by
Damien F. Mackey
The
fact that both the Book of Tobit and the Book of Job - which also has mention
of a dog(s) (Job 30:1) - can, in combination, be compared with The Odyssey,
further reinforces me in my view that the prophet Job was Tobias son of Tobit.
Since as far back as St.
Jerome, there has been discerned a definite resemblance between the Book of
Tobit and Homer’s The Odyssey, this
often focussing upon the dog.
We read, for example, at: http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-02-036-
The resemblance of Tobit to
the Odyssey in particular was not lost on that great student of
literature, Jerome, as is evident in a single detail of his Latin translation
of Tobit in the Vulgate. Intrigued by the literary merit of Tobit, but
rejecting its canonicity, the jocose and sometimes prankish Jerome felt free to
insert into his version an item straight out of the Odyssey—namely, the wagging
of the dog’s tail on arriving home with Tobias in 11:9—Tunc praecucurrit
canis, qui simul fuerat in via, et quasi nuntius adveniens blandimento suae
caudae gaudebat—“Then the dog, which had been with them in the way, ran
before, and coming as if it had brought the news, showed his joy by his fawning
and wagging his tail.”16 No other ancient version of Tobit mentions
either the tail or the wagging, but Jerome, ever the classicist, was confident
his readers would remember the faithful but feeble old hound Argus, as the
final act of his life, greeting the return of Odysseus to the home of his
father: “he endeavored to wag his tail” (Odyssey 17.302). And to think
that we owe this delightful gem to Jerome’s rejection of Tobit’s canonicity!
Thus, when young Tobias made
his trip to Ecbatana and then, like Odysseus, journeyed back to the home of his
father, he traveled with a vast company of classical pilgrims. He was neither
the first nor the last to decide: “I will arise and return to my father.” On
that trip, moreover, Tobias enjoyed the fellowship of an angel and a dog,
symbolically representing the two worlds of spirits and beasts, both associated
with Paradise and both mysteriously joined together in the human being that
they accompany.17
The knee-jerk reaction of
scholars is inevitably (as in the quote above) to interpret the situation as
the Hebrew text being dependent upon the pagan one. But this is astonishing in
the case of the Book of Tobit, which is set firmly in relation to a succession
of real neo-Assyrian kings.
Can Homer’s The Odyssey claim to be an historical record?
Was Homer even a real person?
The fact that both the Book of Tobit and the Book of Job - which also has
mention of a dog(s) (Job 30:1) - can, in combination, be compared with The Odyssey, further reinforces me in
my view that the prophet Job was Tobias son of Tobit.
In The Odyssey, Argus is
a much-loved hound. For example:
Argos (Argus) is
Odysseus' loyal dog, appearing in book 17. He waits the full 20 years for his
master to return home. When Odysseus enters his palace disguised as a beggar,
Argos recognises him, but Odysseus can't give away his emotions/ recognition in
case he gets discovered.
Once he's seen
his master come home again, he can pass away in peace.
“Argos, the hound of Odysseus,
of the steadfast heart, whom of old he had himself bred, but had no joy of him,
for ere that he went to sacred Ilios. In days past the young men were wont to
take the hound to hunt the wild goats, and deer, and hares; but now he lay
neglected, his master gone, in the deep dung of mules and cattle, which lay in
heaps before the doors, till the slaves of Odysseus should take it away to dung
his wide lands.
There lay the hound Argos,
full of vermin; yet even now, when he marked Odysseus standing near, he wagged
his tail and dropped both his ears, but nearer to his master he had no longer
strength to move. Then Odysseus looked aside and wiped away a tear, easily
hiding from Eumaeus what he did; and straightway he questioned him, and said:
“Eumaeus, verily it is strange that this hound lies here in the dung. He is
fine of form, but I do not clearly know whether he has speed of foot to match
this beauty or whether he is merely as table-dogs are, which their masters keep
for show.”
