Tobit's Instructions Before the Journey

Chapter 4

1 In that day Tobit remembered the money which he had left in trust with Gabael in Rages of Media, 2 and he said in his heart, Behold, I have asked for death. Why do I not call my son Tobias and show him concerning this money before I die? 3 And he called Tobias his son and he came to him and he said to him, Bury me well, and honour your mother; and do not forsake her all the days of her life, and do that which is pleasing before her, and do not grieve her spirit in any matter.⁠ 4 Remember her, child, that she has experienced many dangers for you in her womb;⁠ and when she is dead, bury her by me in one grave. 5 My child, be mindful of the Lord all your days,⁠ and do not let your will be set to sin and to transgress his commandments: do acts of righteousness all the days of your life, and do not walk in the ways of unrighteousness.⁠ 6 For if you do the truth, success shall be in your works, and so it shall be to all that do righteousness.⁠ 7 Give alms of your substance: do not turn away your face from any poor man, and the face of God shall not be turned away from you, 8 As your substance is, give alms of it according to your abundance:⁠ if you have much, according to the abundance of it, give alms; if you have little bestow it, and do not be afraid to give alms according to that little:⁠ 9 for you lay up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity:⁠ 10 because alms delivers from death, and does not allow one to come into darkness.⁠ 11 Alms is a good offering in the sight of the Most High for all that give it. 12 Beware, my child, of all whoredom, and take first a wife of the seed of your fathers, do not take a strange wife, which is not of your father’s tribe; for we are the sons of the prophets. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, our fathers of old time, remember, my child, that they all took wives of their kinsmen, and were blessed in their children, and their seed shall inherit the land. 13 And now, my child, love your kindred, and do not scorn in your heart your kindred and the sons and the daughters of your people so as not to take one of them; for in scornfulness is destruction and much trouble, and in idleness is decay and great want, for idleness is the mother of famine. 14 Do not let the wages of any man, which shall work for you, stay with you, but render it to him out of hand: and if you serve God, recompense shall be made to you. Take heed to yourself, my child, in all your works, and be discreet in all your behaviour.⁠ 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.⁠ 20 And now, child, I show you that I left ten talents of silver in trust with Gabael the brother of Gabri at Rages of Media. 21 And do not fear, my child, because we have become poor: you have much wealth, if you fear God and avoid every kind of sin and do the things which are good in the sight of the Lord your God.

Texts in conversation

Compare Tobit 4:10 and Cyprian, Epistles 55:22

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

Summary

The Christian theologian Cyprian, in his letters, authoritatively quotes Tobit’s teaching that giving to the poor delivers from death, showing how he used it as scripture to argue for the value of charity and good works in Christian tradition.

Passages

Tobit 4:10

Deuterocanon

8 As your substance is, give alms of it according to your abundance: if you have much, according to the abundance of it, give alms; if you have little bestow it, and do not be afraid to give alms according to that little: 9 for you lay up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity: 10 because alms delivers from death, and does not allow one to come into darkness. 11 Alms is a good offering in the sight of the Most High for all that give it. 12 Beware, my child, of all whoredom, and take first a wife of the seed of your fathers, do not take a strange wife, which is not of your father’s tribe; for we are the sons of the prophets. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, our fathers of old time, remember, my child, that they all took wives of their kinsmen, and were blessed in their children, and their seed shall inherit the land.

225–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Tobit

Cyprian, Epistles 55:22

Early Christian

I am amazed that some are so obstinate as to think that penance should not be given to the lapsed, or to judge that pardon must be denied to the penitent, when it is written: “Remember from where you have fallen, and do penance, and do the first works.” This is said, surely, to one who has evidently fallen and whom the Lord urges to rise again by works, because it is written: “Almsgiving frees from death,” and surely not from that death which the blood of Christ once extinguished and from which the water of saving baptism and the grace of our Redeemer have freed us, but from that which creeps in afterward through sins. In another place likewise a time of penance is given, and the Lord threatens the one who does not do penance: “I have much against you,” he says, “that you allow your wife Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat of sacrifice; and I gave her time to do penance, and she will not repent of her immorality. Look, I cast her into a bed, and those who have committed immorality with her into very great tribulation, unless they do penance for their works.” The Lord would surely not urge to penance unless he promised pardon to the penitent. And in the gospel: “I say to you,” he says, “so there will be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, more than over ninety-nine righteous who have no need of penance.” For since it is written, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living,” surely he who wills that no one perish desires that sinners do penance and through penance return again to life. Therefore he also cries through the prophet Joel and says: “And now the Lord your God says: Return to me with your whole heart, and with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and kind and patient and of great mercy, and one who turns his sentence away from the evil threatened.” In the Psalms too we read the severity and likewise the clemency of God, at once threatening and sparing, punishing to correct and, when he has corrected, preserving: “I will visit their crimes with the rod,” he says, “and their sins with scourges; but my mercy I will not scatter from them.”

245–260 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Cyprian, Epistles

References

"... Cyprian of Carthage’s (bishop of Carthage 248/49–258 CE) use of Tobit is even broader; Gamberoni speaks of more than a dozen quotations in Cyprian’s oeuvre. Cyprian uses the book, alongside other scriptural passages as a scriptural fundus of arguments regarding the “benefits of good works and mercy.” Cyprian thus treats Tobit clearly as scripture. He even introduces it as scriptura divina in his treatise on the Lord’s prayer. Tobit, however, is not just a source for general aspects of Christian piety: Tobit 4:11 and its claim for mercy becomes an important argument in the discussion regarding the treatment of the so-called lapsi, that is Christians who negated their belief during the persecution under Emperor Decius (249–251 ce). Cyprian is also the first author who is interested in the figure of Tobit as an example of the righteous sufferer and patience. De Mortalitate (Mort. 10) and De Bono Patientiae (Ptient. 18) put Tobit, his justice and mercy, his suffering, and his final fate alongside the figure of Job. Even if he does not make extensive use of Tobit, Origen describes the book of Tobit (alongside Esther, Judith, and the Wisdom of Solomon) as being an appropriate text for beginners (Homily in Numbers 27:1) and understands it as part of the canon (Or. 14,4: ἐνδιάθηκος) while his Jewish partners in discussion do not acknowledge it. He uses the book, for example, in his discussion of proper prayer and for his teaching about angels. The later aspect plays also an important role in the apocryphal Testament of Solomon (fourth century), according to which Solomon castigates the demon Asmodaeus in a way which is heavily influenced by the book of Tobit ..."

Tobias Nicklas, “The Apocrypha in the History of Early Christianity,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha, ed. Gerbern S. Oegema (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 52–73.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tobit's Instructions Before the Journey

Tobit14 chapters

Compare Tobit 4:10 and Cyprian, Epistles 55:22

Summary

Passages

Tobit 4:10

Cyprian, Epistles 55:22

References

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