The Book of Tobit – a scientific commentary on the text
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2 When I saw a lot of food, I said to my son: Go and bring whomever you find, a poor one of our brothers who remembers the Lord, and I will wait for you. (Invitation to the table of the poor from the “chosen people” who remember Yahweh).
3 And he came and said: My father, one of our tribe, was strangled and thrown into the market place. (Tobias reports that a strangled Israeli lies in the square).
4 Then, before I began to eat, I hastily went out and put him away in one dwelling before the sun went down. (Tobit hid the body).
5 When he returned, he washed himself and ate my bread in sorrow. (After washing, Tobit ate in sorrow.)
6 And I remembered the prophecy of Amos, how he said: Your festivals will be turned into sorrow, and all your pleasures into mourning. (Amos is a Jewish prophet).
7 And I cried. When the sun set, I went and dug [a grave] and buried him. (The corpse is buried).
8 The neighbors mocked [me] and said: He is not yet afraid of being killed for this matter; He’s already been running, and now he’s burying the dead again. (It was forbidden to bury the dead in Nineveh, and in Zoroastrianism, only specially authorized people had to bury the dead. The first book of the Avesta, Vendidad, is one of the later works (1st century BC – 1st century AD .). Vendidad begins with a description of the creation of the world by Ahura Mazda (the Good Lord). This is followed by a poetic description of 16 countries inhabited by worshipers of this deity. The second and third chapters tell about the history of mankind and about the founder of civilization – Iama. The remaining parts of the first book of the Avesta are devoted to moral, civil and religious precepts, expressed in the form of laws of human behavior, the main place among which is occupied by discussions about the impurity arising from touching a corpse, and an exposition of the means of liberation from this impurity. The second book is called Yasna. This is an older book. It sets out the liturgical cult of Zoroastrianism, provides prayers and magical formulas accompanying the sacrifice.Among other prayers are appeals to fire and water. The cult of fire was of particular importance. In Zoroastrian temples (including the modern Parsi temples of Bombay) there are no images of deities. Believers worship the fire burning on the altar. Entrance to the temple for non-believers is prohibited. Since a corpse is considered unclean, it is prohibited to desecrate fire by touching a corpse. This touch should also not offend the sacred elements – earth, air and water. Therefore, Zoroastrians give the body of the deceased to be torn apart by wild animals and birds. This is usually done in a specially designated place (“dakmas”, or “towers of silence”). The gnawed bones were collected and stored in special storage facilities – ossuaries. Visperod, the third book of the Avesta, is a collection of liturgical prayers to the deities.).
9 That same night, having returned from the burial and being unclean, I lay down to sleep outside the courtyard wall, and my face was not covered. (Tobit sleeps in the open air).
10 And I did not notice that there were sparrows on the wall. When my eyes were open, the sparrows sent forth warmth into my eyes, and they became a thorn in my eyes. And I went to doctors, but they didn’t help me. Ahiachar provided me with food until he went to Elymaida. (Apparently, sparrow excrement got into the eyes).
11 And then my wife Anna spun wool in the women's departments (My wife Anna was a spinner).
12 And she sent it to rich people, who gave her payment and once gave her a kid in addition. (Payment in goat).
13 When they brought him to me, he began to bleat; and I asked [my wife], where does this kid come from? isn't it stolen? give it to whoever it belongs to! for it is unlawful to eat stolen goods. (Tobit thought that the kid was stolen).
14 She answered: This was given to me over and above my wages. But I didn’t believe her and insisted that she give it to whoever it belonged to, and I got angry with her. And she answered me: where are your alms and righteous deeds? that's how they all showed up on you! (Quarrel between spouses).
Chapter 3
1 Being saddened, I wept and prayed with sorrow, saying: (Tobit is in sorrow).
2 You are righteous, O Lord, and all Your works and all Your ways are mercy and truth, and You judge with true and just judgment forever! (From a religious point of view, everything depends on God).
3 Remember me and look upon me: do not punish me for my sins and the errors of my fathers, with which they sinned before You! (Appeal to God for help).
4 For they did not listen to Your commandments, and You gave us over to spoil and captivity and death, and to be a proverbial reproach before all the nations among whom we are scattered. (Allegedly, those who did not listen and did not follow God’s instructions are to blame for everything; that is why God punished his “chosen people”).
5 And truly your judgments are many and righteous, to do to me according to my sins and the sins of my fathers, because they did not keep your commandments and did not do what is right before you. (Allegedly, those who did not listen and did not follow God’s instructions are to blame for everything; that is why God punished his “chosen people”).
6 Do therefore with me what is pleasing to You; commanded to take my spirit so that I would be resolved and turn into the ground, for it is better for me to die than to live, since I hear false reproaches and the sorrow is deep in me! Command me to free me from this burden to the eternal abode and do not turn Your face away from me. (Tobit, in grief, turned to Yahweh with a request to accept him into the eternal abode).
7 On that very day it happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in Ecbatana of Media, suffered reproaches from her father’s handmaids (there were also reproaches against a certain Sarah).
8 because she was given to seven husbands, but Asmodeus, the evil spirit, killed them before they were with her as a wife. They said to her: Aren’t you ashamed that you strangled your husbands? You already had seven, but you didn’t call yourself by the name of any of them. ("Sacred" 7. "Critics note," writes Leo Taxil in the "Funny Bible", p. 368, "that never before have the Jews ever mentioned any devil, demon or devil: evil spirits originate from Persia, where the people believed in the existence of two equally powerful gods: Ormuzd – the god of good and Ahriman – the god of evil. Each of them commands a whole army of good or evil spirits. The Jews were only imitators. They borrowed their religion from their neighbors or enslavers, and they borrowed not only rituals, but also religious traditions. The Book of Tobit makes one think that the evil spirit Asmodeus was in love with Sarah and was jealous of her. This is quite consistent with the ancient teaching about spirits, angels and gods. "Most likely, someone once inspired Sarah fear of sexual intercourse, perhaps she had previously, for some reason, been afraid of some man, most likely her first husband, perhaps he showed violent actions towards her, and then, due to obsessive states, in a fit of temporary madness, she constantly strangled her husbands . Obsessive states are painful disorders in which, according to the Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov, there are overly stable ideas and feelings that do not correspond to generally accepted human relations, and therefore lead him into difficult, difficult collisions with nature, other people, and himself. In obsessive states, obsessive ideas, images, feelings and actions are of a violent nature; they arise against the will of the sick person; the pathophysiological basis of obsessive states is the pathological inertia of nervous processes. In ancient times, it was believed that such conditions were caused by evil spirits, in this case, Asmodeus – from Hebrew "Ashmedai" – "tempter", an evil spirit, a destroyer of marriages. Also mentioned in the Talmud as the prince of demons and in the apocrypha. The image of Asmodeus was borrowed by the Jews from the Persian religion).
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