Book of Tobit

In this paper, I discuss twelve instances in the Book of Tobit (henceforth Tobit) in which the motifs of food, eating, death and burial are combined. More specifically, I examine the function of this motif combination, and argue that the twelve instances mentioned showcase character, draw the reader into the tale through various narrative means, and lead towards the denouement of the tale. My study contributes to Tobit studies in that, to the best of my knowledge, it highlights the significance of this motif combination for the first time in the history of Tobit interpretation.

This is the first study to compare the allusions to scribal culture found in the Aramaic Story of Ahiqar and the Hebrew Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll in Jeremiah 36. It is shown that disguised in the royal propagandistic message of Ahiqar is a sophisticated Aramaic critique on the social practices of Akkadian scribal culture. Jeremiah 36, however, uses loci of scribal activity as well as allusions to scribal interactions and the techniques of the scribal craft to construct a subversive tale. When studied from a comparative perspective it is argued that the Story of Ahiqar, which has long been associated with the well-known court tale genre, is an example of a subgenre which is here called the scribal conflict narrative, and Jeremiah 36 is found to be a second example of or a response to it. This observation is arrived at by means of rigorous manuscript examination combined with narrative analysis, which identified, among other things, the development of autobiographical and biographical styles of the same ancient narrative. This study not only provides new perspectives on scribal culture, Ahiqar studies, and Jeremiah studies, but it may have far reaching implications for other ancient sources.

I The presence of the dog is a puzzling narrative detail in the Book of Tobit. This study examines the canine presence in the story in light of divine providence and argues that the presence of the dog playing its assigned function in the story can point to the unseen reality that the divine creative order, which is the harbinger and bearer of divine providence, continues to hold albeit in hidden ways. Like the disguised Raphael, who personifies divine providence in the narrative, the inclusion of the dog in the story can be viewed as a concealed indication of the enduring aliveness of God's life-giving and providential intentions for his people.

This is simply a work in progress, at the moment in skeletal form. It serves as the basis for a much longer work that will take into account not only the Second Temple Jewish context of the book but also its reception history, extending to the present.

This is a Handbook about the Pentateuch and the historical/narrative books of the Old Testament, that belongs to the Series of Handbooks for the study of Theology, of the Institute of Religious Sciences of the Eclesiastical University of San Dámaso (Madrid, Spain). In this pdf you can find de introduction to the handbook and the explanation of its content. You can buy this book in: http://www.sandamaso.es/tienda/manual-de-ccrr/196-pentateuco-y-libros-historicos.html

It is widely accepted that Gen 16 and 21 belong to the wider Genesis narratives of the Patriarch Abraham. Thus, these two accounts also display Abraham's centrality: his covenant with God and his ordeal when the covenant is put to test. Gen 16 and Gen 21 pose questions pertaining to the proper lineage and the right offspring. Abraham's sons, Ishmael and Isaac, are, therefore, expected to be in focus. However, Sarah and Hagar are the ones who steal the stage; Sarah, as the the main instigator in both narratives, and Hagar as a great challenge. The challenge manifests in the fact that the marginal and oppressed is privileged to meet God in person, to be the only one to name God and, moreover, being the one who receives the promise of a great nation.  Hagar's status in the Islamic tradition  breached the limits of the narrative and the legend, becoming an ever-present and a revered figure in religious life.

This article examines the dual tenet generally upheld by scholars of Second Temple Judaism that a single concept of impurity existed in that period, and that purity and impurity formed a coherent, unified system of meaning. Herein I will contend that we should turn our focus on the phenomenological aspect of a specific source of impurity, and study this in its broader cultural contexts. Centering on corpse impurity as it appears in a selection of narrative, halachic, and archaeological sources, this article treats purity and impurity as an order of meaning inherently interconnected with that of honor and shame – which was equally dominant in the thought and practices of ancient Judeans – and identifies three modes of relationship between these two orders of meaning: 1) impurity as attached to shame, 2) impurity as attached to honor, and 3) corpse impurity as symbolizing the contrast between human and divine honor. Finally, I argue that the different functions and meanings of impurity, honor, and shame in each of these modes of interrelationship may be explained by the two networks of social relations to which all Judeans in Second Temple times belonged – the kinship one and the cultic one – and which, albeit partly overlapping, need to be distinguished for analytical purposes. The approach proposed here enables us to establish a link between God and the system of ancient Judean ritual purity in a way that suits the preeminence of metonymy as a strategy of representing entities that stands at the core of this order of meaning – especially when the dead are concerned – rather than the metaphoric and symbolic explanations which currently prevail.

