Book
Everything starts here. A Second Temple novella, written around 200 BC and found at Qumran in Aramaic and Hebrew rather than Greek as long assumed; a blind father, a dangerous journey, a demon named Asmodeus, and a companion who turns out to be an angel. Plus the reason half the Christian world barely knows it: Tobit is deuterocanonical for Catholics and Orthodox, apocryphal for most Protestants, and absent from the Jewish canon.
Part of Saint Raphael
43 moments in this segment.
- - Tobit blinded, 13th-century manuscript. Illuminated manuscript miniature of the moment Tobit is blinded, the episode that sets the Book of Tobit in motion. French, 1250-1300; BnF. Accepted at 512 px as scarce primary material.
- - Medieval French manuscript: Tobit and Saint Raphael. A 13th-century illuminated manuscript page from a French Bible showing Tobit and the Archangel Raphael, held by the Bibliotheque nationale de France. Small digitisation (512 px) accepted as scarce primary manuscript material.
- - A Book of Tobit manuscript leaf, front side. A hand-written leaf of the Book of Tobit from a medieval Latin Bible manuscript.
- - The same Tobit manuscript leaf, reverse side. The reverse of a medieval Bible manuscript leaf carrying the text of the Book of Tobit.
- - Early printed Tobias woodcut, 1465. A 15th-century woodcut of Tobias and the angel from an early printed book, 1465. Accepted at 563 px as scarce incunable material.
- - Raphael in a 1497 printed legendary of the saints. A 1497 Italian printed legendary of the saints with a woodcut of the Archangel Raphael, an incunable illustration of the archangel.
- - Tobias seizes the fish, German print 1543. A 1543 print from a Story of Tobias series: at the angel's bidding Tobias hauls the great fish from the river. Rijksmuseum.
- - Hebrew Book of Tobit, 16th-century France. A 16th-century French manuscript of the Book of Tobit in Hebrew, held at the Bibliotheque nationale de France. Modern photograph of the original codex.
- - Russian Illuminated Chronicle: Tobias and the Angel. A miniature from the Facial Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible, 1560s, illustrating the Book of Tobit in a Muscovite Russian manuscript idiom.
- - The Wedding Night of Tobias and Sarah. A 1611 depiction of the wedding night in the Book of Tobit, when Raphael drives off the demon Asmodeus. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- - Tobit chooses the angel as his son's companion. An engraving of Tobit engaging the disguised Raphael to guide Tobias to Media. Wellcome Collection.
- - Bowyer Bible headpiece to Tobit. Printed Bible illustration to Tobit chapter 2 after Philip James de Loutherbourg, engraved for the Macklin and Bowyer Bible, early 19th century.
- - Ihlee: Sarah Arrives at the House of Tobit. An 1839 German painting of Sarah, freed by Raphael from the demon Asmodeus, arriving at the house of Tobit.
- - Dore: The Angel Raphael and the Family of Tobit. An 1866 printed Bible illustration of Raphael with the family of Tobit, from the Dore Bible era of 19th-century engraved Bibles.
- - Rebirth: The Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls - Israel Museum. The Israel Museum on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Shrine of the Book that houses them. Five manuscripts of Tobit, four Aramaic and one Hebrew, were among the Qumran finds.
- - Conserving the Dead Sea Scrolls - Israel Antiquities Authority. The Israel Antiquities Authority on how the Qumran fragments are conserved and documented after two millennia in the Judean Desert caves. The Tobit fragments catalogued as 4Q196-200 are part of this corpus.
- - Introduction to Tobit - Arabic Coptic Bible Study. Fr Raphael Hanna introduces the Book of Tobit in Arabic for a Coptic Orthodox congregation. Arabic-language.
- - Why Isn't Tobit in Everyone's Bible?. A study session on the deuterocanonical books focused on Tobit's disputed canonical status: scripture for Catholics and Orthodox, apocryphal for most Protestants, and outside the Jewish canon.
- - A Catholic Introduction to the Book of Tobit. An introductory overview of Tobit as read in the Catholic Old Testament, covering the narrative of Tobit's blindness, Tobias's journey and Raphael's disguise as the kinsman Azarias.
- - Tobit Talk, Part One - Msgr John Tutoné. Monsignor John J. Tutoné gives a study on how to read the Bible and on the Book of Tobit specifically, from a parish on Long Island.
- - Old Testament Crash Course: Tobit - Austrian Catholic Bible Institute. Elisabeth Birnbaum, director of the Austrian Catholic Bible Institute, gives a short scholarly introduction to Tobit as part of a series covering all forty-six books of the Catholic Old Testament. German-language.
- - From Qumran to Jerusalem: The Dead Sea Scrolls - Adolfo Roitman. Adolfo Roitman, curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls and head of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, on the scrolls' significance. Fragments of Tobit in Aramaic and Hebrew were found at Qumran, settling a long debate about the book's original language.
- - Reading Outside the Canon: Tobit - Dr Doug Penney, Wheaton College. Doug Penney, professor of classical languages at the evangelical Wheaton College, explains why he has students translate Tobit in Greek: it sits outside their Protestant canon, so they cannot lean on memory. A rare view of the book from a Protestant institution.
