And so we arrive at Tobit 13. In the past twelve chapters, we have followed the tale of Tobit and his son Tobiyah, as the distressingly messed-up personal lives of Tobit and his son have been restored. Tobit’s got his money and his sight back, while young Tobiyah has successfully married the freshly exorcised Sarah, who no longer has a serial husband-killer demon inside of her. The angel Raphael has given a bit of doctrinal teaching, and revealed who he really is. But like the Energizer Bunny(tm), the book of Tobit just keeps going and going and going:
1 Then Tobit wrote a prayer of rejoicing, and said, “Blessed be God, who lives forever, and blessed be his kingdom. 2 For he scourged, and has mercy; he leads down to Hades, and brings back up again; nor are there any who can avoid his hand.
Where I read “Hades,” the KJV has “hell.” I changed it because the underlying Greek term is Hades, not Gehenna (for which see here), and the context clearly indicates that the place or state to which God is bringing down and then bringing back is not what is traditionally known as “hell,” that is, a place of permanent torturous punishment. Let those who are fond of translating Hades/Sheol as “hell” remember this use of the word.
3 Confess [God] before the Gentiles, O children of Israel, for he has scattered us among them.
So Tobit sees the diaspora as a part of God’s purpose for witnessing to the Gentiles. Interesting.
4 Declare there his greatness and extol him before all who live, for he is our Lord, and he is God our Father forever. 5 And he will scourge us for our iniquities, and will again have mercy, and will gather us out of all the nations among whom he has scattered us. 6 If you turn to him with your whole heart, and with your whole mind, and deal uprightly before him, then he will turn to you, and will not hide his face from you. Therefore see what he will do with you, and confess him with your whole mouth, and praise the Lord of Might, and extol the Everlasting King. In the land of my captivity I praise him, and declare his might and majesty to a sinful nation. O sinners, turn and do justice before him: who can tell if he will accept you and have mercy on you?
It appears, again, that Tobit is calling upon the Gentiles to repent and turn to God.
7 I will extol my God, and my soul will praise the King of Heaven, and will rejoice in his greatness. 8 Let all men speak, and let all praise him for his righteousness. 9 O Jerusalem, Holy City, he will scourge you for what your children have done, and will again have mercy on the sons of those who are righteous.
Here the KJV has “sons of the righteous.” I wasn’t entirely certain whether to interpret this as “sons of the righteous ones” or “sons of the righteous one.” The Greek makes it clear that “righteous” is plural.
10 Give praise to the Lord, for he is good. And praise the Everlasting King, so that his tabernacle may be rebuilt within you [O Jerusalem] with joy. And let him make joyful there within you those who are captives, and love within you forever those who are miserable. 11 Many nations will come from afar to the name of the Lord God with gifts in their hands, gifts to the King of Heaven. All generations will praise you [O Jerusalem] with great joy.
Rather like the millennial view of God ruling the world and worshipped by both Jews and Gentiles from Jerusalem, Tobit pictures an eventual salvation for the Gentiles. From a Christian perspective, he is looking ahead toward the eventual proclamation of the gospel throughout the world.
12 Cursed are all those who hate you, [O Jerusalem,] and blessed will be those who love you forever. 13 Rejoice and be glad for the children of those who are righteous, for they will be gathered together and bless the Lord of those who are righteous. 14 O blessed are those who love you, for they will rejoice in your peace. Blessed are those who have been sorrowful for all your scourges. For they will rejoice in you, when they have seen all your glory, and will be glad forever. 15 Let my soul bless the great king, 16 for Jerusalem will be built up with sapphires and emeralds, and precious stone; your walls and towers and battlements with pure gold. 17 And the streets of Jerusalem will be paved with beryl and carbuncle and the stones of Ophir.
Rather like the Apocalypse’s picture of New Jerusalem, no?
18 And all her streets will say, “Alleluia;” and they will praise him, saying, “Blessed be God, who has extolled it forever.”
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Rather like indeed. So, how do we account for the closeness in Tobit’s writing, some 1 to 300 years before Revelation? Is Tobit inspired? Was John plagiarizing?
The OT mentions a number of prophets and prophetic utterances which never got any print at all. Such as, for example, the prophesying of Saul et al. in 1 Samuel 10, which is not recorded. So if the ancient Jews had a variety of prophets wandering about saying all sorts of God-inspired stuff that didn’t make it into Scripture, I’d see no problem with a Tobit writing an uninspired book and having, first-hand or second-hand, prophetic knowledge about the New Jerusalem. (Of course, I can easily see how that could appear as a cop-out to a Catholic.)
And as for plagiarizing, that’s what the Bible’s full of. But if we take at face value John’s claim that he saw all this stuff in a vision, he got his material directly through heavens big spiritual flatscreen. Then what he saw was just to some degree a repetition of previous prophecy. They just didn’t have the same standards for information use back in the day, before copyright and mass printing and academia and whatnot.