Tobit's Age: A Study in the Biblical Ignorance of Protestants
Fundamentalists who reject the Apocrypha found in the 1611 King James Bible claim there is a historical contradiction in the book of Tobit regarding Tobit's age and lifespan covering some crucial events. As James Rochford from Evidence Unseen argues,
Tobit’s lifespan. Tobit claims to have been alive from the Assyrian conquer (722 BC) to the time of Jeroboam’s revolt (931 BC). Yet Tobit 14:11 (cf. 1:3-5) states that his entire lifespan was only 158 years. Tobit is called "a young man" (Tob. 1:4) when the northern tribes split from the kingdom (922 BC), but he is still alive during the deportation (740-731 BC). This would mean that he was alive for at least 182 years! Yet Tobit 14:2 states, "Tobit died in peace when he was one hundred twelve years old."
(Rochford)
Dr. Gene Kim supplies an additional argument about Tobit's recorded age, "This is not Noah's flood-time. This is during the days when Israel fell." (REALBibleBelievers 9:43-48) The essence of this complaint is that Tobit living to 158 seems a bit too old for this period he lived in. Whereas men in the days of Noah lived to extremely long ages (900s, see Genesis 5), the men of Tobit's time shouldn't have lived as long as Tobit did. Both of these objections to the historical truthfulness of the book of Tobit rely on Biblical ignorance on the part of Fundamentalists.
Before answering these objections, it will benefit the reader to review the scriptures in dispute in Tobit.
3 I Tobit have walked all the days of my life in the way of truth and justice, and I did many almsdeeds to my brethren, and my nation, who came with me to Nineve, into the land of the Assyrians.
4 And when I was in mine own country, in the land of Israel, being but young, all the tribe of Nephthali my father fell from the house of Jerusalem, which was chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, that all the tribes should sacrifice there, where the temple of the habitation of the most High was consecrated and built for all ages.
5 Now all the tribes which together revolted, and the house of my father Nephthali, sacrificed unto the heifer Baal.
Tobit 1:3-5 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
Rochford and the Fundamentalists assume the revolt of the ten Northern tribes described in verses 4-5 is the fall of Israel during the time of Jeroboam I back in 922 B.C. I put it in 975 B.C., per Jones (279). And because Tobit is alive around 200 years later with the Assyrian captivity, this is supposed to contradict his dying at 158.
But unbeknownst to the Fundies, there is a second time the Northern tribes could have revolted against the sacrifices at Jerusalem that fits within the timeframe of Tobit's age. To learn more about this second revolt, we need to back up a bit to the time and prophecy of Amos. In 788 B.C., the prophet Amos preached against the idolatry of the Northern tribes of Israel, who sacrificed to Baal in the high places and not at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.
The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amos 1:1 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
Jeroboam (the second) was a wicked king who did according to the first Jeroboam before him.
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.
24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
2 Kings 14:23-24 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
This "sin" was of promoting Baal worship and offerings in the Northern area of Israel instead of in Jerusalem.
28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
1 Kings 12:28-33 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
Amos, in preaching against Israel, confirms that the Israelites were at this time worshiping Baal in Dan.
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Amos 8:14 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
With that background to the Northern Tribes in 788 B.C., Amos prophesies an earthquake as punishment from God for their idolatry, as well as for their treatment of the poor and of irreverence to the Holy days.
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
Amos 8:8 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
Two years later in 786 B.C. (Jones 279), a great earthquake happened across Israel, so great that people ran wherever they could to escape it.
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
Zechariah 14:5 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
What happened next or the people's reaction is never said in the Bible. However, it is possible that the great earthquake predicted by Amos' preaching temporarily brought the Northern Israelites to repentance, as will happen with some men in the Tribulation.
