Introduction

Preface

Immediately after the “Second Book of Ezra” and before the “Book of Judith” in the Slavic and Russian Bible is placed the “Book of Tobit” (in the LXX and Vulgate, the books of Tobit and Judith ordinarily stand between the books of Nehemiah and Esther). Like both of these named books and some others, the Book of Tobit is not found in the Hebrew Bible but only in the Greek and other translations. All these books, which did not enter into the sacred canon of the Palestinian Jews, accepted also by the Christian Church, although they were present in the Alexandrian canon of the Hellenistic Jews, are called non-canonical in the Orthodox Church; and the Orthodox-ecclesiastical view of these books equally avoids the extremes of Catholicism (which calls non-canonical books deuterocanonical) and Protestantism (where the view prevails of these books as apocrypha): while not recognizing these books as completely equal to the divinely inspired canonical writings, the Orthodox Church, however, esteems the non-canonical books to be close in spirit to the canonical ones, composed in the light of books from divinely illumined writers, and therefore highly important and useful; according to Saint Athanasius the Great, the non-canonical books “are appointed by the fathers for reading to the newly converted and those desiring to be instructed in the word of piety” (S. Athanasii Opp. t. 1. Colon. 1686, pag. 39–40). Such high authority belonged from ancient times and continues to belong in the Christian Church, particularly, to the Book of Tobit. Although there are no direct testimonies about Tobit and the Book of Tobit in Josephus, Philo, or the Talmud, and likewise no such testimony in the New Testament (where only separate expressions have similarity in thought or in form of expression with passages from the Book of Tobit, e.g., Matt 7:12; Luke 6:31, cf. Tob 4:15; Luke 14:13, cf. Tob 4:7-16; John 16:5, cf. Tob 12:20; 1 Thess 4:5, cf. Tob 7:7; 1 Tim 6:19, cf. Tob 4:9; Rev 8:2-4, cf. Tob 7:15; Rev 21:18-19, cf. Tob 13:16-17), nevertheless in the ancient Christian Church the Book of Tobit enjoyed general fame and high respect, and in separate churches even had liturgical use on a par with the books of Sacred Scripture. Many Fathers and teachers of the Church highly valued the Book of Tobit, for example, Saint Athanasius the Great and Saint John Chrysostom each lists this book, without any restrictions, in his “Overview” (Synopsis) of the books of Sacred Scripture. Such significance of the Book of Tobit in the Christian Church is based on the purely historical character of this book, in its entirety and individual dates fully consistent with other Old Testament and other undisputed historical data, and on the moral purpose of the narrative of the book.

As is evident from the very name of the book in the LXX Τωβίτ, Τωβείθ (Τοβείτ, Τοβιτ), in the Vulgate Tobi, Tobias, liber Tobiae, liber utriusque Tobiae, its content consists of a narrative about the fate, trials, and happiness of the pious Israelite Tobit of the time of the Assyrian captivity and his son Tobias. The ecclesiastical-traditional view ascribes, according to the testimony of Tob 12:20, to Tobit himself—either alone or jointly with his son—both the writing of the book itself, except for its concluding 14th chapter. And indeed, the entire situation of the book becomes incomparably more understandable on the assumption of the book’s origin soon after the events described in it and precisely from the principal persons of the narrative or, at the very least, from someone close to Tobit’s family, than on the basis of the numerous assumptions of Western biblical scholars of the critical school, who date the writing of the Book of Tobit not only to the period after the Babylonian captivity but even to the first centuries of Christianity.

Originally the Book of Tobit was written in Hebrew or Biblical Aramaic, as is clearly testified by Jerome, calling the Book of Tobit Librum, chaldaeo sermone conscriptum (Migne. Patrol, curs. Compl. lat. t. XXIX, col. 23–26), and by Origen (Epist. ad African, c. 13. Migne. Patrol, c. c. gr. t. XI, col. 80). But the existing Hebrew texts of the book: a) Hebraeus Munsteri, published by Sebastian Münster in 1516 in Constantinople (then in 1542 in Basel and several times later, e.g., by Neubauer in Oxford in 1978) and b) Hebraeus Fagii, published by Paul Fagius in Isny in 1542, are clearly of later origin (Jerome did not know them), reflect the views of Talmudism and Rabbinism, and for the study of the text and content of the book have far less significance than the Greek text of the book, especially according to the Sinaiticus manuscript of this text—the Latin texts—the pre-Jerome ancient Latin translations and Jerome’s translation—the Vulgate, the Syrian text, and the Chaldean or Aramaic text. Of very late origin are the translations: Ethiopic, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavic, and others.

In the Russian language, until recently there were only a few short treatises on the Book of Tobit: 1) Rev. G. I. Smirnov-Platonov. Essay on the Book of Tobit—in “Orthodox Review,” 1862, No. 10; 2) and 3) brief historical information about the Book of Tobit was given in academic lectures—by Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. On the so-called apocryphal books—in “Readings of the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment,” 1876, May,—and by Metropolitan Arseny of Kiev. Introduction to the sacred books of the Old Testament—in “Proceedings of the Kiev Spiritual Academy” for 1872 and separately. Kiev 1873; 4) and 5) notes on the Book of Tobit of an interpretive character—in Rev. M. Kheraskov. Overview of the historical books of the Old Testament. Vladimir-on-Klyazma. 1879; pp. 398–411 and in D. Afanasyev. Historical books of Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament, Stavropol 1886, pp. 369–335. In 1901 a special study on the Book of Tobit was published by professor of the Kiev Spiritual Academy N. M. Drozdov. On the Origin of the Book of Tobit. A Bibliological Study. Kiev 1901, p. 640. This is the most substantial and in all respects superior scholarly work, representing the latest word of science on the textual-critical, historical-exegetical, historical and other aspects of scientific study of the Book of Tobit. By the respected work of Prof. Drozdov we make considerable use in composing our “Commentary on the Book of Tobit.”