To him then, swineherd
Eumaeus, didst thou make answer and say: “Aye, verily this is the hound of a
man that has died in a far land. If he were but in form and in action such as
he was when Odysseus left him and went to Troy, thou wouldest soon be amazed at
seeing his speed and his strength. No creature that he started in the depths of
the thick wood could escape him, and in tracking too he was keen of scent. But
now he is in evil plight, and his master has perished far from his native land,
and the heedless women give him no care. Slaves, when their masters lose their
power, are no longer minded thereafter to do honest service: for Zeus, whose
voice is borne afar, takes away half his worth from a man, when the day of
slavery comes upon him.” So saying, he entered the stately house and went
straight to the hall to join the company of the lordly wooers.
But as for Argos, the fate of
black death seized him straightway when he had seen Odysseus in the twentieth
year.” — 17.290
It's a short yet
poignant recognition scene, in part displaying the pockets of loyalty within
Odysseus' household, and their suffering while he's been away. ….
And Edward M. Cook has found that: “Tobit's
dog also shows up more than you might think in literature”: http://ralphriver.blogspot.com.au/2005/04/tobits-dog.html
Tobit's Dog
I've been doing some research lately on
Ahikar, a major extrabiblical character who shows up in the book of Tobit in a
minor role. Doing this reminded me of another minor character in the book of
Tobit: Tobit's dog.
Tobit's dog appears only twice (in 6:2 and 11:4) and plays no role in the story (actually he accompanies Tobias, Tobit's son). Like many dogs, he just shows up whenever something seems to be going on. This little detail has greatly exercised the commentators, and even now no one seems to know how the dog got into the story.
Tobit's dog also shows up more than you might think in literature. For instance, here he makes an appearance in Tobias Smollett's Roderick Random:
Tobit's dog appears only twice (in 6:2 and 11:4) and plays no role in the story (actually he accompanies Tobias, Tobit's son). Like many dogs, he just shows up whenever something seems to be going on. This little detail has greatly exercised the commentators, and even now no one seems to know how the dog got into the story.
Tobit's dog also shows up more than you might think in literature. For instance, here he makes an appearance in Tobias Smollett's Roderick Random:
With this view he approached us, with many
bows and grimaces, and, after having welcomed Miss Snapper to the place, asked
her in the hearing of all present, if she could inform him of the name of
Tobit's dog. Miss was so much incensed at his insolence, that I should
certainly have kicked him where he stood without ceremony, had not the young
lady prevented the effects of my indignation, by replying with the utmost
vivacity, "His name was Nash, and an impudent dog he was."
Voltaire puts these words in the mouth of a
fictitious scholar:
I will show them, with outstretched neck
and twisted mouth, that you hold an erroneous opinion in relation to the cells
in which the Septuagint was studied; that you have even spoken disrespectfully
ten years ago of Tobit's dog, which you asserted to have been a spaniel, while
I proved that it was a greyhound.
Jonathan Swift wrote:
THAT Expression in Apocrypha about Tobit,
and his Dog following him, I have often heard ridiculed; yet Homer has the same
Words of Telemachus more than once; and Virgil says something like it of
Evander. And I take the Book of Tobit to be partly poetical.
The militantly Protestant, of course, don't like Tobit or his dog. A character in Walter Scott's Waverley: ‘But if your honour wad consider the case of Tobit — ’
‘Tobit!’ exclaimed Gilfflan, with great heat; ‘Tobit and his dog baith are altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a prelatist or a papist would draw them into question. I doubt I hae been mista’en in you, friend.’
And J. N. Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren, has this to say:
Look at Tobit, and his dog; it is absurd!
Bel and the dragon may be true, but it has nothing to do with inspiration.
But my favorite mention of the dog comes in Robert Browning's "Ring and the Book":
Let
Each level have
its language! Heaven speaks first
To the angel, then the angel tames the word
Down to the ear of Tobit: he, in turn,
Diminishes the message to his dog,
And finally that dog finds how the flea
(Which else, importunate, might check his speed)
Shall learn its hunger must have holiday ...
