4–18. The narrative of the Book of Tobit about the image of the appearance of the angel Raphael on earth and about his relationship to Tobit and Tobias is fully confirmed by similar examples found in the canonical writings of the Old Testament (Genesis XVIII-XIX chapters, Judges XIII:1-21, etc.). In Raphael's acceptance of the image of a person who could be Tobias's companion, one can see the adaptation to the circumstances of the time and to the position of persons, which is evidenced by many biblical legends about the apparitions of angels (see A. Glagoleva, The Old Testament Biblical Teaching on Angels, p. 148, cf. Prof. Drozdov, pp. 373-378). With regard to Raphael's perplexing course of action, namely, that he pretended to be Azariah, the son of Ananias (v. 13), it may be said that "what Raphael said of himself was true (as being in full accord with the manner he had adopted), but he did not tell the whole truth, because Tobit should not have known it until a certain time" (cf. Prof. Drozdov, p. p. 375); if he had appeared in the form of an angel, he would have made Tobit and Tobias tremble and would not have fulfilled the mission entrusted to him, as Blazh explains. Augustine (Curs. S. Scr. t. XII, col. 546).

19. Do not prefer silver to silver; let it be like rubbish in comparison with our son! 20. For as long as the Lord has ordained for us to live, we have enough for this. 21. Tobit said to her, "Don't be sad, sister; he shall come well, and thy eyes shall see him; 22. for a good angel will accompany him; his path will prosper, and he will return healthy.

19–22. Both Raphael's activities on earth and Tobit's belief in the companionship of Tobias the good angel, v. 22, cf. Gen XXIV:7, testify to the profound vitality of the belief in angels and their salvific activity for people at all times of Old Testament history (see A. Glagolev, op. cit., p. 489).

Chapter VI

1–9. An adventure on the way of Tobias and Raphael to Media. 10–18. Advice of the angel Tobias about marriage with Sarah and about the means of salvation from the malice of the demon Asmodeus. 1. And she stopped crying.

1. In the accepted Greek text, as in the Slav. and Russian. transl., omitted in the Sinai code. LXX remark on the dog's following travelers (καί ό κύων 'εξήλθεν μετ' αυτού καί επορεύθη μετ αύτων Syn. code), which remark was probably erroneously transferred from here (in the accepted Greek t., Slavonic-Russian) in V:17 (cf. XI:3). The dog belonging to Tobias was evidently a domestic animal, and enjoyed a certain kind of attention from its master: this was the case only in Assyro-Babylonia (as early as Greece), but not among the Jews in Palestine, where dogs were until later times semi-savage, wandering animals (Psalm XXI:17, 21; LVIII:7, 15), were considered unclean and contemptible (1 Kings XIV:11; XIX:21; 4 Samuel IX:35-36 and many others, see Prof. Drozdov, pp. 502-507).

Tobias and Raphael, when they went from Nineveh to Media, spent the first night on the banks of the Tigris (v. I): there is nothing impossible in this (contrary to the opinion of Ewald and others), for, although Nineveh itself lay by the Tigris River, and precisely on the left, eastern side of that river, the direction of the way of Tobias and Raphael, to Ragas and Ecbatana, was necessary for the eastern,  But the Tigris had many very significant deviations in its course, and it is quite understandable that travelers heading east (or southeast) could meet the Tigris or one of its tributaries (e.g., the Great or Upper Zab) on their way. Cm. by Prof. Drozdov, pp. 505–508.

2. And the travelers came to the Tigris River in the evening and stopped there for the night. 3. The young man went to wash, but a fish appeared from the river and wanted to devour the young man. 4. Then the angel said to him, "Take this fish." And the young man grabbed the fish and pulled it to the ground. 5. And the angel said to him, "Cut the fish, take the heart, the liver, and the gall, and save them." 6. The young man did as the angel told him; and the fish was baked and eaten; and they went on and came to Ecbatana. 7. And the young man said to the angel, "Brother Azariah, what is the use of this liver and heart and gall from the fish? 8. He answered, "If anyone is tormented by a demon or an evil spirit, he must smoke with his heart and liver before such a man or woman, and he will be tormented no more; 9. And anoint a person who has an eyesore with gall, and he will be healed.

3–9. By the predatory fish which rushed at Tobias as he approached the river (v. 2), some mean the fish known to the Arabs as sabots, or alsabut, and others associate it with the pike: in favor of the latter may be adduced the peculiar prevalence of this fish among the Jews, as satisfying the requirements of a clean fish according to the law of Moses, Lev. XI:9-12. Concerning the healing value of the entrails of the fish, the heart, the liver, and the bile, as the angel speaks of (v. 9), it may be said that their usefulness from the point of view of organotherapy is quite permissible; the main thing is that the healing of the sick is made dependent on prayer (vv. 16-17) (see A. Glagolev, op. cit., p. 694, Prof. Drozdov, pp. 352-360).

10. And when they were approaching Raga,

10–18. In the speech of the Angel, which advises his Tobias to marry Sarah, as being of the same family as him (vv. 12-13, 16), there is not only a relation to the corresponding instruction of Tobit to his son (Tob IV:12-13), but also to the view of the law of Moses, according to which the daughters, the heirs of the father's inheritance, in the absence of sons, were to marry in no other way, as within "the tribe of his father's tribe" (Num. XXXVI:7; XXVII:5–11; Tolkov. Jbeil. I).

Tobias' words about Sarah, v. 15 (Greek, v. 14) "A demon loves her, who harms no one but those who approach her", δαιμόνιον φιλεί αυτήν, ό ούκ αδικεί ούδένα, πλην τών προσαγογόντων αυτή, are usually understood by interpreters in the sense of indicating that Asmodeus was inflamed with impure love for Sarah (or even had carnal intercourse with her) and, as if out of a feeling of jealousy and revenge, killed her husbands before, than they were with her as with his wife (III:8).

Against this understanding of v. 15 may be the fact that the words δαιμόνιον φιλεί αυτήν are not found in Sinaisk. LXX, in the Vulgate, Chald, and Nebr. M., as well as the fact that under Article 8 of the Sn. 18 the demon tormented Sarah (he did not love her), and by III:14 Sarah remained chaste and a virgin. Independently of this, however, it must be admitted that the idea that demons or angels could have carnal intercourse with women undoubtedly existed among the Jews as a popular belief, as the history of the interpretation of Genesis VI:2, 4 shows (see A. Glagolev, Old Testament Teaching on Angels, pp. 201-205), and therefore Tobias, an unenlightened man, could have said, especially as a rumor or conjecture, the superstitious opinion about Asmodeus' carnal passion for Sarah (cf. Prof. Drozdov, pp. 386-389).

In fact, Asmodeus's effect on Sarah was expressed in Sarah's extremely tormented, depressed state, similar to that which the evil spirit brought to Saul (1 Samuel XVI:14–15; XVIII:10–11; XIX:9-10), which induced her to beat the maids (III:9) and even led her to the decision to take her own life (III:10; cf. Commentary, Vol. II).