Judaism has never recognized Tobit as a canonical book, perhaps because of its roots in the northern Israel. Its reflections in the New Testament are scarce. Ancient Christian witnesses are usually favorable to the canonicity of the book of Tobit. It is present in many ancient biblical manuscripts (א, B, A, more then 30 minuscules). It was quoted by at least 79 authors, by many as Scripture. Some canon lists include it, other ones does not – when they are influenced by the Jewish canon. Some authors who failed to list Tobit in the canon have quoted it as Scripture. Accordingly, arguments for the canonicity prevail. Later ages accepted Tobit as canonical book. Protestants, despite some initial positive interest, have eliminated it. Tobit is canonical in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. It contains valuable teachings, especially on family and marriage – it is the only biblical book concentrated on these subjects.

Readers have long wondered what is the meaning of the dog that briefly appears in the Jewish fairy tale known as the Book of Tobit. This article considers common answers such as influence from Ahikar, the Odyssey, influence of Persian culture and influence of folktale and goes into depth of the dog's significance in human culture, especially in connection with healing and defeating dragons and evil spirits and raises questions about the dog's possible connection to the archangel Raphael.

During my work on Qumran magical texts I often consulted Sándor on various questions raised by the texts. Our favourite topic was demonology, especially the question of demons as obstacle to a marriage. He referred to me cases known by him from contemporary Near Eastern practice. Girls who for some reason do not want to marry refuse the marriage proposal under the cover that they are already married to a demon. In order to get married to a human the girl should first divorce from her first husband. Gerda Sengers' book portrays similar cases from modern Egypt, where mental and physical health problems of married women are interpreted as consequences of an invasion of demons called ǧinn/asyād. Women are obsessed by demons who have entered the body through " openings ". The spirit resides in the body of the woman and raises obstacles in family life. Healing usually results from the zār ceremony and Koran healing (Sengers 2003). The Book of Tobit relates, among others, the story of the exorcism of a young woman obsessed by a spirit who means to be an obstacle to her successful marriage to a human. The story is known from the Greek versions of the Septuagint, the longer version GI, and the shorter and later version GII. The book embraces the life stories of three persons: Tobit, a pious man exiled to Nineveh from the northern kingdom of Israel; his son Tobiah, and Sarah, a young girl from the Jewish diaspora of the far Media. She is the only child and heir of her father. She enters into the story when praying to God for death because she is no longer able to support her fate. She had been given to marriage already seven times, but the demon Asmodeus killed all her bridegrooms in the bedroom, before their marriage had been consummated. Sarah was accused by neighbours to have killed her bridegrooms (Tob 3:7–15). She is finally saved by Tobiah, son of Tobit who is on his way to Media, in order to get his father's ten talents of silver deposited there by a client. Tobiah is guided by the angel Raphael whose identity is not recognized by him during their common travel. Approaching to the destination of their travel the angel informs the boy that they shall spend the night at the home

Abstract
The Bridegrooms’ Diadem
Meir Bar-Ilan

This book is dedicated to the study of Jewish wedding of in antiquity from Biblical times till the end of the Talmud era with emphasize on the Rabbinic sources (ca. 1st-6th centuries C.E.). However, more evidence comes from medieval times as a comparative tool that gives an indispensable viewpoint. Since wedding is a multifarious event it is studied with the help of interdisciplinary methods. First and foremost, the text is analyzed from the literary and philological point of view. Historical, liturgical, sociological and folkloristic aspects are added. Strangely enough, most of the issues discussed herein have not been the subject of critical research until now, including all sorts of lost rituals and customs.

Chapter 1: Wedding-Songs

The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to ancient Jewish wedding-songs, a type of song usually ignored by modern scholars; there are practically no wedding-songs in contemporary Jewish tradition.