To the angel, then the angel tames the word
Down to the ear of Tobit: he, in turn,
Diminishes the message to his dog,
And finally that dog finds how the flea
(Which else, importunate, might check his speed)
Shall learn its hunger must have holiday ...
JiSeong J. Kwon has likewise recognised
(following others) similarities between the Books of Tobit and Job, he having here
recorded an abundance of comparisons. For example: https://www.academia.edu/34905218/Meaning_and_Context_in_Job_and_Tobit_JSOT_2018_Forthcoming_
As many pointed out, there are similar motifs and common literary
structures between the books of Tobit and of Job: ….
- Job and Tobit are described as pious and religious men (Job 1:1, 4-5; Tob 1:3-12, 16-18); Sarah confesses that she “is innocent from all impurity with a man” (Tob 3:14).
- As a result of their pious lives, they are greatly blessed (Job 1:2-3; Tob 1:12-13); this is lacking in Sarah’s story. ….
- Job and Tobit suffer from losing their possessions (with children in Job), although they do not engage in any misbehaviours, and rather do right things (Job 1:13-19; Tob 1:20); Sarah’s agony is related to the loss of her seven husbands irrespective of her sins (Tob 3:8). ….
- Their bodies are at some points damaged (Job 2:7; Tob 2:9-10); Job suffers because of a skin disease while Tobit loses his eyesight. ….
- When Job and Tobit are in agony, the wife of Job and Anna the wife of Tobit appear as antagonistic (Job 2:9-10; Tob 2:11-14); Sarah’s servant criticises her (Tob 3:8). ….
- Their friends or relatives console them in the midst of their agony (Job 2:11-13; Tob 2:10) ….
- Job and Tobit (also Sarah) pray for their hardships (Job 9:25-35; Tob 3:2-5, 11-15) and they desire to end their lives (Job 3:1-26; 6:8-10; Tob 3:6, 10). ….
- In the process and ending of each story, losses of the two characters is finally recovered and they reach a full age (Job 42:12ff; Tob 14:2, 11).
It is certain that both Job and Tobit share
affinities to some degree as characters in family relations. In particular, there is a noteworthy link
about their wives, found in Job 2:9 (31:10 [LXX]) and Tob 2:11-14, so much as that a probable dependence of Tobit
upon Job has been suggested. ….
[End of quote]
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.
JiSeong J. Kwon has also discerned
a connection with Homer’s The Odyssey.
But he, too, would have the biblical literature drawing upon the Greek text.
Thus he writes in Meaning and Context in Job and Tobit
(JSOT; 2018 Forthcoming):
It is remarkable that the literary structure
both of Job and of Tobit opens up the story of a sufferer, develops dialogues between characters, and encloses the main
body in the parenthesis of the
restoration and grand death of the main character. The book of Job adopts a
form of dialogues demonstrating visible
tension between Job and Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu, and Yahweh …. Likewise, the book
of Tobit has many dialogues and conversations between its characters, but
the performance of such characters as Tobit, Tobias, Raphael, and Sarah
explains little (e.g., Tobit/Tobias 2:2-3; 5:9, 17; Tobias/Raphael 5:4-8;
Tobit/Raphael 5:10-17) and is didactic between Tobit and Tobias (e.g.,
4:3-5:3; 6:4-18) and rarely builds up the tension between characters (e.g.,
Tobit/Anna 2:13-14; 5:18-22).
Dialogues in Tobit do not bring such a well-constructed dialogue,
including the literary form of lawsuit, but it uses the narrative of Tobias’ adventurous
journey for a money collection from Gabael, for marrying a wife from Tobias’
kindred and for getting medicine for Tobit and Sarah. This deliberate scene and
plot could be derived from the two potential texts. Firstly, this literary form
would probably be drawn from the Telemachus’s story of Homer's Odyssey [sic] where Telemachus
departs on his journey with the Mentor/Athena who develops as a helper to the
young man; compared to Tobias/Raphael. ….
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