And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Revelation 11:13 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
The great earthquake of Uzziah was dug up by archeologists to the 8th century B.C. It was a huge one, from what they could find.
 |
| (Austin) |
I'm proposing that due to this prophesied earthquake (in 786 B.C.), the Northern tribes got right with God, quit the false offerings to Baal, and started going back to Jerusalem to make their offerings to Jehovah. But it didn't last long. Just 19 years later (the reason for this date is proven in a bit), Tobit was born in 767 B.C. From 767 B.C. to 740 B.C., Tobit (age 0-27) spends his young life seeing how his tribe has apostatized from sacrificing in Jerusalem and gone back to Baal and sacrificing in the north.
4 And when I was in mine own country, in the land of Israel, being but young, all the tribe of Nephthali my father fell from the house of Jerusalem, which was chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, that all the tribes should sacrifice there, where the temple of the habitation of the most High was consecrated and built for all ages.
5 Now all the tribes which together revolted, and the house of my father Nephthali, sacrificed unto the heifer Baal.
Tobit 1:4-5 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
But Tobit continues to come to Jerusalem alone in his youth, at every holy day the law demanded of him.
But I alone went often to Jerusalem at the feasts, as it was ordained unto all the people of Israel by an everlasting decree, having the firstfruits and tenths of increase, with that which was first shorn; and them gave I at the altar to the priests the children of Aaron.
Tobit 1:6 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
During this time, he also gets a wife, with whom he will later have his son Tobias.
Furthermore, when I was come to the age of a man, I married Anna of mine own kindred, and of her I begat Tobias.
Tobit 1:9 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
After he married his wife, and because the rest of Naphtali was returned to Baal worship, God delivered them to captivity by the Assyrians.
In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
2 Kings 15:29 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
This happens in 740 B.C., per Jones (79). Compare this with Tobit's same account.
1 THE book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, of the seed of Asael, of the tribe of Nephthali;
2 Who in the time of Enemessar king of the Assyrians was led captive out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of that city, which is called properly Nephthali in Galilee above Aser.
Tobit 1:1-2 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
After a while longer, the Assyrian king dies and is replaced by Sennacherib. Sennacherib decides to persecute Tobit. By this point, Tobit has already had Tobias, but Tobias' age is not given here.
15 Now when Enemessar was dead, Sennacherib his son reigned in his stead; whose estate was troubled, that I could not go into Media.16 And in the time of Enemessar I gave many alms to my brethren, and gave my bread to the hungry,17 And my clothes to the naked: and if I saw any of my nation dead, or cast about the walls of Nineve, I buried him.18 And if the king Sennacherib had slain any, when he was come, and fled from Judea, I buried them privily; (for in his wrath he killed many;) but the bodies were not found, when they were sought for of the king.19 And when one of the Ninevites went and complained of me to the king, that I buried them, and hid myself; understanding that I was sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear.20 Then all my goods were forcibly taken away, neither was there any thing left me, beside my wife Anna and my son Tobias.Tobit 1:15-20 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
But shortly thereafter, Sennacherib is murdered by his two sons, agreeing with the Old Testament record and sequence, in 709 B.C. (Jones 279).
And there passed not five and fifty days, before two of his sons killed him, and they fled into the mountains of Ararath; and Sarchedonus his son reigned in his stead; who appointed over his father's accounts, and over all his affairs, Achiacharus my brother Anael's son.
Tobit 1:21 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings 19:36-37 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
At this point in time, Tobit is now 58, and this is when he becomes blind. Counting backward from 709 B.C. 58 years gives us Tobit's birth, which we earlier said was 767 B.C.
And I knew not that there were sparrows in the wall, and mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a whiteness came into mine eyes; and I went to the physicians, but they helped me not: moreover Achiacharus did nourish me, until I went into Elymais.
Tobit 2:10 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
And he was eight and fifty years old when he lost his sight, which was restored to him after eight years: and he gave alms, and he increased in the fear of the Lord God, and praised him.
Tobit 14:2 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
Now, at this point, the first objection to Tobit is answered. Tobit's lifetime can include an apostasy of the ten Northern tribes after Amos and the Assyrian captivity. But let's also see how the timeline of Tobit's life fits with more historical events at the book's end.
