INFORMACIÓN GENERAL SOBRE EL SISTEMA DE GOBERNANZA

There are three senses in which the story uses the concept of remem-brance. First, remembrance is associated with positive results. Second, remembrance functions as a motivation for proper behavior. And

5. Other than Tob. 4.1, the object of remembrance is either directly or indirectly related to God. Remembrances that are indirectly related to God include the remembrance of the prophetic word (Tob. 2.6), the divine commandment (Tob. 4.4), divine decree (Tob. 4.12; 6.16) and angelic instruction (Tob. 8.2).

6. See, for instance, H. Eising,‘C<K zƗkhar’, in TDOT, IV, p. 66. B.S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel (SBT, 37; Naperville: A.R. Allenson, 1962), pp. 23-28, notes that the semantic value of NJNOI TLPNBJ in Homeric Greek parallels that of C<K in its Semitic usage, signifying a united process of thought and action. See also A. Verhey, ‘Remember, Remembrance’, in ABD, V, pp. 667-69.

7. In the S version of her prayer, Sarah addresses God as RFF= FMFI NXO (3.11).

Raguel also describes God as FMFI NXO RFP K in the G^I rendering of his statement that God will guide Tobias and Sarah in their marriage (7.11). In his hymn of praise, Tobit characterizes God as the God of righteousness who shows charity (13.6). That God will show mercy is missing in S, perhaps due to a homoioteleuton. The Vetus Latina, however, attests to the claim that God shows mercy in Tob. 13.6, stating ‘Qui scit, si velit vos, ut faciat vobiscum misericordiam?’

8. This is why Tobit, who remembers God, describes himself as acting in truth, walking in righteousness and performing works of charity. One who remembers God lives his life by acting in imitatio Dei.

¿nally, remembrance is shown in the practice of righteousness and the doing of what is true, speci¿ed as acts of charity. These senses of remembrance are of course interdependent.

a. Remembrance and Divine Favor

Immediately after boasting of his dietary observance, Tobit declares that because of this pious act, God the Most High granted him favor and excellent standing in the court of Shalmaneser. Such a statement reveals Tobit’s conviction that his remembrance of God has resulted in his positive reputation with the king. In the case of his poor and exiled co-religionists who remember God, the favor comes in receiv-ing Tobit’s invitation to a good and celebratory dinner (2.1). In his

¿nal exhortation, Tobit claims that those who remember God in truth will be gathered in Jerusalem (14.7).

In the case of Tobiah, his remembering of his father’s command-ment, speci¿cally the instruction to marry a kinswoman, led to a favorable marriage and huge fortune. His remembrance of Rafael’s instruction on the use of ¿sh heart and liver has resulted in the expul-sion of the demon and the preservation of his own life (8.2-3). Be it God, an instruction or an advice, remembrance is associated with positive outcomes.

When he utters his prayer of despair, Tobit begs God to remember him and to look favorably upon him. Like the psalmist who pleads God to remember his mercy and steadfast love (cf. Pss 24[25].6;

106.4; 119.49), Tobit knows that God’s remembrance implies deliver-ance. Tobit is also aware that in scripture when God remembers, good things happen—just as when God remembered Noah (Gen. 8.1), Abraham (Gen. 19.29), Rachel (30.22), Hannah (1 Sam 1.11) and the Israelites in Egypt (Exod. 2.24). And he also knows that when the people shun forgetfulness of God and his commands, blessings are promised (cf. for instance Deut. 6.12-15; 8.19). As he states at the end of his instruction, many ‘good things’ will come to one who remem-bers (4.5) and fears the Lord (4.21).

