Book of Tobit

The Book of Tobit is a Jewish narrative about Tobit, his son Tobias, and the angel Raphael, combining family hardship, healing, prayer, and deliverance from a demon.

Tobit: A pious Israelite exile whose blindness and misfortunes frame the Book of Tobit. His prayer and blindness set the story’s two intertwined quests in motion.
Tobias's journey: The journey from Nineveh to Media undertaken by Tobias with Raphael as his guide. The road brings Tobias to his marriage and carries back a cure for Tobit.
Second Temple Judaism: The forms of Jewish religion and culture from the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple around 516 BCE to its destruction in 70 CE. Tobit reflects Jewish concerns about exile, observance, and life among foreign rulers.
Deuterocanonical books: Books accepted as scripture in Catholic and Orthodox traditions but absent from the Jewish and most Protestant canons. Tobit belongs to this collection in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
Jewish diaspora: The dispersed Jewish communities living outside the land of Israel across different historical periods. Tobit portrays a family preserving Jewish practices while living under foreign rule.
Tobias: Tobit’s son, who travels to Media and marries Sarah in the Book of Tobit. His journey links his father’s recovery to Sarah’s deliverance.
Fish in the Book of Tobit: A fish Tobias catches whose heart, liver, and gall are used in the story’s remedies. Its organs drive both the exorcism and Tobit’s recovery.
Aramaic: A Semitic language used across the ancient Near East and in parts of Jewish literature. Aramaic manuscripts of Tobit were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Apocrypha: A term for religious writings whose scriptural status differs among traditions and contexts. Protestant editions often group Tobit among the Apocrypha rather than the Old Testament.
Filial piety: Respect, care, and duties owed by children to their parents. Tobias’s journey begins with obedience to his father’s request.

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