17. And Ahiachar and Nasvas his nephew came,

17. Together with Ahikar, of whom I was referred to in I:21-22, mention is made here of one Νασβάς (in the Sinai code: Ναβάδ), no doubt the same person with Ναδάβ v. 10, ch. XIV, the nephew of Ahikar.

18. and they celebrated the marriage of Tobias with joy for seven days.

Chapter XII

Instructions of the angel Raphael to Tobit and Tobias. 1–5. Tobit offers Raphael a reward for his service to Tobias. 6–10. The angel instructs Tobit and Tobias to confess the greatness and good deeds of God, praises prayer and almsgiving. 11–15. Raphael reveals himself to Tobit and Tobiah, declares to them his heavenly nature and his God-received ministry, and in particular his mission regarding Tobit and Sarah. 16–22. The angel calms the father and son, commands them to write down everything that happened in a book, and then becomes invisible. 1. And Tobit called his son Tobias and said to him, "Prepare, my son, the wages of the man who went with you; he needs to add more. 2. He answered, "My father, I will not lose if I give him half of all that I have brought; 3. because he brought me to you in good health, and healed my wife, and brought my money, and healed you also. 4. The elder said, "This is what he should do." 5. And he called the angel and said to him, "Take half of all that you have brought, and go in peace." 6. Then the angel called them both apart, and said to them, "Bless God, glorify him, acknowledge his greatness, and confess before all the living what he has done for you." It is a good deed to bless God, to exalt His name, and to preach reverently about the works of God; and you are not slothful in glorifying Him.

6. The glorification of the wondrous works of God's mercy to Tobit and his family, for the sake of zeal for the glory of God and the spiritual and moral benefit of their neighbors, was, according to the angel's instruction, the duty of Tobit and Tobias, and they, according to his own instruction (v. 20), were to immortalize the miraculous events that took place in their lives, in writing.

7. It is proper for a king to keep a secret, but to declare the works of God is praiseworthy. Do good, and evil will not come upon you.

7. The meaning of the saying, repeated below (v. 11) and which may have been a proverb, is to present figuratively and in antithesis the moral idea of glorifying the wondrous works of God.

8. A good deed is prayer with fasting and almsgiving and justice. Better is a little with justice than much with unrighteousness; It is better to give alms than to gather gold; 9. For alms deliver from death and can cleanse all sin. Those who do alms and works of righteousness will live long.

8–9. The angel's instructions on the virtues: almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and justice have a general biblical character, are essentially identical with the teaching of the Old and New Testaments about these virtues, and by no means constitute any teaching on the part of the writer of the book of Tobit. Quite arbitrarily, Graetz's assertion that the saying of the angel Raphael that alms (ελεημοσύνη) cleanses or atones for sins (v. 9 of chapter XII), and that there is thus another means of purification or reconciliation besides sacrifice, is a new doctrine first expressed by the famous Jewish Johanan ben Zakkai after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem for the consolation of his fellow countrymen, who lamented the impossibility of having a temple, for lack of a temple. to offer sacrifices for the atonement of sins (H. Gratz, Das Buch Tobias oder Tobit, siene Ursprache, seine Abfassungszeit und Tendanz, 1879, see Prof. Drozdov, pp. 541-542). Similar thoughts and expressions about the conditions of validity of sacrifices and the preference for good deeds and especially alms over sacrifices are found in many Holy Books of the Old Testament, for example, in the prophet Hosea (Hosea VI:6) and Isaiah (Isaiah I:11-13, 16-19), directly about alms (ελεεμοσύνη) as a virtue that cleanses sins, it is said in Proverbs XVI:6, Dan IV:24 and Sir III:30.