Eight years later (as the above scripture says), Tobias, the son, goes on the journey with Raphael that covers most of the book. At that time, Tobias is a young man who gets married. We will set him at age 18. This is now 701 B.C. After the adventure with Tobias and Raphael and Tobit's eyes are healed, the story fast-forwards to Tobit's death at age 158.
Wherefore now, my son, consider what alms doeth, and how righteousness doth deliver. When he had said these things, he gave up the ghost in the bed, being an hundred and eight and fifty years old; and he buried him honourably.
Tobit 14:11 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
This would be 609 B.C. At this time, Tobias, the son (born circa 719 B.C.), is 110 years old. And it's at this time that Tobit reminds Tobias of an unrecorded verbal prophecy of Jonah made over a century before (after the events of Jonah), that Nineveh would be destroyed if they fell away from the Lord and that Media would be a safe place for the godly to flee into.
3 And when he was very aged, he called his son, and the six sons of his son, and said to him, My son, take thy children; for, behold, I am aged, and am ready to depart out of this life.
4 Go into Media, my son, for I surely believe those things which Jonas the prophet spake of Nineve, that it shall be overthrown; and that for a time peace shall rather be in Media; and that our brethren shall lie scattered in the earth from that good land: and Jerusalem shall be desolate, and the house of God in it shall be burned, and shall be desolate for a time;
Tobit 14:3-4 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
[I]t is the most signal contribution of this Chronicle to ancient history that the Fall of Nineveh is now definitely dated in B.C. 612.(Gadd 3-4)
But upon examining the contents of the Babylonian chronicle, it is highly fragmentary and poorly preserved. As Allis from The Princeton Theological Review reported:
Unfortunately the tablet which has been pieced together out of four fragments is not in very good condition. This applies more especially to the reverse. And it is particularly to be regretted that the section (14th year) which treats of the fall of Nineveh is badly mutilated, so badly in fact that it is only an inference, though we believe a justifiable one, that Nineveh fell in that year.(Allis 466)
To see the actual text of the tablet, the relevant section is as follows (and I reproduce it verbatim, including the ellipses and brackets provided by the translator to indicate gaps in the tablet):
38. [In the fourteenth year] the king of Akkad mustered his army...........the men(?) of the king of the Umman-Manda to meet the king of Akkad.
39. ................they met one with the other
40. The king of Akkad...............and [Kyaxa]res..........he made to cross
41. by the bank of the Tigris they marched...............against Ni[neveh].........they.....
42. From the month of Sivan to the month of Ab three battles (?)..................
43. A mighty assault they made upon the city, and in the month of Ab, [the....day the city was captured].......a great [havoc] of the chief [men] was made.
44. At that time Sin-shar-ishkun, king of Assyria............
45. The spoil of the city, a quantity beyond counting, they plundered, and [turned] the city into a mount and a ru[in]..........
46. of Assyria before the king escaped and the forces of the king of Akkad...??............
47. In the month of Elul, the 20th day, Kyaxares and his army returned to his land, and the king of Akkad (turned?) back...............
48. they went as far as the city of Nisibis, and the prisoners and the slaves (?)................
49. and of the land of Rusapu they brought to Nineveh before the face of the king of Akkad. In the month of.............[Ashur-uballit]
50. in the city of Harran sat upon the throne as king of Assyria. Until the month of...........
51. in Nineveh...........from the 20th of the month..........the king..........
52. also in the month of Tisri in the city of...........
(Gadd 39-40)
This is supposed to prove that Nineveh fell in 612 B.C. The tablet's contents are so fragmentary that making heads or tails about what's going on this year is hard. All we know is that king Nabopolassar of Babylon marched against an incompletely-named city ("Ni[neveh]" indicates only the first part of the name survives in the tablet, not even the complete name of Nineveh), and spoiled it. Then money was brought before Nabopolassar in Nineveh. Finally, the next king of Assyria moved the capital to Haran. Nothing in these extant details states or demands the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. Mr. Gadd (the discoverer of the tablet) argues these surviving words are enough proof to establish the fall of Nineveh, as follows:
The very name of their objective appears only in a half-obliterated form upon the tablet, but that this section actually deals with the Fall of Nineveh would be certain even if the name had completely disappeared since (1) the end of Sin-shar-ishkun is expressly indicated, (2) the Babylonian king receives in Nineveh the spoil of Assyrian provinces, and (3) henceforth the kingdom of Assyria and the struggle against it are transferred to the west.