Certainly, no better consequence can be had than deliverance from misery. When Rafael reveals that God in his providence has been acting behind the scenes in favor of Tobit and his family, Tobit learns that his prayer and his burial of the dead, which is an emblematic work of charity, constitute the remembrances or the NOINP TVOPO that Rafael brought before the glory of God. In the same way that

sacri-¿cial objects and cultic observances function as reminders of the

Israelites before God, stirring God to remember his covenant relation-ship with them (e.g. Num. 10.10), Tobit’s NOINP TVOPO bears him into God’s presence, prompting God to send Rafael to heal him and his daughter in law Sarah (12.12-13).⁹ In this episode, the impression is that active remembrance of God in prayer and in acts of mercy stirs and brings about divine benevolence.¹⁰

b. Remembrance and Right Behavior

Remembering in the book also serves to determine and motivate proper behavior. This is not surprising since the Hebrew verb C<K signi¿es not only the act of calling something to mind but also that a correct course of action is to be taken as a consequence of remem-bering. To remember is not merely to recollect things and events of the past; it is to allow what is recalled, which has become a present reality, to direct the will and to determine the behavior of the one engaged in remembering. For instance, Joseph’s remembrance of his dreams guides his behavior toward his brothers (cf. Gen. 42.9). In Judg. 9.2-3, the remembrance of the citizens of Schechem that Abimelech is their kinsman inclines their hearts to follow him. In the biblical sense, remembering is thinking leading to action.

This is evident in the book of Tobit as well. When Tobit urges his son to honor his mother, to do what is pleasing to her and not to abandon and grieve her, Tobit tells Tobiah to remember the sorrows she herself suffered for his sake when he was in her womb (4.2-4) as the motivation for taking care of his mother when she becomes a widow. Tobit prompts Tobiah to engage in endogamous marriage by telling him to remember the example of his ancestors Noah, Abraham, and Jacob (4.12). In fact, when Rafael tells Tobiah to remember the commandments of his father regarding the choice of a spouse (6.16), he proceeds to do what is appropriate and expected of him. In these instances, remembering a particular reality functions as a trigger to do what is right; remembering obliges Tobiah to act accordingly.

9. In Tob. 12.14, G^II includes a reference to the testing of Tobit. G^I omits the phrase QFJSB TBJ TF, either because the editor was seemingly uncomfortable with the idea or did not know how to make sense of it. On the subject of Tobit’s testing, see G.D. Miller, ‘Raphael the Liar: Angelic Deceit and Testing in the Book of Tobit’, CBQ (2012), pp. 492-508.

10. In Acts 10.1-7, an angel appears to a pious man named Cornelius whose generous almsgiving and constant prayers have ascended to God as a memorial offering or NOINP TVOPO.

c. Remembrance of God

The third sense is closely related to the second one. Remembering is still a motivation for right action and conduct. This time, however, remembering is connected to the reality of God whose ways are righteous, true and merciful. In consonance with the biblical use of C<K (cf. Deut. 8.18; Num. 15.39-40; Judg. 8.34; Isa. 64.5; Jer. 51.50;

Mal. 4.4; Zech. 10.9; Ps. 78.11), God is also the most frequent object of human remembering in the book of Tobit.

Both of these aspects are evident in the ¿rst instance of remem-bering in the narrative in Tob. 1.11-12. Here Tobit refuses to eat Gentile food while in Nineveh because he remembers God with all his heart.¹¹ This remembrance of God has concrete behavioral results or manifestations not only in terms of observing a kosher diet, but also in terms of performing works of charity. Later, Tobit speci¿es the prac-tical content of his general exhortation to his son to remember God and to suppress every desire to break his commandments (4.5-19).

