Books Jesus Read

Chapter 5: Suffering and Spirituality – Tobit and Sarah

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I, Tobit, have walked all my days in the ways of truth and righteousness, doing deeds of mercy for my brothers and my nation while in captivity in Nineveh of Assyria. 3 Now, when I was still a young man and living in Jerusalem, it came to pass that the people of my tribe, which was Naphtali, betrayed the holy city and house of David. They sacrificed to the calf that King Jeroboam of Israel had erected in Dan and on all the high places of Galilee ( 1 Kgs 12:25–30 ). But I, Tobit, traveled alone to Jerusalem each year to attend the required festivals. There I would carry the first fruits of my crops, the firstborn of my flocks, and the first bags of wool sheared from my sheep. All these I would offer to the temple priests who served at the altar, along with a tenth of my grain, wine, olive oil, pomegranates, figs, and all the rest required by the sons of Levi ministering at Jerusalem. Every other year I would add a second tithe and distribute it in coins throughout Jerusalem. On the third year, I would offer a third tithe dedicated to the orphans, widows, and converts who had joined Israel. 4 In everything, I tried always to follow the ordinances of the law of Moses and the example of my grandmother, Deborah, who raised me after my father died. When I became a man, I married a woman from our own tribe and together we had a son whom I named Tobias.

3 Here, and in what follows, Tobit’s description reflects the righteousness attributed to Abraham (Gen 15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 24:40; 48:15). 4 Tobit’s self-righteousness may remind readers of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9–14 (Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature , 349).