If this is your first visit, please see my introduction to these Lenten readings.
17 February. Tobit chapters 12-14
After the healing of Sarah and Tobit we hear little more of their lives other than Tobit’s death and his instruction to the next generation to move to Media (where Sarah came from) to escape a coming persecution. These chapters, including a long hymn of praise attributed to Tobit, form the conclusion of the story which lay on heavily a series of “morals” or proverbs such as one often finds in tales of this sort along with the “happily ever after” ending – giving alms is better than hoarding riches; secrets are to be kept among people but God’s good deeds are to be proclaimed; and also (one which is not really borne out in the main storyline) Jerusalem is the holy city and will be rebuilt after the exile is ended.
There is one other curiosity about this story. On both the outward journey from Nineveh to Ecbatana, and their return, Tobias and Raphael were accompanied by a dog – an animal rarely mentioned in the Bible at all, given their long history of domestication. But it is not mentioned elsewhere in the story, so what is the point of including it? However, reading the footnotes of the New Revised Standard Version, we find that (on the second occasion the dog is mentioned) one ancient text instead has “and the LORD went along behind them”. That makes much more sense – as well as the angel, God himself was with them.