The Book of Tobit

A deuterocanonical book

Tobit belongs to the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, together with Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch and the two books of Maccabees. The word deuterocanonical (“of the second canon”) does not mean “second-rate”: it indicates that these books, found in the Greek Septuagint but absent from the rabbinic Hebrew Bible, had a somewhat longer history of reception into the Catholic canon than the protocanonical books.^[5] For the Church they are fully inspired and canonical, just as Genesis and the Psalms are.

Tobit is often grouped with two other edifying narratives from roughly the same period, Esther and Judith: three stories in which a faithful person undergoes a mortal crisis and God saves his people through humble and unexpected means.^[6]

The names: Tobit the father, Tobias the son

A vocabulary difficulty should be cleared up at once. In the Greek text, the father is Tōbit and the son Tōbias. In Saint Jerome's Latin Vulgate, however—the version that shaped Catholic usage for centuries—“father and son bear the same name, Tobias.”^[7] This creates an ambiguity: the “Book of Tobias” may refer to either father or son.

For clarity, this article follows common modern English usage:

• Tobit: the father, a devout Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali, deported to Nineveh and later blinded;
• Tobias: the son, who journeys into Media under the angel's guidance.

Tobit: a name proclaiming God's goodness

The Hebrew name Tobiyyah (Tôbîyyāhû) means “the Lord is good” or “Yahweh is my good.” This is no minor detail: the whole book is a narrative demonstration of that confession. Amid the harshest trials—blindness, poverty, bereavement and humiliation—the story seeks to engrave upon the reader's heart that God remains good and his goodness is ultimately revealed to those who remain faithful to him.^[8]

The narrative is set during the Assyrian deportation. After the fall of the northern kingdom and the capture of Samaria (722–721 BC), thousands of Israelites were carried captive into Assyria.^[9] The story begins there, in Nineveh.

The whole book falls into two great movements, as the Catholic Encyclopedia observed: first, “the fidelity of the elder Tobias and of Sara to the Lord,” and then “the fidelity of the Lord to Tobias and to Sara through the ministration of the angel Raphael.”^[10] The following table maps those movements before considering them in detail.

Two righteous people in trial: Tobit in Nineveh, Sarah in Ecbatana

Tobit is portrayed as a man of uncommon righteousness. Deported to Nineveh, he continues to give alms, feed the hungry and—at the risk of his life—bury murdered Israelites whose bodies the Assyrian king has cast outside the walls:

“Father, one of our people has been murdered and thrown into the market place.” — Tobit 2:3^[11]

Tobit rises at once, removes the corpse and buries it by night in defiance of the royal ban. This heroic work of charity is precisely what leads to his misfortune: exhausted after a burial, he sleeps outside by the wall, and a seemingly trivial accident blinds him.

“I did not know there were sparrows on the wall above me; their warm droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films.” — Tobit 2:10^[12]

For four years Tobit remains in darkness. At the same hour, far away in Ecbatana in Media, a young woman named Sarah, daughter of Raguel, suffers a different tragedy: she has been given successively to seven husbands, and each time the demon Asmodeus has killed them before the marriage was consummated. Mocked by her maids and accused of strangling her husbands, Sarah is driven to the brink of despair.

Two prayers rising to God (Tob 3)

Chapter 3 is one of the book's high points. At the same moment, though they do not know one another, Tobit and Sarah address agonized prayers to God, each asking for death as deliverance. Yet neither curses God; instead, they confess his justice.

“You are righteous, O Lord, and all your deeds are just; all your ways are mercy and truth; you judge the world.” — Tobit, Tobit 3:2^[13]

“Blessed are you, O God of mercy, and blessed is your name forever; may all your works praise you forever.” — Sarah, Tobit 3:11^[14]

The narrator then reveals the story's decisive dimension: “the prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of God,” and the Lord sends Raphael to heal them both. The reader now knows what the characters do not: their two distresses form a single story, and help is already on the way.

Tobias's journey and the angel Raphael

Believing himself close to death, Tobit wishes to pass on to his son a deposit of money that he had once entrusted to a relative, Gabael, at Rages in Media. He sends Tobias to retrieve it and gives him a long spiritual testament (Tob 4), woven from practical wisdom and fear of the Lord:

“Remember the Lord our God all your days, my son, and refuse to sin or to transgress his commandments.” — Tobit 4:5^[15]

“What you hate, do not do to anyone.” — Tobit 4:15^[16]

The latter is one of the earliest formulations of the Golden Rule in negative form, more than two centuries before Christ gives it positive expression: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Mt 7:12).^[17]

Tobias looks for a guide for the journey. A young man presents himself under the name Azariah—in reality the angel Raphael, sent by God, although no one recognizes him. The household dog joins the travelers, a concrete detail that has stirred the imagination of painters for centuries.

