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September 17, 2009
Tobit
My Bible reading this season seems to be flipping around to a book I haven't read lately. The gone, but not forgotten Old Oligarch (can it really be 4 years ago he gave up blogging?) would understand my delight in Leviticus, but this week I'm reading Tobit for the first time in years.
I can really see why the Reformers were eager to toss this one out! In the benighted 16th Century they couldn't imagine that fragments of Hebrew and Aramaic versions would one day turn up at Qumran, and their petty argument that it only survived in the Greek would go 'boom.' Famous last words in historical disciplines: "There is no evidence that . . ."
Always say "There is no evidence currently available." Archaeology may well prove you silly otherwise.
So, Tobit. Angels who care - and tell white lies! Demons who flee to Egypt at the stink of fish, are run down, and bound hand and foot! Almsgiving and burying the dead (ooooh - Corporal Works of Mercy!). You can see how that would make Luther nuts. I enjoyed it - the description that it's a religious novel with good historical detail works for me. And why shouldn't we have a few of those in the Canon to read, too?
Further:
Even worse, from the Reformed point of view, must've been Tobit 12:10 (in either recension):
So now when you and Sarra prayed, I brought the memorial of your prayer before the glory of the Lord and did likewise when you would bury the dead.
There's your Guardian Angel right there, laying your prayers as offerings before the Lord. Can't have that!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at September 17, 2009 6:39 AM