(1) Remembrance of God in the Narrative. The parallel references to Shalmaneser in Tob. 1.11-12 where Tobit mentions his practice of dietary laws as a sign of remembering God, and in Tob. 1.16-17, where he brings up his works of charity, makes evident the narrative understanding that acts of charity are also acts of remembering God. It is intriguing to note that immediately after referring to the fact that Sennacherib succeeded his father Shalmaneser on the throne upon his death, Tobit stresses that in the days of the same Shalmaneser, he performed numerous benevolent acts toward the hungry, the naked and the dead. That Tobit mentions both his dietary observance and his charitable deeds as he talked about walking in righteousness and in truth while in Nineveh (1.10) in the reign of Shalmaneser gives the impression that, to a large extent, Tobit views his compassionate care for the poor to be acts as religious as the observance of kosher laws, and thus acts that equally demonstrate his remembrance of God.¹² He of course continues to perform acts of mercy in the days of Sennacherib by burying the dead (1.18-19). During the reign of

11. This is an expression that has deuteronomic overtones. For further comments, see n. 25.

12. In a paper entitled ‘Remembering the Exile in the Book of Tobit’, delivered at the 2011 International SBL meeting in London and shared with the author, Professor B. Ego also mentions the ‘religious dimension’ of works of charity and endogamy in Tobit.

Esarhaddon, his doing of FMFINPTV OI consists in sharing his bread with the hungry, inviting the poor of his kinsmen to share a Pentecost meal with him (2.3), and in burying the dead (2.7). It seems that Tobit would not have done these acts, which at times put him at great personal risk, had he not been mindful of God while in exile.

Comparing Tobit’s practices that de¿ne his righteousness in and out of the land (cf. 1.3-4) is also telling. As Tobit reviews his days before his exile, cultic observances govern his relationship to Jerusalem, whereas the carrying out of his sapiential instructions dominates as he turns his gaze to eschatological Jerusalem.¹³ Speci¿cally, when he lived in the land of his fathers as a young man, and had reached the marriageable age there (1.9), he claims to have performed a number of cultic practices including tithing, devotion to the priests and pil-grimages to Jerusalem for festivals.¹⁴ In the land, these pietistic observances constituted Tobit’s righteousness. Outside the land, Tobit mentions that he did many acts of mercy along with observing kosher laws. After he was deported to Nineveh (1.10), works of charity to his needy co-religionists replaced the three tithes he used to offer while in Jerusalem, including the third tenth given to the poor, the widows and the proselytes (1.6-8). These benevolent acts now qualify Tobit’s earlier claim that he has walked in truth and in righteousness all his life, both in and outside his homeland (1.3). That acts of mercy replace Tobit’s former cultic-oriented view of walking in truth further becomes evident when he ethicizes the cultic concept of EXSPO in his wisdom lecture to Tobiah, claiming that charitable deeds and alms-giving are a worthy sacri¿cial offering to God (4.11). The angel Rafael con¿rms Tobit’s view as he too rede¿nes NOINP TVOPO or zikkaron as prayer and works of charity. Zikkaron is of course a term that has cultic associations.¹⁵ Tobit’s memorial offering of prayer and

13. On the textual support for and expectation of an eschatological temple, see B.

Gregory, ‘The Rebuilding of the Temple in the Text of Tobit 13 and Its Implications for 2nd Temple Hermeneutics’, Textus 24 (2009), pp. 153-78.

14. D. Dimant, ‘The Book of Tobit and the Qumran Halakhah’, in D. Dimant and R.G. Kratz (eds.), The Dynamics of Language and Exegesis at Qumran (FAT, 35;

Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), pp. 128-39, claims that Tobit’s religious observances while in the land are halakhah that revolves around Temple offerings of crops culti-vated and livestock raised in the land. These religious duties are also found in Qumran texts.

15. D. Bergant, ‘Memorial, Memory’, in K. Doob Sakenfeld (ed.), The New Inter-preter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009), IV, pp. 32-33,

acts of kindness are then equivalent to the Temple sacri¿ces that rise into the presence of God. Now outside his land, Tobit’s practice of charity de¿nes what makes for his righteousness and therefore his remembrance of God.

(2) Remembrance of God in the Wisdom and Farewell Discourses.

