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In Tobit, the command to set aside tithes every three years for Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows follows the instructions of Deuteronomy, demonstrating how Tobit depicts its narrative in continuity with the Torah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 14:28
Hebrew Bible
26 Then you may spend the money however you wish for cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever you desire. You and your household may eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and enjoy it. 27 As for the Levites in your villages, you must not ignore them, for they have no allotment or inheritance along with you. 28 At the end of every three years you must bring all the tithe of your produce, in that very year, and you must store it up in your villages. 29 Then the Levites (because they have no allotment or inheritance with you), the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows of your villages may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work you do.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tobit 1:8
Deuterocanon
7 and give them to the priests, the sons of Aaron, for the altar, and the tenth of the grain and the wine and oil and pomegranates and the rest of the fruits to the sons of Levi, who ministered at Jerusalem. And the second tenth I tithed in money for the six years, and went and spent it each year at Jerusalem: 8 and gave it to the orphans and the widows and the proselytes who attached themselves to the children of Israel; I brought it and gave it to them in the third year, and we did eat it according to the decree which was decreed concerning it in the book of Moses and according to the commands which Deborah, the mother of Hananiel our father commanded, because my father left me an orphan when he died. 9 And when I became a man, I took a wife of the seed of our own family, and of her I fathered a son and called his name Tobias.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Altogether, Tobit's particular dependence on the Torah may be best summarised in the chart on the next page. As we have already indicated, everything Tobit offers has a general basis in the Pentateuch. The idea that offerings should be a part of pilgrimages is found in Deuteronomy 16. Specific offerings are described in Deuteronomy 8, 14, and 26; Numbers 18; and Leviticus 27. Whenever possible, Tobit follows Numbers 18, supplementing it with other sources only after it has been exhausted. This, too, appears to be part of a general trend. All in all, the Book of Tobit stands out by virtues of its exhaustive detail, combining tithes and first fruits of almost every kind in rapid succession. This has been acknowledged by many scholars who are simply studying tithing or Jewish law in Second Temple times. This is so much the case that it is worth considering whether Tobit's tithing system corresponded with one that was actually ever practised or whether it is in part a literary construction ..."
Naomi S. Jacobs, "And I Saw that the Delicacies were Many": A Commentary on Food and Eating in the Book of Tobit (Durham University, 2007), 44–45.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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