10. Sinners, on the other hand, are the enemies of their lives. 11. I will not hide anything from you; I have already said: it is proper for a king to keep a secret, but to declare the works of God is praiseworthy. 12. When you and your sister-in-law Sarah prayed, I offered up the memory of your prayer before the Holy One, and when you buried the dead, I was also with you. 13. And when you were not lazy to get up and leave your dinner to go and clean up the dead, your charity was not hidden from me, but I was with you. 14. And now God has sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah. 15. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who lift up the prayers of the saints and ascend before the glory of the Holy One.

11–15. Now the Angel, hitherto revered by Tobit and Tobias as the man Azariah, reveals to them his true being and dignity. At the same time, according to the general course of the development of biblical angelology, he first (vv. 12-14) informs them of his actions in relation to Tobit and Sarah (cf. III:16-17), of his earthly mission (v. 14), and then reveals to them his heavenly dignity, his position in the heavenly hierarchy. Having mentioned the hidden, invisible side of the story described in the book of Tobit, namely, that just as the prayer of Tobit and Sarah (III:2-6; 11-15) was offered by an angel before the saint (cf. Rev. VIII:3-4), so Tobit's charity in the burial of his dead tribesmen (I:17-19; II:1-5) was performed with the invisible assistance of an angel (vv. 12-13), then of his activity as a heavenly messenger for the healing of the ailments of Tobit and Sarah (v. 14). The angel finally declares to Tobit and Tobias his true nature: "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who offer up the prayer of the saints and ascend before the glory of the Holy One" (v. 15). Instead of the words in the accepted Greek text of the book: 'oi προσαναφέρουσιν τάς προσευχάς των αγίων — the prayers of the saints are offered, words apparently transferred in verse 15 from verse 12, the Codex Sinaiticus contains the words: οι παρεσιήκασι, "who stand before (the glory of the Holy One)"; in the same way in the Vulgate: qui adstamus ante Dominum. The expression "to stand before someone" is taken from the practices or customs of the ancient Eastern royal courts, and is often used in the Bible as an earthly relationship—the standing of the king's servants before his throne (1 Samuel XXII:7; 1 Kings X:8; XII:6, 8) and to express the idea of the heavenly ministry of angels to God (e.g., see 1 Kings XXII:19; Isaiah VI:2; Dan VII:10). Of course, this "presence" of the angels to God must be understood in the completely general meaning of their service to God, which service cannot be limited only to the heavenly sphere of the angels' existence, but also embraces their sending by God to earth for the purpose of saving people. Therefore it is false that the rabbis divide angels into those who are actually "coming" (assistentes) and "serving" (ministrantes) of God, of whom only the latter could be sent by God into the world, and the former stood exclusively before the glory of God. The book of Tobit speaks against this assumption: the angel Raphael, who is "standing" before God, is sent by God to earth for the purpose of saving people. The general concept of "standing before God" or the service of angels to God includes, of course, the lifting up of prayers by angels before God, v. 12: the intercession of angels before God for people is also assumed in the Old Testament biblical angelology (see, e.g., Job V:1; XXXIII:23; Zech I:12), and, especially in the New Testament, in the classic passage of the Apocalypse, chapter VIII, verses 2-4. For this reason, the reading of v. 15 in the accepted Greek text ("who offer up the prayers of the saints"), although comparatively less textually attested, has all the force of inner authenticity (cf. A. Glagolev, Old Testament Bibl. Teaching on Angels: pp. 269, 274-275).

As for the sevenfold number of angels standing before God, as the book of Tobit (XII:15) says, there is no clear evidence of seven angels in the Old Testament canonical writings before the time of the captivity. But in the book of Ezekiel (IX:1-2) there are seven punishing men, apparently angels (cf. Zech IV:10), and in the Apocalypse there is more than one mention of seven spirits or angels standing before the throne of God (I:4; IV:5; VIII:2, 6). At the same time, Prince. Tobit and kn. The Apocalypse represents these seven angels as the highest, i.e., archangels.

Thus, in its essential features, the angelology of the Book of Angelology. Tobit coincides with biblical angelology in general (cf. Prof. Drozdov, p. 368 and A. Glagolev, pp. 408-409).