Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 11. Synopsis of the Chapter
Raphael leads Tobias safe home to his parents; he anoints his father’s eyes with the gall of the fish and restores his sight. Whence all bless God for joy, and feast.
1. And as they returned, they came to Haran, which is in the midway to Ninive, on the eleventh day. 2. And the angel said: Brother Tobias, thou knowest how thou didst leave thy father. 3. If it please thee therefore, let us go before, and let thy family follow softly after us, together with thy wife and with the beasts. 4. And as it pleased them to go so, Raphael said to Tobias: Take of the gall of the fish, for it will be necessary. So Tobias took some of that gall, and they went. 5. But Anna sat every day by the highway, on the top of a hill, from whence she might see afar off. 6. And while she watched there for his coming, she saw him afar off, and presently perceived it was her son coming, and she ran to tell her husband, saying: Behold, thy son cometh. 7. And Raphael said to Tobias: As soon as thou shalt come into thy house, adore the Lord thy God: and giving thanks to him, go to thy father, and kiss him. 8. And immediately anoint his eyes with the gall of the fish which thou carriest with thee. For be assured that his eyes shall be presently opened, and thy father shall see the light of heaven, and shall rejoice in the sight of thee. 9. Then the dog, which had been with them in the way, ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by fawning and wagging his tail. 10. And his father that was blind, rose up, and began to run, stumbling with his feet: and giving a servant his hand, went to meet his son. 11. And receiving him kissed him, as did also his wife, and they began to weep for joy. 12. And when they had adored God, and given thanks, they sat down. 13. Then Tobias taking of the gall of the fish, anointed his father’s eyes. 14. And he waited about half an hour, and a white skin began to come out of his eyes, like the white of an egg. 15. And Tobias took hold of it, and drew it from his eyes, and immediately he recovered his sight. 16. And they glorified God, both he and his wife and all that knew him. 17. And Tobias said: I bless thee, O Lord God of Israel, because thou hast chastised me, and thou hast saved me: and behold I see Tobias my son. 18. And after seven days Sara his son’s wife arrived, and all the family in health, and the cattle, and the camels, and much money of his wife’s: and that money also which he had received of Gabelus: 19. And he told his parents all the benefits of God which he had done to him by the man that conducted him. 20. And Achior and Nabath, Tobias’s kinsmen, came rejoicing to Tobias, and congratulating with him for all the good things that God had shewn to him. 21. And for seven days they feasted, and all rejoiced with great joy.
1. “THEY CAME TO HARAN, WHICH IS IN THE MIDWAY TO NINIVE, ON THE ELEVENTH DAY.”—Charan is Haran, from which Abraham was called by God into Chanaan, Genesis 11:31 ff., which was afterwards Carrhae the journey, namely to Rages, and thence returning to Ninive to his father, took about six weeks, or 47 days; but Tornielli gives 88 days, Salianus 34.
signifies that these words are to be joined to the angel’s former words of verse 4, and verses 5 and 6 are as it were thrown in by parenthesis) “AS SOON AS THOU SHALT COME INTO THY HOUSE, ADORE THE LORD THY GOD: AND GIVING THANKS TO HIM, GO TO THY FATHER, AND KISS HIM.”—Learn here, when thou travellest or settest out anywhere, first to go to the church and invoke God, that he may prosper thy way and direct it to his glory and thy salvation and that of others. Then, returning, first return likewise to the church, and give thanks to God; so religious and upright men do. Hear Pacatus in his Panegyrics: “Entering great cities, we first visit the sacred temples and the shrines dedicated to the supreme Deity; then the forum and the gymnasia.” And in his Rule St. Benedict: “Guests received,” he says, “are to be led to prayer.” So did St. Antony, visiting St. Paul the first hermit, as St. Jerome testifies in his Life, and the other monks and anchorites, as Cassian testifies.
9. “THEN THE DOG RAN BEFORE.”—Hear Bede: “The figure of this dog is not to be despised, because he is the traveller and companion of the Angel; for he expresses the Doctors of the Church, who, by contending with heretics, drive the grievous wolves from the fold of the supreme Shepherd; and he said beautifully, as a messenger arriving, because a faithful Doctor is a messenger of truth; he beautifully rejoiced in the fawning of his tail. The tail, which is as it were the end of the body, hints at the end of good work, that is its perfection, or surely the reward which is given without end.”
