Narration and Comedy in the Book of Tobit

McCracken, David

doi:10.2307/3266260

Cited by 30 publications

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“…This article is not the first to argue for the significance of recognising comedic moments in Tobit. Other scholars have made similar observations (McCracken 1995: 401-418; Portier-Young 2001: 35-54; Lazarus 2014; Gruen 2002: 135-181). In contrast, the focus of this article is on how comedy operates to expose a level of obsessive religious boundary-maintenance and hyper-religiosity as a flawed diaspora survival strategy.…”

Section: Exaggerated Endogamy the Farcical Situations It Creates And ...supporting

confidence: 60%

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Comical moments and comical characterisations in Tobit: The undermining of self-righteous piety, simplistic retribution, and limited Yahwism

Southwood

2022

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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This article argues that comic moments and comic characterisation are used in Tobit as a means of satirically exposing a type of Yahwism characterised by inward-looking piety, religious and ethnic endogamy, and simplistic notions of retribution. Comic moments and comic characterisation, are therefore important ethical devices in Tobit used to expose the problematic nature of an obsessive emphasis on religious boundary maintenance as demonstrated by the extreme version of endogamy that Tobit endorses. The article argues that the theme of “insults” in Tobit, and the distinction between public and private behaviour serves to destabilise the main character’s hyper-religiosity. The article suggests that Tobit’s restrictive form of Yahwism and his overzealous Yahwistic piety are exposed and undermined in Tobit to illustrate for audiences that the deity Yhwh does not operate within a mechanistic moral calculus. The article pays close attention to the significance of the language and translations of Tobit when making this case.

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Section: Exaggerated Endogamy the Farcical Situations It Creates And ...supporting

confidence: 60%

“… 18. As McCracken comments, ‘losing one husband on the wedding night is sad … while losing seven is almost inevitably comic’ (McCracken 1995: 417). …”

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confidence: 99%

Comical moments and comical characterisations in Tobit: The undermining of self-righteous piety, simplistic retribution, and limited Yahwism

Southwood

2022

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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“…7.On the genre of Tobit as a novel see Miller 1990: 9; Auneau 1990: 361; Wills 1995: 88–92; Nickelsburg 2005: 34. David McCracken's argument that Tobit is ‘essentially a comic narrative’ is not very persuasive (see McCracken 1995, here p. 403). See J.R.C.…”

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confidence: 99%

Tangible Prayer in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Moses

2015

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

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Both the Jewish and Christian faiths view prayer as dialogue with the God of Israel. Prayer assumes that God is near to those in need and is attentive to the cries of the saints. Those who pray to God can hope and believe that God will hear or acknowledge their prayers. Yet there exists a tradition in both early Judaism and early Christianity, especially in apocalyptic thought but not exclusive to it, that views prayers as something tangible and, therefore, requiring an intermediary to transport and present before God. This notion of prayer complicates the assumption that God hears all prayers, for according to this tradition the angel bearing the prayers of the saints and/or God's response to the prayers may face obstacles while transporting the prayers to God or God's response to humans.

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Tobit, Book of

Seeman¹

2012

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History

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Narration and Comedy in the Book of Tobit

Cited by 30 publications

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Comical moments and comical characterisations in Tobit: The undermining of self-righteous piety, simplistic retribution, and limited Yahwism

Comical moments and comical characterisations in Tobit: The undermining of self-righteous piety, simplistic retribution, and limited Yahwism

Tangible Prayer in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Tobit, Book of

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