- - The Qumran Temple Scroll in its Second Temple Context - Molly Zahn, Yale. Molly Zahn of the University of Kansas lectures at Yale Divinity School, introduced by John J. Collins, on a Qumran text of the same broad period as Tobit. Tobit survived at Qumran in four Aramaic and one Hebrew manuscript.
- - Tobit 6: Tobias Catches the Fish. A Greek Orthodox reflection on Tobit 6, where the fish attacks Tobias at the Tigris and Raphael tells him to keep its heart, liver and gall for their medicinal use.
- - Tobit 7-8: Tobias and Sarah Marry. A Greek Orthodox reflection on the marriage chapters of Tobit, in which Tobias marries Sarah and the demon Asmodeus is driven off and bound by Raphael in Upper Egypt.
- - Tobit: Introduction and Chapter One - Coptic Orthodox Bible Study. Mimi Azer opens a Coptic Orthodox study series on Tobit, a book read as scripture in the Coptic canon, beginning with Tobit's exile in Nineveh and his burial of the dead.
- - Tobit, Part One: A Righteous Foundation - Coptic Orthodox study. A Coptic Orthodox parish study opening the Book of Tobit and its portrait of a righteous Israelite in Assyrian exile who buries the dead at personal risk.
- - Why Catholics and Protestants Have Different Books in Their Bibles. Manuscript scholar Wesley Huff explains the seven-book difference between the Catholic and Protestant Old Testaments, the group that includes Tobit, and how the divergence arose.
- - Tobit Chapter 14 - Coptic Orthodox Bible Study. A study of the closing chapter of Tobit, in which the aged Tobit instructs his son to leave Nineveh and foretells the city's destruction, the historical hook by which scholars date the narrative's setting to the Assyrian period.
- - Bible Study: The Book of Tobit, Chapters 1-4 - Greek Orthodox. A parish Bible study at St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago on the opening chapters of Tobit, where Tobit is blinded and Raphael is sent in answer to the prayers of Tobit and Sarah. Tobit is fully canonical in the Orthodox Old Testament.
- - Tobit: A New Path of Righteousness - Prof. Isaiah Gafni. Hebrew University historian Isaiah Gafni reads Tobit as a Second Temple diaspora novel, arguing it supplied Jews living far from the Jerusalem Temple with a portable ethic of almsgiving and burial of the dead. Part of a lecture series on ancient Jewish diaspora literature at Beit Avi Chai, Jerusalem.
- - The Book of Tobit, Part One - Coptic Orthodox Logos Bible Study. A Coptic Orthodox parish study on the first part of Tobit, covering Tobit's blindness, Sarah's affliction and the sending of Raphael in answer to both prayers.
- - Tobit as World Literature - Fr Patrick Henry Reardon. Orthodox priest and biblical writer Patrick Henry Reardon discusses Tobit as a work of literature rather than only of doctrine, on a podcast devoted to the disputed books of the Bible. Tobit is deuterocanonical for Catholics and Orthodox and apocryphal in most Protestant Bibles.
- - Tobit in the Apocrypha - Episcopal Bible Study. Fr Bill Burk leads an Episcopal parish study on Tobit. In the Anglican tradition the book is read for edification and example of life but not to establish doctrine, a middle position between the Catholic and Reformed views.
- - Tobit: An Exilic Romantic Comedy. An introduction to Tobit as a diaspora novella, examining how the book reworks motifs from the Hebrew scriptures and how it was read by early Christian writers.
- - Tobit: Tobias, Sarah and Typology. An academic-style lecture on Tobit chapter 3, in which Sarah, tormented by the demon who has killed seven bridegrooms, prays alongside the blinded Tobit. Both prayers are answered by the sending of Raphael.
- - The Book of Tobit: A Chapter-by-Chapter Introduction. A walkthrough of Tobit chapter by chapter with its key theological concepts, from a Catholic biblical-studies series. Tobit is one of the seven deuterocanonical books received by Catholics and Orthodox but classed as apocryphal in most Protestant Bibles.
- - Asmodeus: From Zoroastrian Wrath to Western Lust. Religious-studies scholar Angela Puca traces the demon Asmodeus from the Avestan aeshma through Ashmedai in Jewish literature, the Book of Tobit and the Babylonian Talmud, into Christian demonology. In Tobit it is Asmodeus who kills Sarah's seven husbands and whom Raphael binds.
- - Introduction to the Book of Tobit - parish study. A parish introduction to Tobit covering its setting in the Assyrian exile, its cast, and its place among the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic Old Testament.
- - Tobit, Almsgiving and the Forgiveness of Sins. Gary Michuta examines Tobit's teaching that almsgiving delivers from death and purges sin, a passage central to the historical Reformation dispute over the book's canonical standing.
- - What Is the Apocrypha? The Bible's Hidden Books Explained. An overview of the books received in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons but rejected by most Protestants, the category into which Tobit falls. Explains how these ancient Jewish writings came to hold different canonical status in different churches.
- - Tobit 12:15 Read in Ancient Greek. A reading of the verse in which Azarias reveals himself: 'I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who stand before the glory of the Lord.' Read in reconstructed Koine Greek from the Septuagint text.