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Protestants. It has survived only in Greek based on an Aramaic version
compiled in Judea around 200 BC and got unfortunately lost.
In 14 chapters it describes the story of the Jewish Tobit and his son Tobias, set
in VIII-VII century BC.
We must immediately affirm that this writing, The Book of Tobit, is full of
incongruences and obvious errors; it blurs the period of the Jews being exiled
by the Assyrians, it confuses the names of the Assyrian kings, and it distorts
geographical distances... It is no coincidence then that only Catholics consider
it a book inspired by God, as they do for all the other texts of the Bible. But,
since Catholics consider it inspired by God, we want to quote some of the
features describing an “angel” of God, namely the messenger (àgghelos) who
accompanies Young Tobias (Tobit) during his journey to Media.
Lacking the Hebrew or Aramaic versions we cannot show the usual literal
translation, so we just quote the passages about the angel's characteristics and
behavior.
This messenger of God is called Raphael, whose name in Hebrew, Refaèl (WA
`f), meaning “El (god) has healed”. He himself claims (Tb 12:15) to be one of
the seven angels who have the opportunity to be directly before “god.” To
accompany Tobias on his journey to Rages, however, he uses a different name
and chooses to be identified as Azariah, son of Ananias.
Let's examine the extracts that concern him, in which this messenger:
Tells Tobias to be an Israelite in search of work (5:5)
Claims to be able to guide him on his trip because he has been to Media
several times, has crossed plains and mountains and, therefore, knows all
roads (5-6:10)
Agrees to accompany Tobias and receives a compensation of one
drachma per day (5:15)
Says that the journey is safe and they will return safe and sound (5:17)
At the Tigris River he tells Tobias to catch a fish that had bitten the boy's
foot and teaches him to use the gall, heart and liver as drugs to treat
seizures and eye diseases (6:4-9)
Is responsible for procuring a girl for Tobias to marry and organizes the
wedding (6:10 et seq.)
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