Francis M. Macatanguay, «Mistos and Irony in the Book of Tobit»
The deuterocanonical Book of Tobit is a delightful story that employs ironic flourishes in its narrative. The word mistos which literally means 'wages' and figuratively connotes 'reward' appears frequently in the story. It is argued that the narrative use of the word participates in dramatic irony. As a rhetorical strategy, the irony addresses the limitations of the title character’s espousal of the traditional typology for reward and punishment.
06_Biblica_AM_MacAgantay_Layout 1 16/12/13 12:28 Pagina 576
Μισθός and Irony in the Book of Tobit
The Book of Tobit is a narrative that brims with irony. The dramatic
situation and conflict that propel the story are ironic 1. Tobit, though faithful
and Torah-abiding, suffers from blindness and poverty. The disparity be-
tween the reader’s knowledge and that of the characters, known as dra-
matic irony, occurs when the reader knows early on that Tobit and his
family will come to a good end before the characters do. A similar instance
of dramatic irony is evident in the episode involving Raguel’s orders to dig
a grave to prevent the news of another dead bridegroom as the newly wed-
ded couple sleeps soundly in their chamber. Structural irony arises when
Tobit leaves behind a good Pentecost meal with an empty stomach only to
have his body invaded later by an avian discharge of digested products 2.
Certainly, irony drives the character of Raphael, with his disguised identity
and understatements. Finally, the instructions of Tobit ring with irony when
read against the story 3. For instance, Tobit’s counsel to practice righteous-
ness and truth so that his son’s ways would succeed (4,6-7) is a brave and
astonishing instruction by one whose experience has so far shown that the
former does not inevitably lead to the latter. Tobit also persuades Tobias
against fretting over any financial insecurity, telling his son not to fear
poverty, for good things await those who fear God and do good deeds
1
Irene Nowell has investigated irony in the Book of Tobit in her disser-
tation The Book of Tobit. Narrative Technique and Theology (Washington,
DC 1983) 192-200. See also her “Irony in the Book of Tobitâ€, TBT 33 (1995)
79-83. See also B.K. KA-MUNGU, Des ténèbres à la lumière. La guérison dans
le livre de Tobit (Publications Universitaires Européennes 862; Frankfurt am
Main 2008) 82-85. M.D. KIEL, “Tobit’s Theological Blindnessâ€, CBQ 73
(2011) 288, notes that Tobit’s blindness ironically includes his theological
mis/understanding of his situation.
2
See A.-J. LEVINE, “Diaspora as Metaphor: Bodies and Boundaries in the
Book of Tobitâ€, Diaspora Jews and Judaism. Essays in Honor of, and in Di-
alogue with A. Thomas Kraabel (eds. J.A. OVERMAN – R.S. MACLENNAN)
(South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 41; Atlanta, GA 1992) 114.
3
L. WILLS, The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World (Myth and Poetics;
Ithaca, NY 1995) 89, claims that Tobit’s instructions on burial and on the re-
wards of the righteous in GI stress “ironic contrasts with the narrativeâ€. B.
EGO, Buch Tobit (JSHRZ 6; Gütersloh 1999) 893, also notes the ironic appli-
cation of the instructions to the story. For further illustrations of irony in the
wisdom speech of Tobit, see F.M. MACATANGAY, Wisdom Instructions in the
Book of Tobit (DCLS 12; Berlin 2011) 260-261.
BIBLICA 94.4 (2013) 576-584