(Gadd 13)
To address point one, the death of the Assyrian king in the same year doesn't prove the capital was destroyed. It just proves the king died that year. How he died doesn't even survive in the tablet. What if he died of natural causes that same year? Would that justify a theory about the fall of Nineveh? We can't know the answers to these questions because the tablet isn't complete. For point two, the Assyrians had previously accepted money from Jewish king Hezekiah to not continue destroying their cities (2 Kings 18:13-16). It's possible that after the unnamed city Nabopolassar took in Assyria fell, the king of Assyria offered bribe money to be presented in Nineveh for Nabo to leave them alone. For point three, there have been other men in history who moved their seat of power without requiring the prior downfall of their capital. For example, when Constantine moved his seat from Rome to Constantinople, Rome was not destroyed. Therefore, none of Mr. Gadd's points from the highly fragmentary contents of the tablet prove Nineveh fell in 612 B.C.
14 And he died at Ecbatane in Media, being an hundred and seven and twenty years old.15 But before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus: and before his death he rejoiced over Nineve.Tobit 14:14-15 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)
Now, seeing how the life of Tobit does indeed include a fall of the ten Northern tribes to Baal and how the rest of his life can include captivity from Assyria and perfectly fit before the fall of Nineveh, what excuse have Protestants anymore in pretending Tobit's life is unhistorical?
The second difficulty about Tobit's age being so long (158) is no more difficult than Nehemiah and Ezra's ages in the Protestant-canonical Old Testament. Jones (246) remarks that, barring two distinct Ezras and Nehemiahs, when you count the years of their lives, Ezra lives to at least 112 and Nehemiah lives to at least 143 (I date their potential ages to be decades longer for various reasons I won't get into here). And this is from the 500s-400s B.C., two centuries after the events of Tobit. If Ezra and Nehemiah could live to such long ages two hundred years after Tobit and Tobias, why can't Tobit and Tobias live just as long by God's providence? If we ought to throw out Tobit for their long ages at death, we ought to also throw out Ezra and Nehemiah from the canon.
In short, the Fundamentalists display their own scriptural ignorance of the 66 books by objecting to Tobit because of his age and lifespan. The King James Bible is always right, including the Apocrypha.
Works Cited
Allis, Oswald T. The Princeton Theological Review: Volume XXII, London: Princeton University Press, 1924, https://books.google.com/books?id=DfLQAAAAMAAJ. Accessed on 3 Nov. 2022;
Austin, Steven A. "The Scientific and Scriptural Impact of Amos' Earthquake." The Institute for Creation Research, 1 Feb. 2010, https://www.icr.org/article/scientific-scriptural-impact-amos-earthquake. Accessed on 3 Nov. 2022.
Gadd, C.J. The Fall of Nineveh. The Newly Discovered Babylonian Chronicle, No. 21,901, in the British Museum. Edited with Transliteration, Translation Notes, etc. Harrison and Sons, LTD, 1923, https://books.google.com/books?id=iIBDAAAAYAAJ. Accessed on 3 Nov. 2022.
Jones, Floyd Nolen. The Chronology of the Old Testament: A Return to the Basics, Master Books, 2019.
REALBibleBelievers. "PT 43- Ridiculous Nonsense in the Apocrypha- Dr. Gene Kim (Berkeley Grad & Doctorate)." YouTube, 27 Mar. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7SJnDmDi4&ab_channel=REALBibleBelievers. Accessed on 3 Nov. 2022.
Rochford, James M. "The Apocrypha." Evidence Unseen, 2022, https://www.evidenceunseen.com/world-religions/roman-catholicism/the-apocrypha/. Accessed on 3 Nov. 2022.
Comments
Post a Comment