The Narrow Path Ministries

Hi all. I was browsing through the internet doing some research for a book I'm writing on ancient Egypt, and I came across a web site with some very interesting articles on it. A lot of the articles I'm not sure about, but I found one particular article on Job that really got me thinking.

Here it is:

http://www.specialtyinterests.net/jobtobias.html

I know that articles generally aren't posted on this forum so I won't include the whole article here, but I'm curious to get some opinions on this. What do y'all think?

Damon

very interesting read

he seems to have a pretty strong case

Well, Damon, I spent the whole morning avoiding chores by first reading the Book of Tobit and then the article you linked. Both were very interesting! Thanks for the link, and the excuse for not vacuuming my living room. I agree with Mattrose that Damien Mackey makes a strong case.

You know what the scary thing is? I think I agree with him too, but some of the other articles he's written are way off the deep end.

Still, it's given me quite a few things to consider when trying to understand the book of Job from the perspective of going through a difficult trial...

Damon

How does it change your approach to the book of Job? Does it make Job seem more like a real person?

A while back, I'd posted in another thread about a close friend of mine who is presently going through a disaster situation to the point where they're losing their faith in God. Now, this same friend had literally had an angel appear to them at one point, long before their present situation came about. They had also had Jesus bodily appear to them (in other words, it wasn't a vision and they weren't dreaming it) three times over the years!

What's freaking me out is that if Job is the same as Tobias, then Job also had angelic intervention in his life, prior to his own disaster situation. In other words, there's somewhat of a biblical precedent for what my friend is going through: faith that was rock-solid because God had directly intervened in their early life coupled with trials of unimaginable magnitude later on in life.

Okay, God, now you're really scaring me. Sh*t...

Damon
PS. I finished reading through the book of Tobit and I'm positive that at the very least, most of the story is pure fiction. There may very likely be a kernel of truth behind the story, but it's hard to be sure.

Some elements that make me believe it's fictitious:

1. First, second and third tithe are mentioned in Tobit 1:6-8. It wasn't until long after the return from Babylonian exile that Jewish tradition explained the tithing ordinances as three separate tithes instead of three different uses of a single tithe.

2. The "useful medicines" made out of parts of the fish that Tobias caught in Tobit 6:2-9.

3. Raphael's assertion that angels don't eat food in Tobit 12:19 is also a late Jewish interpretation.

4. It was a later interpretation that the second Temple was considered to be deficient, and so the Jews expected that it would eventually be destroyed and that a third Temple would be built just before the coming of the Messiah. This is mentioned in Tobit 14:5.

What the Jews probably did was either write or elaborate on this story in order to give the appearance of legitimacy and ancient authority to beliefs such as the ones I mentioned above. This was typical of the Jewish literature of the centuries before Christ came.

So, all that tying Tobias to Job could just be an interesting exercise and nothing more. Does that put you back to where you started with regards to your friend's problems?

Yes, probably an interesting premise and nothing more. And yes, that puts me almost right back at the beginning, although not quite...

Damon