The Book Of Tobit (Apocrypha)

Tobit, also called The Book Of Tobias, apocryphal work (noncanonical for Jews and Protestants) that found its way into the Roman Catholic canon via the Septuagint. A religious folktale and a Judaicized version of the story of the grateful dead, it relates how Tobit, a pious Jew exiled to Nineveh in Assyria, observed the precepts of Hebrew Law by giving alms and by burying the dead. In spite of his good works, Tobit was struck blind.

The book is primarily concerned with the problem of reconciling evil in the world with divine justice. Tobit and Sarah are pious Jews unaccountably afflicted by malevolent forces, but their faith is finally rewarded, and God is vindicated as both just and omnipotent. Other major themes are the need for Jews living outside Palestine to observe religious law strictly and the promise of the restoration of Israel as a nation.