Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 1
1. Tobias of the tribe and city of Nephthali (which is in the upper parts of Galilee above Naasson, beyond the way that leadeth to the west, having on the left hand the city of Sephet), 2. When he was made captive in the days of Salmanasar king of the Assyrians, yet in his captivity he forsook not the way of truth, 3. So that all he could get he imparted every day to his fellow captives, who were of his kindred. 4. And whereas he was the younger of all in the tribe of Nephthali, yet he did nothing childish in his work. 5. Moreover, when all went to the golden calves, which Jeroboam king of Israel had made, this man alone fled the company of all, 6. But went to Jerusalem to the temple of the Lord, and there adored the Lord the God of Israel, offering faithfully all his firstfruits and his tithes, 7. So that in the third year he distributed all his tithes to the proselytes and strangers. 8. These and such like things, when he was but a boy, he observed according to the law of God. 9. But when he was become a man, he took to wife Anna of his own tribe, and had a son by her, whom he called after his own name, 10. Whom from his infancy he taught to fear God, and to abstain from all sin. 11. Now when by the captivity he was come with his wife and his son to the city of Ninive, with all his tribe, (12. When all ate of the meats of the Gentiles) this man kept his soul, and never was defiled with their meats. 13. And because he was mindful of the Lord with all his heart, God gave him favour in the sight of Salmanasar the king, 14. And he gave him leave to go wheresoever he would, with liberty to do whatever he had a mind. 15. He therefore went to all that were in captivity, and gave them wholesome admonitions. 16. And when he was come to Rages, a city of the Medes, and had ten talents of silver, of that with which he had been honoured by the king: 17. And when, in the great multitude of his kindred, he saw Gabelus in want, who was of his tribe, he gave him upon his note of hand the aforesaid weight of silver. 18. But after a long time, Salmanasar the king being dead, when Sennacherib his son, who reigned in his place, had a hatred for the children of Israel, 19. Tobias daily went through all his kindred, and comforted them, and distributed to every one as he was able, out of his goods: 20. He fed the hungry, and gave clothes to the naked, and was careful to bury the dead and them that were slain. 21. And when king Sennacherib was returned, fleeing from Judea by reason of the plague which God had brought upon him for his blasphemy, and being angry slew many of the children of Israel, Tobias buried their bodies. 22. But when it was told the king, he commanded him to be slain, and took away all his substance. 23. But Tobias fleeing with his son and his wife, lay concealed, naked, for many loved him. 24. But after forty-five days the king was murdered by his own sons, 25. And Tobias returned to his house, and all his substance was restored to him.
Verse 1.—“TOBIAS OF THE TRIBE AND CITY OF NEPHTHALI.”—In the Greek the genealogy of Tobias is added in this way: The book of the words of Tobias, son of Tobiel, son of Ananiel, son of Adiel, son of Gabael, of the seed of Asiel; the Hebrew adds Nenathiel; therefore Tobias’s father was Tobiel, his grandfather Ananiel, great-grandfather Aduel, or perhaps Adiel, great-great-grandfather Gabuel, great-great-great-grandfather Asiel, fourth great-grandfather Nenathiel. His paternal grandmother was Debbora, for so in verse 8, in the Hebrew and Greek, it is read: As Debbora my father’s mother had commanded me, because I was left an orphan by my father. This grandmother therefore brought up Tobias uprightly and piously, so that he owes his own probity to her. So Macrina, disciple of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus and grandmother of St. Basil, bringing him up with his brothers and sister Macrina, formed him eminent in every virtue and made him great. In like manner Ludmilla, nurturing St. Wenceslaus, duke of Bohemia, made him a saint and martyr.
Moreover Tobias had a brother Anael, whose two sons are named Achiacharus and Nasbas, or Nabac, in the Greek, verse 8, of whom more at the last verse. Finally, from the “book of the words of Tobias” it is clear that Tobias is the author of this book, and therefore in the Greek and Hebrew Tobias henceforth always speaks in the first person, saying: I Tobias walked in the ways of truth, etc. Again, hence it is clear that this book was written twice by the same man; first in Chaldean, from which St. Jerome translated our Latin Vulgate; secondly also in Chaldean (though Serarius prefers Hebrew, and that twice, namely once by the father Tobias, and a second time by his son), but more fully, from which the Greek version was translated, unless you prefer that it was written more fully at first, and then by the author himself, or by someone else, somewhat “OF THE TRIBE AND CITY”—which took the same name from the tribe, and therefore (as the Complutensian Greek has) it is properly called “Nephthali,” from which many disciples and Apostles of Christ were descended, as is clear from Isaias 9:1, of whom our Tobias was the type and perhaps the ancestor.
“IN THE UPPER (regions) OF GALILEE,”—from which, namely, the Jordan rising flows down as from a higher place to a lower, and therefore one Galilee is called upper, the other lower. Just as that Germany is called upper which lies next to the Rhine at its source, and from there flows as if from a higher into a lower place (which is therefore called lower Germany), says Serarius.
Upper Galilee is also called Galilee of the Gentiles, because part of it was given by Solomon to the Gentile king of Tyre, Hiram, and was thereafter inhabited by Tyrians and other nations. The same is also called Samaria, because the kings of Israel, ruling in Samaria as their capital, had Galilee subject to them; otherwise Samaria was not properly Galilee, but lay between Galilee and Judea.
Moreover this city of Nephthali, in which Tobias was born, is called in the Greek Thesbe, in which Elias was born, and hence is called the Thesbite. So Salianus, Serarius and others, although Adrichomius places Thesbe in the tribe of Gad, not Nephthali.
2. “WHEN HE WAS MADE CAPTIVE IN THE DAYS OF SALMANASAR,”—in the Greek corruptly called Enemassar. Tobias was therefore taken captive in the sixth year of Ezechias king of Juda, which was the ninth and last of Osee king of Israel, in which Salmanasar carried the ten tribes, and Tobias among them, into Assyria, 4 Kings 17 and 18; for although Salmanasar’s father, Teglathphalasar, had already carried off many of the ten tribes before, yet he likewise left many in Samaria and Nephthali, whom Salmanasar at last carried all away.