The chapter begins with a wedding-song mentioned in the Talmud, continues with one mentioned briefly in the midrash, and goes on to a text preserved in the Hebrew book of Tobit. Additional wedding-songs are dealt with, especially those that seems to be more ancient and do not display marked literary features. Of special interest are wedding-songs from Yemen and Cochin, India. Over 50 songs are discussed in an attempt to understand the special qualities of Jewish wedding-songs in antiquity. A comprehensive bibliography of Jewish wedding-songs in all periods is provided.

Chapter 2: The Seven Wedding Blessings

An integral part of any Jewish wedding is the well-known recital of the seven blessings under the canopy. This chapter seeks to analyze the development and meaning of these blessings.

The main argument is that the sources indicate a development regarding the number of blessings: in the early strata of the liturgy there were people who recited three blessings only. Later these three became four, then five and six. With the additional blessing over the wine, the wedding ceremony reached its present stage, with seven blessings.

The main theme is the form and content of the blessings, with a glance at some marginal features as well. It is shown that the meaning of the blessings is twofold, expressing both Jewish identity of the new couple through ties to family and friends, and the religious credo of their faith.

A special appendix is dedicated to the numerological value of the number seven, trying to explain its meaning as a divine blessing.

Chapter 3: Rejected or Lost Wedding Rituals

This study deals with five different aspects of wedding rituals. The main focus is on virginity and its significance, from Biblical times till the Middle-Ages.

A. According to the Bible (Deut. 22:13-21), a bridegroom may claim that his newly-wed bride was not a virgin at the time of the wedding; if his claim is found to be true – by the test of the blood of virginity on the cloth – the woman is condemned to death. The Tannaim had the same idea of the importance of virginity. Although it is assumed that the practice of displaying the stained cloth had disappeared, it actually prevails to this very day (among some Oriental Jews). In practice, all cases of a groom coming to court claiming that his bride was not a virgin were rejected (indeed, one of the claimants was punished). This change of attitude can perhaps be ascribed to the move of the Jewish people from the cultural influence of the Fertile Crescent region to Mediterranean culture (known later as "Western").

B. A special blessing used to be recited by the groom upon ascertaining the bride's virginity. The blessing is not mentioned in the Talmud, and Maimonides condemned it as immoral; it was subsequently ritually rejected. Some versions of this blessing are discussed, as well as its history.

C. According to the Mishna (Kidushin 1:1), one may “buy” a wife by three different means, one of which is intercourse. This ancient practice was stopped by Rav (3rd c. Babylonia), who ruled that one who wed his wife by intercourse should be whipped. The proof of virginity, the virginity-blessing, and wedding by intercourse are actually different aspects of the same concept: the high value placed on virginity in Jewish culture.

D. The midrash tells a story about the son of R. Aqiba and his bride, who after the wedding studied Torah “all night long”. It is proposed that this story shows that learning Torah in that society was a supreme value.

E. The tractate of Kalla Rabbati tells a story of a bride who commits adultery immediately after her wedding. After many years, this was discovered by R. Aqiba by looking at the woman’s child. It is proposed that this story was told as a kind of hagiography, to show that R. Aqiba had divine powers. It is also suggested that Kalla Rabbati originated from Mehoza and reflects a folk-religion.

Chapter 4: Wedding Stories

This study discusses stories that were told during wedding celebrations among many nations and ends with wedding stories that appear in the Bible.

In the beginning the genre of wedding-story is characterized as a story that was told in a unique occasion, or “Sitz im Leben”, as it is called among Biblical scholars. The first story to be discussed is “The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle”, known from the Arthurian legend, a story that exemplify the concept of a wedding-story. The symbols of the story are explained as well as the idea of marrying a monstrous spouse. Several stories from the collection of Grimm Brothers are analyzed showing that they were aimed to be told in wedding occasions.

The Book of Tobit, from the Apocrypha, is shown, according its theme and lexicography, to be a wedding story. These different stories have a common denominator with some Biblical stories where the wedding is the climax of the narrative, such as the Scroll of Ruth and the wedding of Rebecca (Genesis 24). It is assumed that these stories, before they were committed to writing they were told in wedding ceremonies and played a role of Bildungsroman. In an appendix a new story is given: “The Wedding of the Daughters of Zelophehad”.

