know Raphael’s true identity, and this line is given for dramatic irony. Ha-ha! Little does Tobit know that this is exactly what’s happening.
Tune in next time to see what befalls a boy and his dog and an angel on the road-trip of a lifetime. Possibly.
Blinded by the Shite
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
Tobit 1
“I Tobit have walked all the days of my life in the ways of truth and justice, and I did many almsdeeds to my brethren, and my nation, who came with me to Nineve, into the land of the Assyrians.”
Having come from the clearly written and generally easy reading Esdras, Tobit seems more prolix in his writing, given to grammatical structures that Yoda would find confusing (“and them gave I at the altar to the priests the children of Aaron”) and with lots of references to people and places; yes, we’re back to Reverend Lovejoy from the Simpsons – “The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, of the seed of Asael, of the tribe of Nephthali; Who in the time of Enemessar king of the Assyrians was led captive out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of that city, which is called properly Nephthali in Galilee above Aser.”
Tobit’s father and most of the tribe of Nephtali end up worshipping “the heifer Baal” rather than Yahweh, but Tobit boasts a bit about how he stayed true to the old ways. He calls himself an orphan by his father, but whether that means his father actually dies, or is merely spiritually dead to him for apostacy is unclear. Tobit gives tithes, and it looks like he devotes fully 30% of his income away, 10% to the Aaronite priests, 10% to spend yearly in Jerusalem (on what we don’t know. Perhaps offerings at the temple, but perhaps he just goes on a drinking and whoring spree?). Finally 10% is given to “whom it was meet”.
Tobit also engages in various acts of charity and also takes it upon himself to bury the dead, particularly when Sennacharib becomes king of Assyria and kills many Israelites for, it seems to be, coming into his kingdom (even though at this point the Israelites have been captured and enslaved by the Assyrians). When the king discovers this, Tobit has all his possessions taken away and is left only with his wife Anna and his son Tobias.
But eventually Sennacherib is killed by his sons, and one of them, Sarchedonus, becomes ruler. Sarchedonus appoints Tobit’s nephew Achiacharus as his steward, and Achiacharus calls for Tobit. We guess to give him some high-up government job, but the chapter ends before we find out. Got all that?
Tobit 2
“Now when I was come home again, and my wife Anna was restored unto me, with my son Tobias, in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, there was a good dinner prepared me, in the which I sat down to eat.”
Tobit is restored to his family, who cook him a nice meal. Tobit, being a generous soul, tells his son to go out and find somebody hungry to share the meat with them, but instead his son finds a man who has been strangled. How Tobias is able to tell the cause of death, we don’t know, but no matter, because Tobit then goes and fetches the body before washing (wise) and eating, because apparently “that prophecy of Amos, as he said, Your feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation”. Possibly Amos wasn’t being that literal.
Later, Tobit buries the body and people mock him for continuing to take care of the dead despite the trouble it caused him before. Because he is ritually unclean after having handled a dead body, he sleeps outside with his face “uncovered”. I don’t know if this means he ritually shaves, or simply that he hasn’t got a blanket over his head.
Possibly the latter, since it is important that he gets bird shit in his eyes. Yes. This happens. “And I knew not that there were sparrows in the wall, and mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a whiteness came in mine eyes: and I went to the physicians, but they helped me not: moreover Achiacharus did nourish me, until I went into Elymais.”
Meanwhile, because Tobit is unable to work due to blindness caused by bird droppings, his “wife Anna did take women's works to do”. Now, hold that bad thought you just had, it sounds like she just takes some sewing work or similar to do, because she returns “them home to their owners”, whatever “them” may be. But it sounds more likely to be damaged clothes, or baskets, or whatever women are supposed to fix, rather than wayward husbands.
Anna gets paid, and she gets given a goat as well as part of her payment, to which Tobit comes over all Fred Flintstone and assumes for some reason that she must have stolen it. To which Anna replies “Where are thine alms and thy righteous deeds?” I.e. what have you brought back (at least that’s how it reads to me).
Tobit 3
“It came to pass the same day, that in Ecbatane a city of Media Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father's maids”
Before we get to Sara daughter of Raguel, there’s a bit where Tobit prays to God, but doesn’t seem certain of what he wants. “Punish me not for my sins and ignorances, and the sins of my fathers, who have sinned before thee”, he says, and then a couple of verses later “deal with me according to my sins and my fathers': because we have not kept thy commandments, neither have walked in truth before thee”.