Tobit’s set of instructions in Tobit 4 reinforces the interpretation of charitable deeds as primarily religious acts that are particular signs of remembering God. Tobit begins his sapiential discourse by asking Tobiah to remember God all the days of his life and never to entertain the desire to sin or transgress his laws (4.5). Since this is a customary command,¹⁶ it becomes all the more important to particularize what Tobit means by it. Tobit proceeds to specify the content of this lex generalis by telling Tobiah to practice righteousness and to adhere to and walk in truth (4.6-7), which he later spells out as benevolent care and almsgiving extended to the poverty-stricken (4.8-9, 16-17).¹⁷ He concludes by asking Tobiah to keep these commandments and not to wipe them from his heart (4.19). Remembrance of God on the part of Tobiah implies practical behavior just as remembrance of his mother implies the practical task of taking care of her in old age.¹⁸ In this way, the observance of Tobit’s commandment to perform acts of charity becomes tangible evidence that rati¿es and puts into practice Tobit’s governing instruction to keep God always in mind.

‘To do FMFINPTV OI’ (4.7-8; 12.8, 9; 13.6; 14.2, 8, 9) is an expression that realizes and concretizes the command ‘to do EJLBJPTVOI’ (4.5;

14.8-9).¹⁹ The very Semitic expression ‘to act in BMI RFJB’ (4.6; 13.6b),

notes that the Hebrew zikkaron refers not only to a record or a physical sign that calls to mind the object’s importance, but also to cultic remembrances of God’s saving power in the observances of the Sabbath and pilgrimage festivals such as the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel, pp. 66-70, argues that the cultic meaning of zikkaron predates its non-cultic meanings.

16. See C.A. Moore, Tobit (AB, 40A; New York: Doubleday, 1996), p. 165, and Littman, Tobit, p. 88.

17. See F.M. Macatangay, The Wisdom Instructions in the Book of Tobit (DCLS, 12; Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2011), pp. 80-85.

18. See H. Schüngel-Straumann, Tobit (HthKAt; Freiburg im Bresigau: Herder, 2000), p. 104.

19. See, for instance, P. Deselaers, Das Buch Tobit: Studien zu seiner Entstehung, Komposition und Theologie (OBO, 43; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982), pp. 384-86; H. Engel, ‘Auf zuverlässigen Wegen und in Gerechtigkeit: Religiöses

which in later Judaism carries the meaning of observing the laws and commandments of God,²⁰ is also closely related to, if not synonymous with, the expression ‘to do EJLBJPTV OI’. That they are interdependent terms is evident not only in Tobit’s opening statement (1.3) but also in his farewell discourse in which he exhorts his grandchildren to praise the name of the God of the ages in righteousness (14.7), which he later explains as loving and serving God in truth (14.7-9). To practice righteousness, then, is to do or to walk in truth. To clarify the content of the practice of righteousness, Tobit commands the doing of FMFINPTV OI, which refers to works of charity in general (cf. 1.16-18;

4.16) and almsgiving in particular (cf. 4.7-9).²¹ In short, Tobit views

Ethos in der Diaspora nach dem Buch Tobit’, in G. Braulik, W. Gross and S.

McEvenue (eds.), Biblische Theologie und gesellschaftlicher Wandel (FS N. Loh¿nk;

Freiburg: Herder, 1993), pp. 92-94; M. Oeming, ‘Ethik in der Spätzeit des Alten Testa-ments am Beispiel von Hiob 31 und Tob 4’, in P. Mommer and W. Thiel (eds.), Altes Testament Forschung und Wirkung (FS Henning Graf Reventlow; Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1994), pp. 159-73 (170); B. Ego, Buch Tobit (JSHRZ, 6; Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1999), p. 891. R. Bultmann, ‘FMFINPTVOI’, in TDNT, II, p. 486, claims that Jews who spoke Greek could use EJLBJPTVOI in the sense of FMFINPTVOI as