Chapter 5: The Song of Songs as Wedding Songs

This study is part of type-critical (gattungsgeschichtliche) of the Song of Songs. It aims to show that the genre of the Song of Songs is wedding songs. This hypothesis has been already known to scholars for more than 140 years. The evidence was drawn from cultures far distant, in time and in space, and therefore there was no agreement among the scholars whether to accept or reject this hypothesis.

This study is based on a few hundred wedding-songs sung among Jews in more than a millennium (and still a very long time after the biblical text was composed). The reasons supporting the wedding-songs hypothesis are as follows:

1. Content: specific words and motifs in the biblical text. These words are: wedding, bride, love, scents, physical description and breast. Far later Jewish wedding songs also have the same characters of the Biblical text.
2. Form: the dramatic character of the Biblical text is well known and a ‘modern’ song is presented (assumed to be sung in a new baby-girl ceremony). The song has the same concept, that is: mini-drama and duet between the bride and the groom as to make everyone joyful.
3. Use of the text: the idea is that the modern use of a text should be considered while looking for its genre, a concept already used by Mowinckel while analyzing enthronement psalms. According to this idea it is shown that many verses of Song of Songs are sung, until this very day, among Jews at weddings. This use should be taken as an indicator of the original setting of Song of Songs in its Sitz im Leben.

Special discussion is devoted to understanding why the text was understood allegorically and what made its type irrelevant to rabbinic wedding-songs. It is argued that in “Biblical times” the wedding-ceremony used to be part of popular religion and only in later times, under rabbinic movement, did the ceremony become part of the official religion so the text was understood as immodest (and therefore MUST have been created to describe Divine love).

In sum: different data are put forward and the comparison between known wedding songs and Song of Songs leaves no doubt: the Biblical text was originally composed as wedding songs.

The 'as is' version of my master's thesis submitted for the Master of Theological Studies course at Malyon Theological College.

This paper challenges the validity of Zoroastrian Influence Theory, which claims that Zoroastrianism influenced Old Testament Monotheism and Eschatology. This is true both in the sense that the Old Testament does not absorb Zoroastrian ideas, nor does it define itself against Zoroastrian ideas via polemics.

An expanded version is currently in the works

In this study I examine the special multifunctionality of Raphael’s character. The author of Tobit 12 collects together various aspects occurring within the angelology of Palestinian Judaism of the last centuries BC, and relates these diverse characteristics to his protagonist, Raphael.  Below, firstly, in a predominantly technical section, I give an overview of the pericope, then, in the second part, I evaluate the data concerning the character and work of the angel in question.

The book of Tobit, which is dated to the Hellenistic period, is often compared with the model of the pious and innocent sufferer in the book of Job which is assumed to be the product of a late Persian or early Hellenistic scribal idea. It has been argued that in many ways, the author of Tobit directly alluded to Job's texts and put its literary framework and themes into a new historical context, the Assyrian Diaspora. However, both literary works are quite dissimilar in how they used various Israelite and non-Israelite materials and they substantially reflect different thoughts and interests. In this paper, I indicate how each book understands Jewish literary tradition and suggest that both books reflect their own intellectual background. This will be discussed in four areas; (1) suffering and theodicy, (2) dialogue, (3) retribution, law, and piety, (4) election, eschatology, and apocalyptic.

Les juifs en Iran sont aujourd'hui peu influents, mais leur histoire est millénaire. Cette diaspora est maintes fois mentionnée dans la Bible et ses principaux personnages sont souvent réutilisés aujourd'hui pour communiquer une image de l'Iran. Tentons de revenir à ce que dit la Bible.

