Book of Tovit

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Book of Tovit

The Book of Tobit is one of the books of the "apocrypha". The books of the apocrypha are part of the canon of Roman Catholics but not part of the canon of Protestants and Jews. The Book of Tobit is a book which originated in Jewish circles and was adopted into Christian usage. Eventually the book ceased to be used in Jewish circles and was only preserved by Christians in Greek, Latin and Syriac. Of course this reminds us of the books of the New Testament such as Matthew and Hebrews which originated in Jewish circles and were adopted into Christian usage. Like Tobit they ceased to be used in Jewish circles and were only preserved by Christians in Greek, Latin and Syriac.

Five fragmentary copies of Tobit were found at Qumran. Four of these were in Aramaic (4Q196; 4Q197; 4Q198; 4Q199) and one was in Hebrew (4Q200). Before the discovery of copies of the book of Tobit among the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars debated whether the information was originally written in Greek or perhaps a Semitic language (Hebrew or Aramaic). In other words while the Book of Tobit was originally written in Hebrew and was used in Hebrew and Aramaic in Jewish circles, when the Jews ceased to use the book, the Hebrew was "lost" because the Christians only preserved the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions. However the Hebrew of the Book of Tobit was not totally lost. In 1542 Sebastian Munster published the complete Hebrew text of the Book of Tobit.

However until the discovery of the Hebrew of Tobit among the Dead Sea Scrolls there was question as to whether the Hebrew text of Tobit was the original or just a translation from the Greek or Latin. In 1537 Sebastian Munster also published the Hebrew text of Matthew and in 1557 a second edition of Munster's Hebrew Matthew was published which also included the Hebrew text of Hebrews. The "church fathers" do tell us that both Matthew and Hebrews were originally written in Hebrew. We may never make a "Dead Sea Scroll" type of “ancient Nazarene manuscripts.” However, the Hebrew text of Matthew and Hebrews have been preserved for us.