10. “AND HIS FATHER THAT WAS BLIND, ROSE UP, AND BEGAN TO RUN, STUMBLING WITH HIS FEET.”—Mystically: “Tobias the blind,” says Pineda, “signifies the people of the Jews rising from the lethargy of their perfidy and running to the Lord, though stumbling in their steps of works, until, full of faith and good works, it received the light, regenerated in Christ and instructed.”
11. “AND THEY BEGAN TO WEEP FOR JOY,”—the Greek adds that the mother said: Having seen thee, my son, now I shall die, that is, content and glad. So Simeon, having seen Christ, said: “Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace.”
13. “THEN TOBIAS TAKING OF THE GALL OF THE FISH (the callionymus) ANOINTED HIS FATHER’S EYES.”
14. “AND HE WAITED ABOUT HALF AN HOUR,”—until the gall by its sharpness gradually ate away, thinned and consumed the film drawn over his father’s eyes. Hence it is clear that this cure of blindness by gall was natural, as from Lyranus, Dionysius, Serarius, Sanchez and others I said in chapter 6, 8. Whence the Greek has Raphael saying: Do thou anoint the gall on his eyes, and its biting will wear away and cast off the whitenesses, and he will look upon thee. And below: Tobias sprinkled that gall on his eyes; and when the eyes were bitten and stung, he rubbed them, and from their corners or angles the whitenesses fell off like scales. For which our text has: “And a white skin began to come out of his eyes, like the white of an egg. And Tobias took hold of it, and drew it from his eyes, and immediately he recovered his sight.” Moreover Tobias was blind for 4 years, namely from the 56th year of his age to the 60th, in which he recovered sight, as is clear from chapter 14, verse 8, where however the Greek has that he lived eight years blind, namely from the 58th year of age to the 66th, in which he was enlightened. In the life of St. Gregory, archbishop of Tours, it is told that his father Florentius was similarly afflicted; for thus the author says: “Florentius was seized by a returning heat; a fever is kindled; the feet swell, a most grievous pain racks him; the disease, prolonged, had worn the man down, and he lay now almost given up. Meanwhile the boy (his son Gregory of Tours) saw again in his sleep a person asking whether he knew the book of Tobias. He answered: By no means. He said: Know that he was blind, and was cured through his son by the liver of a fish, the Angel going before. Do thou therefore likewise, and thy father shall be saved. This he reported to his mother, who forthwith sent servants to the river; a fish is caught, and what had been ordered of the entrails is laid on the coals. The event did not disappoint the man; for as soon as the smoke of the odour reached the nostrils of his father, at once all the swelling and pain withdrew.” St. Gregory of Tours himself repeats all this almost word for word, book On the Glory of Confessors, chapter 40.
Mystically Bede: The whiteness, he says, signifies the folly of pleasing oneself, the egg hope and confidence, Tobias the Jewish people; he has therefore a whiteness in his eyes who appears great, white and just in his own eyes, and pleases and arrogates too much to himself; but he has it in the likeness of the skin of an egg, because he endures blindness of mind under the hope of the foolishness of a Christ to be born; for they believe him not born, but hope him to be born, and the Jews wait in vain. But those from whom this whole darkness has been taken away by the physician Raphael, that is, by the Angel of great counsel, the Lord Christ, acknowledge that the Messias has already come and redeemed the world, and that he is Jesus Christ.
Allegorically, the fish is Christ, as I have already said from St. Augustine, Prosper and others. The flesh of this most sacred fish is his charity, testified by so many works done for our good, and shown in sufferings and pains. But the smoke of his heart is our prayer, resting on the worth of his merits. For this avails something with the Father, not because it is only ours, but because it is poured forth by a member of Christ the natural Son, and is founded on his merits and charity. This drives away every kind of demons, because it conquers the devil, and mocks his temptations and wiles. And therefore Chrysostom wisely ascribes our fall to the absence of prayer and his victory to its presence.