For the affluent merchant class of fifteenth-century Florence, the education of future generations was a fundamental matter. Together with texts, images played an important role in the development of the young into adult citizens. In this book, Federico Botana demonstrates how illustrated manuscripts of vernacular texts read by the Florentine youth facilitated understanding and memorisation of basic principles and knowledge. They were an important means of acquiring skills then considered necessary to gain the respect of others, to prosper as merchants, and to participate in civic life. Botana focuses on illustrated texts that were widely read in Quattrocento Florence:  the Fior di virtù (a moral treatise including a bestiary), the Esopo volgarizzato (Aesop's Fables in Tuscan), the Sfera by Goro Dati (a poem on cosmology and geography), and mathematical manuals known as libri d'abbaco. He elucidates, in light of original sources and medieval and modern cognitive theory, the mechanisms that empowered illustrations to transmit knowledge in the Italian Renaissance.

This paper examines the eschatology of the book of Tobit from a Jungian perspective according to Hicks-Keaton’s model of the already/not yet fulfilment of prophetic eschatological promises regarding God’s kingdom in Tobit’s time. The paper suggests, among others, that an underlying message of the book is that Tobit’s community should modify their strict retributional understanding of suffering so as to overcome the stultification of their current collective individuation cycle, bring to remembrance (anamnesis) the Original Wholeness from which they came (the God-image), and experience the conscious restoration or anamnesis of the future (not yet) psycho-social eschaton in the now (already).

The book of Tobit offers a theology of resistance with apocalyptic elements. It starts on the basis of a family history that then becomes a tribal and popular history expanded into a world perspective. Apocalyptic elements emerge through the fictitious frame of Nineveh. Assur stands for a type of cruel warfare (piles, mass executions, strategy of the scorched earth: Lev 19,23-25), thus one of the Israel's worst enemies in history. The same applies to the time of the Seleucids under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Furthermore, Asarja / Rafael acts as asupernatural being in secret on earth until he discloses in chap. 12 his angelic status. The subject of light/darkness is described in chap. 14, which is close to the Qumran scrolls. A demarcation from the non-Jewish environment is expressed by means of observance of kashrut laws, endogamous marriage, various mitzvot (burial of tribesmen, etc.) and ritual ablutions. On the other hand, circumcision and Shabbat which are widely regarded as essentials of Judaism at that time are not mentioned.

Concerning the topic of conversion and circumcision, one finds only few traces in the book of Tobit, but numerous markers of Jewish identity are mentioned and lead to the conclusion that the book of Tobit was written in what was for Jews a challenging environment in the diaspora. But some of them were still willing and able to separate themselves in certain respects from the foreign population and to live according the Law of Moses.

The Book of Tobit is replete with various instances of ‘othering’ that hold the potential for alienation and a variety of strong emotions. For example, Tobit ‘others’ Anna by insisting that she had stolen a goat, whereas she had not. Following a Jungian paradigm, this paper
reads the various ‘otherings’ inherent in the interrelationships between the characters as reflections of the main character’s relationship with himself. In so doing, it analyses these relationships through Jung’s concepts of Eros/Logos and anima/animus to determine the nature
of Tobit’s ‘self-othering’ and its effect on those around him. It is concluded, among others, that Tobit’s multiple ‘self-otherings’ and his ‘othering’ of ‘other’ characters are because of his suppression of his anima-Eros function that has, in turn, given rise to a dominant
(and demonic) animus-Logos.

This paper takes a fresh approach in identifying the presence of multiple authors in the Book of Tobit. Rather than relying upon narrative discontinuity or by creating a hypothetical scheme, the paper tracks 1) patterns of substitution and repetition, 2) divine epithets, 3) marriage rites and 4) both heavenly and earthly reasons to bring the couple together. This study should be helpful for the study of redaction more generally.  Page numbers may have altered in printing. 

CORRECTION: The paper leaves out the information that Isaac and Rebecca's marriage was appointed by God in Genesis 24:44. This is important data keeping in mind that Genesis Rabbah takes this point further by dating the appointing to Issac's binding on Mount Moriah.

The ambiguity over the canonicity of the book of Tobit within Jewish and Christian circles leads to a threefold understanding of the genre of Tobit; folktale/fairy-tale, legend and novella. Folktale is a more adequate description of the book to Tobit due to the idea of the book as
fiction, the hero motif and marriage. However, this is contested through the religious obligations of the character Tobit embodying themes of exile and a return to Israel. These views and other views will be compared throughout this essay. Concluding with the thoughts
of the final genre of Tobit as fairy-tale or novella.

