by
Damien F. Mackey
“It is
certain that both Job and Tobit share affinities
to some
degree as characters in family relations”.
JiSeong James Kwon
There is a very good reason, I
believe, why JiSeong James Kwon, and indeed others, have detected some compelling
likenesses between Job and Tobit, and that is because Tobit - though he is generally
considered to have lived a millennium or more
after Job - was the actual father of Job.
In other words, Job, the son of Tobit, was the
same person as Tobias, the only son of Tobit. On this, see my article:
Job's Life and Times
And, while, 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 whole “puzzle” begins to fall
nicely into place when one becomes aware of its key literal components, answers to questions, for example, such as old
Tobit put to the angel Raphael (Tobit 5:11): “ Then
Tobit said to [the angel], ‘Brother, of
what family are you and from what tribe? Tell me, brother’.”
Job was the son of Tobit, who has
a genealogy, of the tribe of Naphtali (Tobit 1:1).
Tobit also has a detailed
geography at home in northern Israel (1:2).
Job’s father was contemporaneous
with the neo-Assyrian king, Shalmaneser (so-called V), whom he served after the
family had been taken into Assyrian exile, to the city of Nineveh, and he lived
into the reign of Shalmaneser’s “son Sennacherib” (1:15).
That connects Job himself to an
historical era, during the reigns of the neo-Assyrian kings, Sennacherib, and,
afterwards, Esarhaddon (1:21).
And we learn from Tobit 14:15
that Tobit’s son, Tobias - that is, Job - was yet alive when Nineveh was
destroyed.
There appears to be a hint in Job
1:17 that his trials - at least from his third one - occurred after the
Assyrian era, during the time of the “Chaldeans”. For Job was thus informed
then: “The
Chaldeans formed three raiding
parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the
servants to the sword …”.
JiSeong James Kwon, aware of the ‘shared
affinities’ between both the books of Job and Tobit, their “characters” and their
“family relations”, will follow what he calls:
“… a scholarly consensus that the book of Tobit was
probably composed between 250 and 175 BCE and certainly not earlier than 300
BCE - at least before the Maccabean period (167-135 BCE) - and that the book of
Job was most probably written in the late Persian or early Hellenistic period
in its present form”.
My personal opinion, based
upon my view that Job was Tobias, is that the two books were likely composed
somewhat earlier than according to the above “scholarly consensus”, and that -
as according to this present series - the Book of Job was probably dependent
upon the Book of Tobit.
JiSeong James Kwon, following his version of the
“chronological order” of the two books, will now proceed to list what he calls
“similar motifs and common literary structures” between the
two:
With this chronological order in mind, it might not be problematic to
suppose that the author knew the text of Job and used it as a central
storyline. 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]
The Douay-Rheims
version of the Book of Tobit also picked up some likenesses with Job, though
without mentioning that he was (as according to my argument) any sort of
relation (son) of Tobit:
Tobias (Tobit) 2:12 DRC1752
Cf.
also Tobit 2:15: For
as the kings insulted over holy Job: so [Tobit’s] relations and
kinsmen mocked at his life …”.
