Commentaria in Tobiam
I say secondly: Since this book seems to have been received by so many of the ancients, and the Church uses it in the Introit of the Mass of the Tuesday of Pentecost: “Receive,” it says, “the joyfulness of your glory, giving thanks to God, who has called you to the heavenly kingdoms”; and: “Now martyrs,” which are found here in chapter 2; and since the Church has hitherto printed it in the sacred Bibles, and the book itself contains learned, pious, weighty and illustrious teachings; and finally everywhere strikes in its readers a horror of sin, the growing vanity and wickedness of a declining world, a terror of the judgments of God and the memory of the age to come; and has nothing that cannot suitably be taken; for these reasons, I say, its authority too seems to be conceded. Nor is it strange that it has hitherto been hidden, and is still hidden, whether it is sacred. For God once permitted this in all the deuterocanonical books; indeed he permitted many books of the prophets to perish, which are cited in the books of Kings. Surely Esdras, or whoever is the author of the book, was a learned and pious man, as is clear to one reading the book. Hence our Alcazar, on Apocalypse chapter 7, page 489, letter A: I suspect, he says, that the fourth book of Esdras was written after the Apocalypse, and that its author wished to allude to the Apocalypse, but did not rightly hold its sequence and context. But from what has been said it is clear that this book was written before the Apocalypse, and therefore that St. John in the Apocalypse alludes to it. Hear the elegant and pious vision of Esdras, which he himself recounts in this book, chapter 2, very like that which St. John relates, Apocalypse chapter 7: “I Esdras saw upon Mount Sion a great multitude, which I could not number, and they all praised the Lord with canticles. And in the midst of them was a young man of high stature, taller than all the rest, and upon every one of their heads he set crowns, and was more exalted; but I was held in wonder. Then I asked the angel, and said: Who are these, my lord? And he answered and said to me: These are they who have put off the mortal garment, and put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God: now they are crowned and receive palms. And I said to the angel: Who is that young man who sets crowns upon them and puts palms in their hands? And he answered and said to me: He is the Son of God, whom they have confessed in the world; and I began to glorify them who stood strongly for the name of the Lord.”
Finally the author of this fourth book, chapter 1, verse 4, signifies that he is the same as Esdras the scribe and priest, who was the author of the first book; for he calls himself son of Saraias the high priest, and recounts the same grandfathers and great-grandfathers that Esdras recounted, book 1, chapter 7; but Esdras there numbers only fifteen forefathers, whereas here nineteen. Hence it is clear that some of them were omitted by Esdras in chapter 7. The author of this book, therefore, either was Esdras, or certainly assumes the person of Esdras: for he always speaks in the person of Esdras.
It is asked first whether this book is canonical, as infallible and of divine truth. I answer that formerly some Fathers did not hold it as canonical, because it is not in the canon of the Hebrews. They judge the same of the books of Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus and Machabees. So St. Jerome in the Helmeted Prologue, St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, Nazianzen in his poem On the Sacred Books, Lyranus and Abulensis.
But it is now of faith that it is canonical, equally with the others just named; for so the Third Council of Carthage, canon 47, the Councils of Florence and Trent, session 4, and Gelasius I in his decree on the divine books defined, and so St. Irenaeus, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Cyprian, Ambrose, Basil, Clement of Alexandria, Rabanus, Cassiodorus, Isidore and others held it, whom Bellarmine cites, book 1 On the Word of God, chapter 11, Serarius here, and Sixtus of Siena, Bibliotheca book 8, heresy 11.
Secondly, by the very nature of the book; for it contains nothing but what is worthy of a truly inspired author; it was written at God’s command, chapter 12:20, and moreover exhibits two prophecies made by the author himself, one concerning Jerusalem and allegorically the Church, chapter 11; the other, which Tobias, now about to die, prophesies, concerning the overthrow of Ninive and Jerusalem, and the dispersion and return of the Jews.
Thirdly, by the weakness of the reasons which are opposed to the divinity of this book. For that the book of Tobias does not fit into the canon of the Hebrews is nothing strange, since it can be said that it was not found until after the canon of Esdras, which contained only books written in Hebrew, was closed. This book indeed the Church did not at once admit among the sacred volumes, because she first judged that only the canon of the Hebrews was to be held; yet she always both honoured and proclaimed it as truly divine, until she inserted it among the canonical books and numbered it with them. For indeed from the beginning …
It is asked secondly, what is its argument or subject matter.
I answer: it describes the life, deeds and manners of both Tobiases, namely the father and the son, who were a mirror of probity, and therefore to be imitated by all married persons. For this book is wholly moral and pious, and sets before the young, especially the betrothed, a pattern of honest and holy life, as well as a living example of the guardianship of the Angels. It teaches moreover how great is the force and virtue of prayer, what should be the use and end of marriage, and what the life of married people. Tobias, then, is a household manager, and far surpasses the household managers of Aristotle and Xenophon. Finally, it shows how great is God’s providence toward his faithful, and how great care he takes of them, to direct them through all things to the desired end.
The error of Paul Fagius is to be avoided, who in his Latin version of Tobias from the Hebrew text, in the preface, asserts that this book is not a history but a comedy composed in comic fashion, so that the author might set before the eyes in it the type of a good father of a family, and therefore fittingly gave him the name Tobias. For Tobias signifies goodness and probity: hence another Tobias, the son, is put forth and begotten like his father. So Xenophon wrote the Cyropaedia, to give in Cyrus the idea of a good prince, and the Oeconomicus, to describe in it a true father of a family. But it is certain that this is a true history, as all the orthodox hold; for in it are named times, persons, years, and the acts of both Tobiases and of the Angel Raphael, of Sara, etc., as in a true history: for if all these things were comic and feigned, not true and done, this book could not be excused from deceit, nor even from falsehood.
the Roman Church admitted no other Scriptures than those contained in the Bible of the Hellenistic Jews, among which the book of Tobias was reckoned. Add that the old Italic version, which was in use in the time of the Apostles, also included this book, and that the Greek Church has always retained it as truly canonical. Lastly, St. Augustine, although he confesses that this book was not received by the Jews, nevertheless says, “the Church of the same Saviour receives it,” City of God, book 18, chapter 36.
The difficulties, contradictions, and even falsehoods which anyone might find in this book, and which, according to some, would prove that it is not the offspring of the Holy Spirit, will be cleared up each in its own place.
It is asked thirdly, in what language was this book written? Paul Fagius, a German by nation and a Lutheran by sect, following his Luther, thinks it was first written in Hebrew, and that it is the one which he asserts was brought to him from Constantinople, which he himself translated from the Hebrew into Latin and published in print, and that this is shown by the purity of its style, its solidity, and its agreement with other Hebrew books; and that it was afterwards translated from the Hebrew into the Chaldean tongue, and then finally translated into Latin by St. Jerome.