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Tobit follows the story in 2 Kings 19, describing the death of the Assyrian soldiers and the assassination of Sennacherib. By adding details, Tobit places its story at the same time of Assyrian rule, connecting its characters to these events.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Kings 19:35
Hebrew Bible
35 That very night the angel of the Lord went out and killed 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When they got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. 36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. 37 One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tobit 1:21
Deuterocanon
19 And a certain one of those of Nineveh went and informed the king concerning me, that it was I who buried them, and that I was hid. And when I perceived that the king knew concerning me and that I was sought for to be put to death, I was afraid and ran away. 20 And all that I possessed was seized, and there was nothing left to me which was not taken to the royal treasury save my wife Anna and my son Tobias. 21 And not forty days passed before two of his sons killed him. And they fled into the mountains of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned after him. And he appointed over all the accounts of his kingdom Ahikar, my brother Anael’s son, and he had authority over all his affairs.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Tobit’s story is firmly anchored in Israel’s story. He is a casualty of the Assyrian invasion and the exile of the northern tribes (Tobit 1:3, 10; 2 Kings 17:5–18; 18:9–12). Sennacherib’s defeat in Judea adversely affects Tobit’s story until Sennacherib’s murder (Tobit 1:18–21; 2 Kings 19:35–37). More to the point, the author presents an understanding of personal and national history that reflects Deuteronomy’s teaching concerning the consequences of obedience and disobedience to the covenant, and promotes the practices that conduce to close observance of the covenant ..."
David A. DeSilva, The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 91.
* 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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