"Tobias" is a book found within the "Douay-Rheims Bible," which is one of the Catholic Bibles. I couldn't figure out who the author was, although I did give it a good search. I do have limited patience on such things.
Tobias is a story which is similar in theme to Job, but it has an entirely different feel to it. The "Job" here is an older man named Tobias who was doing good deeds, despite getting a bit of ridicule from those around him. This leads God to have a bird poop in his eyes and blind him for a couple of years. Why? Well, the simple reason is that when people do good things, they often do it because they are in a comfortable position. This prompts God to test him to see if he is the real thing or not. Just like Job!
Tobias had a son that was also named Tobias. This is an annoying thing in the book, because it sometimes ends up being unclear who is being referred to, The son Tobias goes on a journey with an actual angel named Rafael. The angel pretends to be a man and uses an assumed name as to not give away what he is.
The very idea that an angel is spending so much time with a regular human is really shocking. Don't get me wrong. I do love it, but it's just surprising. Along the way, Tobias is taught a few tricks by the angel. He is able to exercise a demon named Asmodeus from a woman who he intends to marry. This demon would murder any man that would marry her on the very first night.
So we have an angel and a demon, both named, and they play a major part in the Old Testament. This is some good stuff! The only thing that bugged me about the book was the presentation itself. The Catholic Bible has these little asides where they try and give context to what I was reading. I don't need this. I don't want this. I don't know who is saying these words, and I certainly wouldn't consider anything said in these asides as scripture. I did my best to ignore them and enjoy the story.
What rather set "Tobias" aside from "Job" was the absolutely heart-warming ending where everything just turns out wonderful. There was so much love and happiness among the characters. It was an absolutely GOOD ending. I'm not used to good endings in the Old Testament. This was a pleasure to read.
If you can get past the few annoyances of how "Tobias" is written and the little asides added to it, this is a highly recommended book for anyone interested in the Christian faith. Just ignore all the Catholic additions. This book works plainly well without needing to hear their opinion on the matter. Take the book for what it is and consider nothing else.
This blog was written on March 24, 2022.
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IGNORE THE PRESUMPTIOUS KNOW-IT-ALLS is good advice. It's what Jesus did during his ministry. The know-it-alls were offended since they expect to do the thinking for us. Silly know-it-alls!
ReplyDeleteAll of them have this commentary thing, but I sort of jst got used to it and focused on the story itself.
DeleteWe are here to show who we are. If there were no obstacles to be overcome, very little would be proven. We must learn how to be abased and how to abound.
ReplyDeleteYes, and we won't always have angelic help to do so. But there is enough information out there to assist us if we care enough to bother.
DeleteGod doesn't take our word for it when we devote ourselves, nor should he. Prove it! Interesting that Rafael was assigned to take Tobias "Jr" on a journey. I just read about Asmodeus in "Testament of Solomon", fascinating.
ReplyDeleteJr! That would have made it so much easier to remember!
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