Feeding the Dead? The Superiority of the KJV in Tobit 4:17

"1973 Relatives" by manhhai is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In Tobit 4:17, there is a significant difference between the different versions of the Apocrypha. Whereas the King James text presents no doctrinal issue, other Bible versions promote a pagan practice and philosophy condemned elsewhere in scripture. This demonstrates the doctrinal superiority of the A.V. 1611 translation of the Apocrypha above more modern versions.

Pour out thy bread on the burial of the just, but give nothing to the wicked.

Tobit 4:17 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

“Place your bread and wine on the tombs of the righteous, but don’t give anything to sinners.

Tobit 4:17 Common English Bible (2011)

Pour out your wine and your bread on the grave of the righteous, but do not share them with sinners.

Tobit 4:17 New American Bible (2010)

Place your bread on the grave of the righteous, but give none to sinners.

Tobit 4:17 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (1993)

The practice of putting bread on "the grave" of the dead is spoken of as vain elsewhere in the Apocrypha.

Delicates poured upon a mouth shut up are as messes of meat set upon a grave.

Ecclesiasticus 30:18 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

Furthermore, the practice of putting food on a grave was a pagan practice, done so that the immortal souls of the dead wouldn't get hungry in the afterlife. Describing ancient Mesopotamian religion, Wicks remarks:

The ghost still possessed the very human need for food and drink and it was the responsibility of the dead person's family, most particularly the inheritor(s), to provide it with water and daily kipsu food offerings (from the verb kasāpu meaning 'to break in small pieces').

(Wicks 87)

It would seem on the surface, then, that the book of Tobit is promoting a vain, pagan practice. But this is the fault of modern versions of the Apocrypha. The King James text promotes no such custom, as it does not command to place bread on "the grave," but rather, "the burial of the just." The word "burial," as used here, refers to the day or funeral event of one's burial, not the actual grave itself. This is how the word is used elsewhere in the Bible, according to the following parallel passages in the Gospels:

For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

Matthew 26:12 A.V. 1611 (PCE)

Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

John 12:7 A.V. 1611 (PCE)

Therefore, in the King James text, Tobit 4:17 is not commanding any pagan practice of putting bread on a dead man's grave. It is rather commanding to abundantly ("Pour out") give bread to the dead relatives of the righteous on the day of his burying. But if there is a wicked man at the just's burial, nothing should be given to him ("but give nothing to the wicked"). That the King James text correctly puts "burial" instead of "grave" is solid proof of the superiority of the A.V. 1611 against other translations of the Apocrypha. The King James Bible is always right, including the Apocrypha.

Works Cited

Common English Bible. Bible Gateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tobit+4&version=CEB. Accessed on 18 Nov. 2022.

manhhai. “1973 Relatives Place Offerings of Food and Drink on a Grave in the National Military Cemetery at Bien Hoa.” Flickr, 21 Dec. 2015, https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/23255263303. Accessed on 18 Nov. 2022.

New American Bible (Revised Edition). Bible Gateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tobit+4&version=NABRE. Accessed on 18 Nov. 2022.

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. Bible Gateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tobit+4&version=RSVCE. Accessed on 18 Nov. 2022.

Wicks, Yasmina. Bronze 'Bathtub' Coffins: In the Context of 8th-6th Century BC Babylonian, Assyrian, and Elamite Funerary Practices, Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing LTD, 2015.