So punish or not punish, Tobit? Recall that Tobit has kept the covenant whereas his father was a Baal worshipper, so when Tobit says that he hasn’t followed God’s commandments it seems like he’s beating himself up over nothing. I guess sparrows don’t crap in the eyes of the righteous, or something like that?
Further, Tobit prays that “command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become earth” and as a consequence of this “that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place”. These verses don’t gibe with Christian theology. First; Tobit asks for God to forgive his sins, and thinks that this is a possibility. This doesn’t fit with the need for Jesus to be sacrificed in order for sins to be forgiven, if it could already happen. Second, despite being a sinner, Tobit believes that he will be “dissolved” and taken to “the everlasting place”. Does he mean the oblivion of death? Or is he thinking of some kind of eternal life after death? Again, if the latter, somehow he has been led to believe that this is possible without the intercession of the figure of Christ. And if this is the case, it raises the question; what does the Christ myth actually add to the theology that wasn’t already there? What it seems to do is to take that notion of redemption and the “everlasting place” and stitch it to its own particular route, rather than allow whatever the existing mechanism is that Tobit hopes to employ.
Anyway, meanwhile in Ecbatane, there’s Sara, who’s been married seven times before and her husbands have all died before the marriage has been consummated. Apparently, this is due to an evil spirit Asmodeus (who, here, seems to be one evil spirit among many and not a pseudonym of the Devil). Sara’s handmaids seems a bit more savvy and pass on gossip that “Dost thou not know, said they, that thou hast strangled thine husbands?” Yeah … possibly she was really unlucky, or….
However, a seven-times widow is not a very popular option for a wife and so Sara laments that she, her father’s only daughter, will end up disgracing the family, and prays to God.
God sends Raphael, I assume an archangel, to wrap up the two stories and so Sara marries Tobias, and at this point Tobit comes home, presumably recovered from sparrow poo.
Tobit 4
“In that day Tobit remembered the money which he had committed to Gabael in Rages of Media”
Tobit remembers an old debt, and, because he seems to be thinking self-destructive thoughts, calls Tobias to give him a bit of fatherly wisdom and to, in passing, mention the debt.
As per usual for the Bible the “wisdom” is a collection of aphorisms and admonishments with a mixed level of utility. It’s probably because these things are never backed up with anything more than “because I said so” that I tend to look askance on them so.
Tobias is told to take a wife from within the tribes of Israel, because, apparently, “lewdness is the mother of famine”. I’m not sure how that one follows, but apparently marrying foreign women leads to crop failure. The rest of the advice is largely about not getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk, paying hirelings their wages on time and giving charity to the poor.
These last are probably a prelude to Tobit’s last words in this chapter, that he owes ten talents to Gabael in Media. Oh, by the way, this will probably bankrupt you when I’m dead, but don’t worry, God will be happy with you – “And fear not, my son, that we are made poor: for thou hast much wealth, if thou fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is pleasing in his sight”.
To which Tobias will obviously say “Gosh, thanks Dad.”
Tobit 5
“Tobias then answered and said, Father, I will do all things which thou hast commanded me:”
I’m an idiot that can’t read. It’s Gabael who owes the money to Tobit, not the other way around. And so Tobias agrees to take a letter written by Tobit and go and collect the money for him. Tobit asks that his son find a companion for safety, and Tobias (unknowingly) runs into the angel Raphael and asks him to help.
Tobit is most insistent to know Raphael’s lineage, and so Raphael tells him that he is “Azarias, the son of Ananias the great, and of thy brethren”. Tobit is satisfied with this; he knows Ananias, and offers Raphael a drachm a day to protect his son. Apparently angels need money, or Raphael doesn’t want to blow his cover, and so they agree. Raphael (aka “Azarias” and Tobit, and Tobit’s dog, set off on their journey.
Anna weeps to see her son set off into what we must assume to be dangerous territory, but Tobit comforts her by saying “the good angel will keep him company, and his journey shall be prosperous, and he shall return safe”. Since Tobit earlier also gave Tobias and Raphael the same blessing, I think we can safely assume that Tobit does not know Raphael’s true identity, and this line is given for dramatic irony. Ha-ha! Little does Tobit know that this is exactly what’s happening.
Tune in next time to see what befalls a boy and his dog and an angel on the road-trip of a lifetime. Possibly.
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