This essay on the Syriac versions of Tobit appears in Volume 2 of the Textual History of the Bible, edited by Armin Lange, concerning the Deuterocanonical Scriptures of the Old Testament, in particular in Vol.2C, in which the Book of Tobit is also included. According to the novelty of the methodological perspective of this work, we do not focus mainly on the most important testimonia textus, in view of the reconstruction of the original of each book, but rather we aim to examine all the known textual witnesses of each of the biblical books, paying therefore particular attention to the manuscript traditions, and considering specifically all the single linguistic traditions in which they come.
This article therefore presents: 1. Manuscripts and Editions - 2. Translation Character: The First Section (1:1-7:11); The Second Section (7:11 [1° brm]-14:15) - 3. Translation Technique and Inner-Translational Features - Text-Critical Value.

Οι ψευδομάρτυρες του Ιεχωβά όπως και όλοι οι Προτεστάντες γενικώς δεν δέχονται το κανονικό βιβλίο του Τωβίτ ως βιβλίο της Αγίας Γραφής ! Το αρνούνται και το συκοφαντούν ως δήθεν απόκρυφο !
Παραθέτω απόσπασμα προπαγάνδας ενάντια στο βιβλίο Τωβίτ  από το χιλιαστικό βιβλίο «Ενόραση» τόμος 1 σελ. 270-275, όπως περιέχεται  στην επίσημη ιστοσελίδα των αιρετικών Χιλιαστών : (Οι υπογραμμίσεις δικές μας).
ΑΠΑΝΤΗΣΗ :
1) Λέγει το βιβλίο  Τωβίτ στο 1 κεφάλαιο :
"Βίβλος λόγων Τωβίτ, τοῦ Τωβιήλ, τοῦ ᾿Ανανιήλ...." Τωβίτ 1:1
" καὶ ὅτε ἐγενόμην ἀνήρ, ἔλαβον ῎Ανναν γυναῖκα ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος τῆς πατριᾶς ἡμῶν καὶ ἐγέννησα ἐξ αὐτῆς Τωβίαν" Τωβίτ 1:9
Αυτό σημαίνει ότι ο υιός του Τωβιήλ=  ο Τωβίτ, γέννησε τον Τωβία. Άλλο δηλαδή πρόσωπο είναι ο Τωβίτ και άλλο ο Τωβίας !
2) Λέγει το βιβλίο  Τωβίτ στο 1 κεφάλαιο :

The Book of Tobit includes episodes of fiduciary duties and references to wages. I argue that the financial transactions form part of the narrative discourse that addresses in an immediate way the misfortunes of the characters. The story's careful attention to metaphors from the world of business projects a divine economy that is dependable. Even when the work may prove burdensome or distressful, as it does for Tobit, those who work for righteousness and truth can truly hope for wages. Financial generosity exemplifies in fact the transactions in the story, portraying a God who is a trustworthy fiduciary, a reliable employer and a generous administrator of the treasury.

The instances where daughters are mentioned in the Greek books of the Old Testament are not numerous. They are interesting, however, and deserving of exegesis and interpretation. In Tobit and Ben Sira their relationship to fathers are stressed and this aspect is of importance, whether those relationships are good or strained. If the texts are compared with the Hebrew Bible, more light is thrown on the personalities of the daughters, and they are valued more highly. Some influence of the Greek civilization can be presupposed here. A link with the Mediterranean culture of honor and shame can also be traced, especially in Ben Sira.

Meaning "YHWH is my good," Tobiah/Tobiayahu/Tobias refers to a number of historical and literary figures. These include (1) a Levite sent by Jehoshaphat to teach Torah (2 Chr 17:5-9); (2) the ʿebd (, "servant") and zrʿ (, "offspring") of the king (Lachish letters III; V); (3) a figure in 5th-century BCE Nippur business documents; (4) one linked with a crown of high priest Joshua made to remember the Jerusalem Temple (Zech 6:10-14); (5) a returnee unable to prove Israelite ancestry (

