Tobit 4:18

Deuterocanon

15 And what you hate, do not do to anyone. Do not drink wine to excess or let drunkenness go with you on your way. 16 Give some of your food to the hungry, and some of your clothing to the naked. Give all your surplus as alms, and do not let your eye begrudge your giving of alms. 17 Place your bread on the grave of the righteous, but give none to sinners. 18 Seek advice from every wise person and do not despise any useful counsel. 19 At all times bless the Lord God, and ask him that your ways may be made straight and that all your paths and plans may prosper. For none of the nations has understanding, but the Lord himself will give them good counsel; but if he chooses otherwise, he casts down to deepest Hades. So now, my child, remember these commandments, and do not let them be erased from your heart.

Athanasius Defense of Constantius 17

Patristic

Now then, I would also meet the other and only remaining objection of my accuser. He says, the building was not completed, and prayer ought not to have been made there. But the Lord said, 'But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and shut the door.' What then will the accuser answer? Or rather what will all prudent and true Christians say? Let your Majesty ask the opinion of such: for it is written of the other, 'The foolish person will speak foolishness ;' but of these, 'Ask counsel of all that are wise.' When the Churches were too small, and the people so numerous as they were, and desirous to go forth into the deserts, what ought I to have done? The desert has no doors, and all who choose may pass through it, but the Lord's house is enclosed with walls and doors, and marks the difference between the pious and the profane. Will not every wise person then, as well as your Piety, Sire, give the preference to the latter place? For they know that here prayer is lawfully offered, while a suspicion of irregularity attaches to it there.

 Notes and References

"... For many Christian authorities the criterion for a book’s inclusion in the canon depended not on the language of composition, but on whether it was normative and authoritative for doctrine and public reading. Yet books that fell outside this category could still be canonical at a lower level, and used for private reading among Christians (compare Tertullian, Cult. fem. 1.3: Gallagher 2012: 20–1), and so were certainly not banned or ignored. Even Athanasius of Alexandria, whose festal letter of 367 ce is often held to demarcate a Christian canon, notes that though certain books are not canonical (οὐ κανονιζόμενα μέν), they were authorized by tradition (τετυπωμένα δὲ παρὰ τῶν πατέρων) for reading to recent converts. For Athanasius these works included Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Judith, Tobit, and also Esther, while with most other authorities he included both Esdras A and B in the Old Testament canon ..."

Salvesen, Alison G. "Deuterocanonical and Apocryphal Books" in Salvesen, Alison, and T. M. Law (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint (pp. 385-402) Oxford University Press, 2021

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