The fish, its gall and deliverance

Beside the Tigris, a large fish leaps up and threatens to swallow the young man. At the angel's command Tobias seizes it, and Raphael teaches him to preserve its organs, which will serve as instruments of healing and exorcism:

“Cut open the fish and take the heart and liver and gall and put them away safely.” — Tobit 6:4^[18]

“As for the gall, anoint a man's eyes, on which white films have formed, and they will be healed.” — Tobit 6:9^[19]

The angel then discloses the divine plan: Tobias will marry his kinswoman Sarah, and the heart and liver of the fish, burned upon the incense, will drive the demon away. The remedy in the narrative is not magic: it is an instrument that God places in the hands of angel and man, just as a sacrament uses water or oil.

The marriage of Tobias and Sarah

On reaching the house of Raguel, Sarah's father, Tobias asks for the young woman in marriage and does not shrink from the danger posed by the seven previous deaths. On their wedding night, rather than yielding immediately to pleasure, the spouses rise first to pray, as the angel had instructed them: “When you enter the bridal chamber, take some of the fish's liver and heart ... then both of you get up and pray” (Tob 6:17–18).^[20]

“Sister, get up, and let us pray that the Lord may have mercy upon us.” — Tobit 8:4^[21]

“Blessed are you, O God of our fathers [...]. You made Adam and gave him Eve his wife as a helper and support. [...] I now am taking this kinswoman of mine, not because of lust, but with sincerity.” — Tobit 8:5–7^[22]

This marital prayer, which goes back to the creation of Adam and Eve to ground the spouses' marriage, is one of the highest biblical texts on the meaning of marriage. The smoke from the fish's heart and liver puts Asmodeus to flight; Sarah is delivered and the marriage is blessed at last.

Tobit's healing and Raphael's revelation

Back in Nineveh, Tobias applies the fish's gall to his father's eyes, and Tobit regains his sight. The family's joy erupts. Then comes the moment when Tobit and Tobias wish to reward their mysterious companion, offering him half of all they have brought back. This is the moment of the great revelation (Tob 12).

The angel first unveils the hidden meaning of the entire story:

“When you and Sarah prayed, it was I who brought and read the record of your prayer before the glory of the Lord.” — Tobit 12:12^[23]

Then he discloses his identity in one of biblical angelology's most celebrated statements:

“I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One.” — Tobit 12:15^[24]

Before disappearing, Raphael leaves a teaching that sums up the spirituality of the whole book: praise God, proclaim his works, and practise prayer, fasting and almsgiving (see below). The book ends (Tob 13–14) with Tobit's hymn of thanksgiving, a prophecy concerning the future Jerusalem, and finally the peaceful death of the righteous at a great age.

An eighth-century setting and a Hellenistic composition

The narrative presents itself as a story of the Assyrian exile in the 8th century BC. Its composition is usually placed much later. Catholic scholarship included, a part of contemporary exegesis proposes an early 2nd-century BC date—that is, the Hellenistic period shortly before the Maccabean crisis.^[25] On this view, the author sought to edify the Jews of the Diaspora of his own day by telling an exemplary story set at the dawn of exile.

Catholic biblical introductions often describe the genre as an edifying narrative: “the inspired author used the literary form of a religious novel (as in Esther and Judith) for the purpose of instruction and edification.”^[26] Recognizing this literary dimension in no way diminishes the text's inspiration or authority: God also teaches by narrative, parable and example, as Christ himself does in his parables. Its message—God's faithfulness, the value of almsgiving and the ministry of angels—is entirely true and normative.

The proposed Hellenistic date remains a historical reconstruction, not a demonstrable verdict. Its arguments are literary and contextual; they do not disprove a more ancient nucleus, the preservation of family memories from exile, or the substantial historicity of the persons and events. The traditional Catholic reading is therefore not required to treat the book's supernatural action as fictional simply because a later literary shaping is possible.

The original language: Aramaic or Hebrew?

For centuries Tobit was chiefly known in Greek through the Septuagint, which led some to suppose that it had been composed directly in that language. Saint Jerome, however, said that he translated it from a “Chaldean” text—that is, Aramaic.^[27] At the beginning of the 20th century, the Catholic Encyclopedia still regarded a Semitic original as merely “probable.”^[28]

Archaeology decisively clarified the question in the mid-20th century.

The discoveries at Qumran (4Q196–200)

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran Cave 4 were five manuscripts of Tobit: four in Aramaic (4Q196, 4Q197, 4Q198 and 4Q199) and one in Hebrew (4Q200).^[29][30] These fragments, dated to the 1st or 2nd century BC, proved the existence of a Semitic original earlier than the Greek versions and confirmed Jerome's testimony concerning an Aramaic text.

