by
Damien F. Mackey
Tobias was ‘a chip off the old block’. Hence Raguel, when he first laid
eyes on the young man, would exclaim “to his wife Edna, ‘Doesn't this young man look
just like my cousin Tobit?’” (Tobit 7:2). And, as I pointed out … Job (my
Tobias) answered the accusations of his three ‘friends’ with the maxims that
his father Tobit had taught him – maxims which he had faithfully observed … very
much influenced by his pious father.
Biblical commentators can really
scratch their heads when trying to solve the problems of the Book of Job:
Book of Job a Puzzle to Scholars
“The authorship, date, and place of
composition of the Book of Job constitute some of the most keenly
contested and most uncertain problems in Biblical Criticism. There is perhaps
no book in the Canon of Scripture to which more diverse dates have been
assigned. Every period of Jewish history, from
BC 1400 to BC 150, has had its advocates as that to which this mysterious and magnificent poem must be relegated,
and this criticism ranges over 1200 years
of uncertainty”.
So I wrote in:
Job's Life and Times
in which article I was able to
lift the veil of obscurity at least concerning the identity of the prophet Job,
his tribe and family, his historical era, and his geography.
The fact that many scholars have
recognised strong parallels between the books of Job and Tobit, despite the
great uncertainty about when Job may have lived, has only served to strengthen me
in my view that Job was Tobias, the son of Tobit.
Tobias was ‘a chip off the old
block’. Hence Raguel, when he first laid eyes on the young man, would exclaim “to
his wife Edna, ‘Doesn't this young man look just like my cousin Tobit?’”
(Tobit 7:2). And, as I pointed out in the above article, Job (my Tobias)
answered the accusations of his three ‘friends’ with the maxims that his father
Tobit had taught him – maxims which he had faithfully observed. Tobias (Job) was
very much influenced by his pious father.
Given that, then I would suggest
that the Book of Job drew heavily upon the Book of Tobit, the events in which
historically, at least (leaving aside the matter of dates of composition), preceded
the events as narrated in the Book of Job. This prompted me to write in:
Similarities to The Odyssey of the Books of Job and Tobit. Part Two:
Tobit's Dog and 'Argus' in Homer
“Though historically, the events
described in the Book of Tobit would have pre-dated those narrated in the Book
of Job, with Job, who is Tobias, now being an old man. So there may be good
reason to think, instead, that the Book of Job was likely dependent upon Tobit”.
In this article, “Similarities to the Odyssey”, I included eight points of “similar motifs and
common literary structures between the books of Tobit and of Job: as listed by JiSeong J. Kwon in Meaning and
Context in Job and Tobit (JSOT; 2018 Forthcoming): https://www.academia.edu/34905218/Meaning_and_Context_in_Job_and_Tobit_JSOT_2018_Forthcoming_ Here is part of
that author’s Introduction to his
article, in which he suggests “a probable
dependence of Tobit upon Job”:
The book of Tobit describes the protagonist as someone located in
Galilee, a member of the tribe of Naphtali, in the Assyrian city of Nineveh ….
Because of the imprecise chronological order and geographical inaccuracy [sic] …
Mackey’s comment: But see my:
A Common Sense Geography of the Book of Tobit
… it has been supposed that the story and characters are fictional.
This deuterocanonical book has frequently been compared with the book of
Job, and previous studies have suggested that the author of Tobit draws heavily
upon Israelite wisdom materials and especially the book of Job as its plausible
predecessor ….
For instance, Irene Nowell insists that “the structure of the two
books is similar” and “the progress of Tobit’s life is modelled on that
of Job”; similarily Devorah Dimant maintains that Tobit refers to the Greek
Job, not the MT Job; Francis Macatangay that “Tobit employs motifs and
contents found in Job, thereby making Job a literary model evoked in Tobit”. Among
scholars studying the book of Job, Choon-Leong Seow in his commentary claims
that “pride of place in terms of the book’s most substantial early influence
must go to the book of Tobit”. Among recent interpreters, some point out that
the common imagery of “light” and “darkness” is found frequently in both books.
For instance, Anathea Portier-Young insists that the author of Tobit “in
conversation with the book of Job” develops common themes such as “blindness,
sight, and the hidden presence of God”, “advocate
and accuse”, “chaos, providence, and holy help”. Although pointing out
differences between them, her claim is allegedly prompted by the presupposition
that Tobit uses the earlier [sic] book of Job. ….
