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Augustine places blind Tobit beside Isaac and Jacob in Confessions 10 to show that God's guidance matters more than physical sight, using Tobit's teaching as an example for resisting the pleasures of the eyes.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Tobit 4:5-10
Deuterocanon
5 "Revere the Lord all your days, my son, and refuse to sin or to transgress his commandments. Live uprightly all the days of your life, and do not walk in the ways of wrongdoing; 6 for those who act in accordance with truth will prosper in all their activities. To all those who practice righteousness 7 give alms from your possessions, and do not let your eye begrudge the gift when you make it. Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor, and the face of God will not be turned away from you. 8 If you have many possessions, make your gift from them in proportion; if few, do not be afraid to give according to the little you have. 9 So you will be laying up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity. 10 For almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from going into the Darkness. 11 Indeed, almsgiving, for all who practice it, is an excellent offering in the presence of the Most High.
Augustine, Confessions 10.34
Early Christian
O Light, which Tobit saw even with his eyes closed in blindness, when he taught his son the way of life—and went before him himself in the steps of love and never went astray; or that Light which Isaac saw when his fleshly "eyes were dim, so that he could not see" because of old age, and it was permitted him unknowingly to bless his sons, but in the blessing of them to know them; or that Light which Jacob saw, when he too, blind in old age yet with an enlightened heart, threw light on the nation of men yet to come—presignified in the persons of his own sons—and laid his hands mystically crossed upon his grandchildren by Joseph (not as their father, who saw them from without, but as though he were within them), and distinguished them aright: this is the true Light; it is one, and all are one who see and love it. But that corporeal light, of which I was speaking, seasons the life of the world for her blind lovers with a tempting and fatal sweetness. Those who know how to praise you for it, "O God, Creator of Us All," take it up in your hymn, and are not taken over by it in their sleep. Such a man I desire to be. I resist the seductions of my eyes, lest my feet be entangled as I go forward in your way; and I raise my invisible eyes to you, that you would be pleased to "pluck my feet out of the net." You continually pluck them out, for they are easily ensnared. You cease not to pluck them out, but I constantly
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Notes and References
“... Augustine speaks of Tobias leading his blind father in the
light of this world, whereas Tobit led Tobias, whilst being
blind, in God’s light to heaven (see Confessiones 10.34.52; ed.
O’Donnell 1992a:139; see also Augustine, Sermones de
scripturio Novi Testamenti 88.15–16; trans. Hill 1991:437). ...”
de Wet, Chris L.
The Book of Tobit in Early Christianity: Greek and Latin Interpretations from the 2nd to the 5th Century CE
(p. 9) HTS Teologiese Studies Vol. 76, No. 4, 2020
* 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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