Tobit

About this text

A narrative about Tobit, a righteous Israelite in exile, and his son Tobias who journeys with the angel Raphael in disguise. A story of faith, healing, and God's providence.

Significance

Beloved in Catholic and Orthodox traditions. A beautiful story of faithfulness in exile.

How to Read This Historical Text

Tobit is included here as a historical and educational resource, not as Scripture and not as a replacement for the biblical canon. Readers may find it useful for understanding the ideas, debates, devotional language, and literary settings that surrounded Jewish and Christian communities in different periods.

Read this text with context in mind. Notice its era, category, and relationship to canonical passages, then compare its themes with the Bible itself. Some library works preserve valuable historical background, while others represent viewpoints that many Christian traditions rejected. Inclusion in this library does not mean endorsement of every claim or doctrine in the text.

For more about how The Bible Companion handles public-domain writings, Bible translations, attribution, and devotional material, see the Sources & Editorial Policy.

Key excerpts

"Prayer with fasting is good, but better than both is almsgiving with righteousness."

"Do to no one what you yourself dislike."

"Raphael said: I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand and serve before the Glory of the Lord."

Scripture cross-references

• Matthew 7:12 — The Golden Rule — Tobit states the negative form
• Revelation 8:2 — Seven angels before God — Raphael identifies himself as one
• Matthew 6:1-4 — Almsgiving in secret — the same ethic

Continue exploring

This text is one of 10 in the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical Books category, and one of 62 across the entire library.