STARSZE KOBIETY I ICH DUCHOWOŚĆ W KSIĘDZE TOBIASZA

W społeczeństwie patriarchalnym Imperium Asyrii i Medii ok. IV w. przed Chr. kobiety diaspory żydowskiej są ukazywane w kontekście rodziny, w domu, w rolach podporządkowanych córek, żon, matek, teściowych i babek. Księga Tobiasza z pełnym realizmem i bez retuszowania niedoskonałości przedstawia portrety trzech starszych i doświadczonych kobiet: Debory, Hanny i Edny. Uosabiają one ideał kobiety oddanej rodzinie, pracowitej, dobrze zarządzającej domem, mądrej i emocjonalnej.
Jednym z głównych wątków księgi jest miłosierdzie Boże. Bóg bogaty w miłosierdzie doprowadza do uczestnictwa we własnym życiu swoich naśladowców, w tym współczujące i dobroczynne kobiety. Miłosierdzie stanowi istotę ich powołania, jednak przejawy ich dobroczynności nie rzucają się w oczy, gdyż są związane z podstawowymi potrzebami życiowymi. To one karmią, odziewają, udzielają gościny, pocieszają i pielęgnują. Powołanie kobiety ma zatem charakter inkarnacyjny i dlatego kobieta uosabia w Biblii naród wybrany, a więc każdego człowieka w relacji do Boga, ukazując możliwość odpowiedzi Bogu w realiach codziennego życia, bo kto miłuje, pragnie obdarzać sobą. 

Słowa kulcze:
Księga Tobiasza; starsza kobieta; miłosierdzie

AGEING WOMEN AND THEIR SPIRITUALITY IN THE BOOK OF TOBIT
In the patriarchal society of the Assyrian and Medes empire of the 4th century BC, women from the Jewish diaspora are depicted in the context of the family, at home, in the subordinated roles of daughters, wives, mothers, grandmothers and mothers in law. Without retouching their imperfections the book of Tobit portrays with full realism three experienced and ageing women: Deborah, Hanna and Edna. They embody the ideal of woman: devoted to the family, hard-working, good manager of the household, wise and emotional. One of the main topics in the book of Tobit is the divine Mercy. God is rich in mercy and he grants participation in his very life to those who follow him – including compassionate and charitable women. Mercy is very heart of their vocation, but their charity’s manifestations are somehow hidden, as they are linked to the fundamental needs of life: they feed, clothe, welcome, console and take care. The vocation of women has an incarnational character: this is why the woman symbolises in the Bible God’s relationship with man and the possibility of answering God in a daily life reality, for he who loves desires to give himself.

Key words:
Book of Tobit; ageing women; mercy.

This article argues that charitable acts in the book of Tobit are religious acts of remembrance. On the one hand, the narrative emphasizes the practice of righteousness, the doing of what is true, and the performance of charitable deeds. On the other hand, the remembrance of God is an equally prominent motif in the story. This gives rise to the question of how remembering is linked to acts of charity. The close connection between remembering and almsgiving argues against the commonly held view that the story endorses acts of charity because such acts facilitate social cohesion and mutual support in the Diaspora. Given the theological value the narrative places on almsgiving, the book of Tobit witnesses to the emergence of a horizontal expression of service to God as part of the religious piety in Second Temple Judaism.

Tobit offers a ‘theology of resistance with apocalyptic elements’. It starts
off as a family story and then extends to a tribal and people’s history.
We find apocalyptic elements in the fictive framework of Nineveh.
Assyria was the symbol of the cruelest warfare: staking people, mass
executions and a scorched-earth-policy (Lev. 19.23-25!). Therefore,
Assyria was seen as one of the worst enemies that Israel had ever
encountered in its history. During the Seleucid era, a similar situation
obtains during the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
In addition, another apocalyptic element is when Azariah/Raphael
pretends to be human but acts as a non-human being on earth until he
reveals himself in ch. 12. The light–darkness metaphor in ch. 14 also
links Tobit to the Qumran literature.
The maintenance of Judaism within a non-Jewish surrounding is
expressed through the observance of Kashrut laws, endogamy, several
mitzvoth (burial of tribal members, etc.) and ritual ablutions. However,
circumcision and Shabbat – two essential features of Jewish practice –
are completely absent, possibly because of the sociological, political and
geographical circumstances pertaining to the author’s time.