Texts in Conversation
Tobit teaches to not eat with the dead, echoing Deuteronomy 26 where Israelites affirm they have not offered tithes to the dead. By repeating this prohibition, Tobit shapes its narrative around the patterns and traditions in the Torah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 26:14
Hebrew Bible
12 When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. 13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten your commandments. 14 I have not eaten anything when I was in mourning, or removed any of it while ceremonially unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; I have obeyed you and have done everything you have commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tobit 4:17
Deuterocanon
15 And what you yourself hate, do to no man. Do not drink wine to drunkenness, and do not let drunkenness go with you on your way. 16 Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments to them that are naked: of all your abundance give alms; and do not let your eye be grudging when you give alms. 17 Pour out your bread and your wine on the tomb of the just, and do not give to sinners. 18 Ask counsel of every man that is wise, and do not despise any counsel that is profitable. 19 And bless the Lord your God at all times, and ask of him that your ways may be made straight, and that all your paths and counsels may prosper: for every nation has not good counsel; but the Lord will give to them all good things; and whom he will the Lord humbles to the nethermost Hades. And now, child, remember these commandments, and do not let them be blotted out of your heart.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... many translations hide the meaning of the phrase. It is clear that a grave offering is meant in the manner that Hellenistic Greeks practiced. In Greek Hellenistic burial practice on the third day after the funeral, food offerings were left at the grave, and again on the ninth day, which was commonly the end of the mourning period. Ben Sirach 30:18 implies that this was also a Hebrew custom, ”Dainties set before one who cannot eat are like food offerings placed before a tomb.” See also Deuteronomy 26:14 and Psalm 106:28. We know that offerings of food for the dead were regularly made by the Egyptians. Given the general practices of the time, it seems clear that Tobit is referring to a custom that must have existed among the Hebrews of the time ..."
Robert J. Littman, Tobit: The Book of Tobit in Codex Sinaiticus (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 93.
* 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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