Tobit, Book of

The Book of Tobit is a deuterocanonical work accepted as Scripture by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and classified as Apocrypha in Protestant Bibles. It exists in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Hebrew/Aramaic fragments (discovered at Qumran, confirming its pre-Christian origin). The story is set in Assyria among the Jewish exiles, following Tobit — a righteous Jew blinded by bird droppings — and his son Tobias, whose journey to Media is guided by the angel Raphael in disguise. Tobias marries his kinswoman Sarah, whose seven previous husbands had been killed by the demon Asmodeus; Raphael drives away the demon, and Tobit's sight is restored.

The book emphasizes almsgiving, prayer, proper burial of the dead, filial piety, and endogamous marriage (marrying within one's people). Its theology of angels, demons, and afterlife reflects the intertestamental period. The literary genre combines elements of wisdom instruction, romance, and apocalyptic, and the book influenced later Jewish and early Christian piety.