Significantly, these Semitic witnesses “agree substantially with the long recension in Greek” preserved in Codex Sinaiticus.^[31] In other words, the fuller Greek form—not the shorter one—stands closest to the original. The discovery vindicated the reliability of the book's long textual tradition.

Greek and Latin versions and Saint Jerome's Vulgate

Tobit has come down to us in several textual forms, making it a classic case study in biblical textual criticism:

• a short Greek recension, witnessed by Codex Vaticanus (4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (5th century);^[32]
• a long Greek recension, witnessed by Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) and now judged closer to the Semitic original in light of Qumran;^[33][34]
• several Old Latin versions (Vetus Latina);
• Saint Jerome's Vulgate.

The history of the Vulgate Tobit is unusual. Jerome, who did not yet command Aramaic, enlisted a bilingual interpreter and translated the book in a single day, as he recounts in his preface:

“I found a man skilled in both languages and undertook the work of a single day: whatever he expressed to me in Hebrew words, I set forth in Latin words through a summoned scribe.” — Saint Jerome, Prologue to Tobit^[35]

This hurried translation helps explain why the Vulgate differs substantially from the Greek texts in many details. Verse numbering therefore varies among Bibles: the same episode may bear slightly different references depending on whether an edition follows the Greek or the Vulgate.

Deuterocanonical, not “apocryphal”

For Catholics, Tobit is fully canonical. The term “Apocrypha,” used by Protestants for Tobit and the other six deuterocanonical books, does not correspond to Catholic usage: in the Church's tradition, apocryphal properly designates writings excluded from the canon, such as spurious gospels and apocalypses. Tobit, by contrast, was read, cited and venerated as Scripture from the earliest centuries.

Reception in the ancient Church: Hippo and Carthage

By the late 4th century, the regional councils of Africa drew up canonical lists that expressly included Tobit. The Council of Carthage in 397 enumerated the “canonical” books and placed “Tobit, Judith, Esther” among the writings of the Old Testament.^[36] The Council of Hippo in 393 had already given the same list, corresponding to the present Catholic canon.^[37] Supported by the authority of Saint Augustine, these African decisions established the lasting usage of the Latin Church.

Florence and Trent: dogmatic definition

What the ancient councils had established in ecclesial practice, the solemn Magisterium later defined dogmatically. The Council of Florence, in the bull Cantate Domino (1442), enumerated the sacred books received by the Church and named “Tobias” among those of the Old Testament.^[38] Above all, the Council of Trent, responding to the Reformation, closed the debate definitively.

As the Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes it, “to the Catholic the question of the canonicity of Tobias was infallibly settled by the decisions of the Councils of Trent, Session IV (8 April, 1546), and of the Vatican, Session III, chap. 2 (24 April, 1870).”^[39]

Why Protestants removed it

The 16th-century Reformers excluded the seven deuterocanonical books, including Tobit, from the canon because they were absent from the rabbinic Hebrew Bible. Yet this choice presents a difficulty: the early Church read the Old Testament in the Greek Septuagint, which contained these books, and it was this Bible that the apostles and Fathers used. To reject Tobit is to break with the scriptural usage of the Church's earliest centuries, settled by the Councils of Hippo and Carthage long before the Reformation. For the formation of the canon and the Catholic response to these objections, see The Old Testament.

Tobit is not only a beautiful story: it is a book of doctrine and spirituality from which Fathers and liturgists have drawn a rich harvest. The Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes its primary purpose: “God is faithful to those that are faithful to Him is evidently the chief lesson of the book.”^[40]

God's Providence over the righteous

The hidden mainspring of the book is Providence. Throughout the narrative the characters believe they are advancing through chance or misfortune; the reader knows that God has arranged everything. The two prayers of Tobit 3 are answered before Tobias even departs; the traveling companion is an angel; the fish appears at the right moment; and the marriage that seemed cursed becomes a source of life. The book thus teaches readers to reread trials in God's light: what appears to be collapse is often the hidden path of salvation.

Angels and Saint Raphael, “one of the seven”

Tobit is one of the Bible's great books on angels. It names Raphael, whose Hebrew name means “God heals,” and presents him as “one of the seven angels who stand before the glory of the Lord” (Tob 12:15).^[41] This reference to seven angels in the divine presence nourished the entire tradition concerning the archangels, while Revelation likewise speaks of seven angels before the throne (Rev 8:2).

Raphael fulfills a threefold mission: he guides Tobias on the road, delivers Sarah from the demon and heals Tobit's blindness. Catholic tradition therefore honors him as patron of travelers, the sick and the blind, engaged couples and happy meetings.^[42] Since the 1969 reform of the General Roman Calendar, the Church celebrates him on 29 September together with the archangels Michael and Gabriel; previously his feast was 24 October.^[43] On the nature and mission of heavenly spirits, see Guardian Angels.

