The Book of Tobit (Catholics Please)?

Question

When Tobit goes to seek his wife Sara he has to bring some fish to expel the demon asmodeous out of her. It's because she had 7 husbands before and each time the jealous demon killed all of her husbands before consummation of marraige. I am just curious why would God permit this demon to kill her husbands? What were they guilty of? Why was the demon in her if she was a good lady? Please let me know.

Answer 1

The text does not tell us why Sarah had attracted the wrath of the demon. In Tobit, as in Job, the suffering of those in the text does not seem merited. Sarah is plagued by a demon. Tobit loses his eyesight because pigeon droppings fall in his eyes. What is more important is that Sarah prayed for help and was helped. God sent Raphael to accompany Tobias on his journey. Raphael defeats the demon so Sarah and Tobias can be wed. Raphael brings medicine from the fish to heal Tobit's eyes.

Demons afflict a number of people in the Gospels, including St. Mary Magdalene. Jesus never implies that anyone who needed healing, including the possessed, had sinned. In fact, when asked about the man born blind, Jesus told his disciples that neither the man nor his parents had sinned. The man's blindness existed so that God could be glorified when Jesus restored his sight.

Why God permits the existence of Satan and his demons is a mystery we do not have an answer for. The reign they have over humanity is temporary. Eventually they will be cast forever into hell and will never again plague humanity.

I hope that answers your question. If not, feel free to e-mail me, OK.

VB8

Answer 2

This(demons causing death) is elsewhere in the Bible. But you now know why Martin Luther decided to leave that one out, based on his own reasoning.

The deuterocanonical books were in the Bible before Luther threw them out in the 16th(!) century.

Many protestants really believe that the Catholic Church added these 7 books(called apocryphal by them) at the council of Trent AFTER Luther.

Here is a picture of the Book of Tobit in the Gutenberg bible, published a century before Luther.

http://www.catholic-forum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=170075

One cannot blame the Catholic church for preserving the Bible both orally and written, even before printing was invented 16 centuries later, while the Jews modified the Bible in places in which the allusion to Jesus or someone like Him was unmistakeable, viz-a-viz, the virgin birth - The "sign" a virgin shall bear a child vs the Jewish no "sign" - young woman(alma) will bear a child (what sign ?), etc, made at the Council of Jamnia in response to Jews leaving enmasse for Christ. if it were not for the Catholics, Martin Luther would have received a book of error in which he would further tinker around and create even greater error.

BTW the Book of Tobit is from the Jewish Old testament (!) well preserved by the Catholic church.

The name apocrypha is applied by Catholics to writings of a religious character, outside the scriptural Canon which, though not inspired, made some pretensions to divine authority or were sometimes considered sacred. Examples of some of these books include the Ethioptic Henoch, Assumption of Moses, and the Apocalypse of Abraham. In the early history of the Church, about forty books were condemned as apocryphal.

To prevent possible misunderstanding it must be remembered that there is a different use of the word in Protestant circles.

During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and those who ultimately followed his example, removed seven books from the Old Testament, following in the same line as what was done to the Torah as it had been edited by the rabbis at the Council of Jamnia (100A.D.).

Protestants then applied the term apocrypha to those books that were removed (now called deuterocanonical by Catholics, as Catholics still hold them to be inspired and canonical). Unfortunately for them, Protestants often include The Prayer of Manassas, 3 and 4 Esdras, and Bell and the Dragon, which only increases confusion in the KJV and its derived Bibles.

Answer 3

The book of Tobit is a fictional story. It was meant to teach a divine truth. God helps those who are faithful to him.

In order to be able to understand a passage of the Bible one must be aware of:
1. In what form it was written, e.g., prose, poetry, history, etc. (Literary Form)
2. Why it was written.
3. When it was written.
4. What is the whole book about?
5. What is the meaning of each word?
How does it fit in with other parts of the Bible on the same subject?

The "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation" (Vat. 11, Ch. 3.11) of the Catholic Church says that "all that the inspired, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to be confided to the sacred Scriptures." This is the Church's teaching on the matter after twenty centuries of Christian discernment.

Biblical inerrancy, then, is the Bible's privilege of never teaching error. Does this mean that every statement in the Bible is divine teaching? Of course not. The Bible does not always teach. There are many statements in its various books that are there for historical, geographical, poetic or other reasons. However, whenever a biblical author intends to teach us something, then the Holy Spirit intends that too. Everything that the Bible teaches is without error, but everything in the Bible is not meant as teaching. Each author was left free by the Lord to express himself according to the ideas of his own day. Exegesis (interpretation) is the science whereby scholars determine the correct interpretation of the text. The Bible is unique, for it is the word of God coming to us in the words of men. Therefore, biblical exegesis demands that we find out what both the human author and the Holy Spirit are trying to say.

True exegesis is Fides quaerens intellectum, which means that faith seeks understanding. So the seeker must approach the Word from the point of faith and love, for the inspired writers communicated the Word in the language of faith and love. To refuse to do this is to have the Bible remain closed to us, even if we can write a literary analysis of every book in it.

The advantages of the Catholic approach are two: First, the inspiration is really proved, not just "felt." Second, the main fact behind the proof—the reality of an infallible, teaching Church—leads one naturally to an answer to the problem that troubled the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:30-31): How is one to know which interpretations are correct? The same Church that authenticates the Bible, that attests to its inspiration, is the authority established by Christ to interpret his word.


Sources:

scborromeo.org
.
Catechism of the Catholic Church

Frances Hogan
Can you trust the Bible?

catholic.com/library

Answer 4

When I gave up all hope I went in my room and said Jesus forgive my sins .I am a sinner.I believe You died on the cross for my sins.Come into my heart Jesus.And Jesus put peace and love in my heart and the knowledge that when I leave earth I will live for all eternity with Him

Answer 5

I think we can now see why this book is not in the Protestant canon.

Answer 6

Thats segregation ATHEISTS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TOO!