‘benevolent activity’. The terms FMFINPTVOI and EJLBJPTVOI are quite interchangeable, as seen in how G^I uses these terms with regard to the verb SVPNBJ (deliver, save, rescue). Tob. 4.10 states, FMFINPTVOI FL RBOBUPV SVFUBJ, while Tob. 14.11 states, JEFUF UJ FMFINPTVOI QPJFJ LBJ UJ EJLBJPTVOI SVFUBJ. M. Rabenau, Studien zum Buch Tobit (BZAW, 220; Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1994), pp. 130-31, notes that by the time the grandson of Ben Sira translated his grandfather’s work, 9B54 was rendered as FMFINPTVOI to refer to an ethical human behavior that manifests righteousness, while B54 was translated as EJLBJPTVOI to mean the condition of a person who performs such an act. In his unpublished study of Sir 3.1–4.10, A. Kondracki, La zedaqah che espia i peccati. Studio exegetico di Sir 3,1–4,10 (Rome: Ponti¿cium Institutum Biblicum, 1996), pp. 36-37, makes a similar observation, claiming that 9B54 is certainly in the Hebrew original of Sirach and that it is translated as FMFINPTVOI to designate charitable deeds that arise from a profound sense of mercy.

20. This expression is found also in testamentary literature, such as T. Gad 3.1-2 and T. Jos 11.1. See J.A. Fitzmyer, Tobit (CEJL; Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2003), p. 169;

B.K. Ka-Mungu, Des ténèbres à la lumière. La guérison dans le livre de Tobit (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2008), pp. 99-101.

21. See R. Heiligenthal, ‘Werke der Barmherzigkeit oder Almosen? Zur Bedeutung von FMFINPTVOI’, NovT 25 (1983), pp. 290-91. In P.J. Grif¿n, ‘A Study of EleƝmosynƝ in the Bible with Emphasis Upon Its Meaning and Usage in the Theology of Tobit and Ben Sira’ (M.A. diss., Catholic University of America, 1984), pp. 2-6, 20-63, the author evaluates the use of FMFINPTVOI in Tobit and concludes that the word has four senses: (1) an act of charity (cf. 1.16-17; 2.10; 14.10), (2) almsgiving towards the poor (cf. 4.8; 12.8), (3) a characteristic of a person (cf. 7.7; 9.6; 14.11), and (4) a

such acts of mercy as the concrete manifestation and the practical expression of doing truth and righteousness.

Tobit’s ¿nal words further help elucidate the claim that the doing of righteousness, exempli¿ed in charitable deeds, is an eloquent and active sign of remembering God. Addressing his grandchildren, but also looking beyond them to the reader,²² Tobit commands in 14.8-9:

‘Serve God in truth and do what is pleasing before him. Let your children be directed to do righteousness and to do deeds of charity, in order that they might remember God and bless his name in every time in truth and with all their strength’.²³ In this statement, Tobit asserts that the purpose of the practice of righteousness and the doing of charity and almsgiving is to remember God and to praise his name.

Through acts of charity, those outside the land con¿rm that they remember God. In this sense, Tobit considers the doing of FMFINPTV OI a religious act and duty for those in the Diaspora.

What might be the biblical tradition that served as background and allowed the author of Tobit to interpret remembrance of God in terms of benevolent deeds and almsgiving provided to the deprived? To remember God is of course a deuteronomic concern (cf. Deut. 8.18) and to remember God means to keep his commandments. In Deut-eronomy, the exhortation to remember almost always connects God, his commandments, and the slave status of Israelites in Egypt (5.15;

8.2; 15.15; 16.12; 24.18, 22). Speci¿cally, the positive Mosaic exhortation to remember is often linked to commandments that deal with the poor. The book of Exodus is certainly a witness to the tradition of ethicizing the event of liberation from slavery by using the experience as source and motive for behavior (cf. Exod. 22.20; 23.9).

Deuteronomy follows and expands it.²⁴ For instance, the admonition in Deut. 15.15 to remember the Lord who redeemed Israel from slavery

characteristic of God (cf. 3.2; 13.6). For a discussion of how 9B54 came to mean

characteristic of God (cf. 3.2; 13.6). For a discussion of how 9B54 came to mean