“When you and Sarah prayed, it was I who brought the record of your prayer before the glory of the Lord.” — Raphael, Tobit 12:12^[44]

This statement is one of the scriptural foundations for the doctrine of the intercession of angels: they carry our prayers before God, taking nothing away from Christ's unique mediation but serving it.

Almsgiving that “delivers from death”

No book of the Old Testament insists more strongly than Tobit upon the saving value of almsgiving. The theme recurs like a refrain, first in Tobit's testament and then from the angel's own lips:

“Almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from going into the Darkness.” — Tobit 4:10^[45]

“Almsgiving delivers from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life.” — Tobit 12:9^[46]

This teaching—that charity toward the poor “covers a multitude of sins”—is taken up in the New Testament (1 Pet 4:8; Lk 11:41) and throughout the Church's tradition on mercy. It grounds the Catholic conviction that good works, as fruits of grace, are not irrelevant to salvation.

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving: a triptych

Before disappearing, Raphael condenses the book's wisdom into a teaching destined for immense influence:

“It is good to guard the secret of a king, but gloriously to reveal the works of God. [...] Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness.” — Tobit 12:7–8^[47]

The book closely associates prayer, fasting and almsgiving—the three works Christ will take up in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6), and which tradition places at the heart of Lent. Tobit thus offers one of the earliest syntheses of Jewish and Christian spiritual life: turn the heart toward God (prayer), discipline the body (fasting), and open the hand to the poor (almsgiving).

Burying the dead: a work of mercy

Tobit's charity toward the abandoned dead, whom he buries at the risk of his life (Tob 1–2), profoundly marked Christian tradition. From this narrative the Church drew burying the dead as the seventh corporal work of mercy. Honoring the bodies of the deceased and giving them a dignified burial is not an optional custom: it is an act of faith in the dignity of the person and the resurrection of the body.

Christian marriage and the “Tobias nights”

Tobit offers the Old Testament's most beautiful catechesis on marriage. The spouses rise to pray before coming together, placing their love within the Creator's design: “You made Adam and gave him Eve his wife as a helper and support” (Tob 8:6).^[48] They affirm that they marry “not because of lust, but with sincerity” (Tob 8:7).^[49]

In its purity and depth, this marital prayer has inspired the wedding liturgy and Christian spirituality of marriage: love that begins in prayer, is received from God, and by grace expels whatever would corrupt it. Spiritual tradition has sometimes called the practice of newlyweds postponing marital relations in order to consecrate their union first through prayer the “Tobias nights”—a debated custom, but one that expresses the book's reverence for the holiness of the home.

Filial piety and faithfulness to the Law

Finally, Tobit is a book about the faithful family. A father transmits faith to his son; Anna, the mother, waits anxiously for her child; and a son obeys and honors his parents even through Tobit's blind old age. Filial piety, marital fidelity and care for elderly parents appear as concrete places of ordinary holiness—holiness lived in the daily life of a believing home even in exile.

“At all times bless the Lord God, and ask him that your ways may be made straight and that all your paths and plans may prosper.” — Tobit 4:19^[50]

Read in the light of the New Testament, Tobit opens up a fruitful spiritual reading: without imposing it as the literal sense of the narrative, the Christian reader can discern within it an anticipation of the mystery of Christ and the Church:

• Raphael the healer foreshadows Christ, physician of souls and bodies, who came “to heal the brokenhearted” (Lk 4:18); the gall that opens Tobit's eyes prefigures the light Jesus restores to the blind.
• Almsgiving that delivers from death finds its fulfillment in Christ's charity, by which he lays down his life for sinners.
• The marriage of Tobias and Sarah, wrested from the demon through prayer, images the marriage of Christ and the Church, which nothing can separate (Eph 5).
• The journey guided by the angel figures the Christian's pilgrimage toward the homeland, accompanied by Providence and the ministry of angels.

Beyond its narrative charm, Tobit therefore belongs to God's great pedagogy: through the history of a family in exile, it prepares hearts to recognize the “good” God proclaimed by its very name, who will reveal himself fully in Christ.

• Read The Old Testament to place Tobit within Scripture as a whole and understand the formation of the canon and the place of the deuterocanonical books.
• Read The Book of Judith and The Book of Esther, the two other great edifying narratives of the same family, in which God saves his people through a humble and faithful person.
• Read Guardian Angels to explore Catholic teaching on angels, of whom Raphael is one of the most radiant figures.
• Remember the heart of the subject: Tobit tells how God remains faithful to the righteous in trial, sends his angel Raphael to heal and guide them, and teaches by example prayer, fasting, almsgiving, respect for the dead and the holiness of marriage—treasures the Catholic Church has received as inspired Scripture.