Geoffrey D. Miller, «Canonicity and Gender Roles: Tobit and Judith as Test Cases», Vol. 97 (2016) 199-221
Clues from rabbinic literature suggest that several factors were at play in establishing the early Jewish canon, including the dating, theology, and language of disputed texts. Another vital yet overlooked criterion is adherence to patriarchy, and a careful analysis of the Books of Judith and Tobit illustrates how these texts failed to meet rabbinic standards for gender roles. Most notably, the countercultural figures of Judith and Anna would have scandalized the rabbis by their encroachment on traditionally male spheres of activity, their freedom of movement inside and outside the home, and their ability to chastise male characters without repercussions.
216 GeoFFreY d. MILLer
becomes “the Bible’s first working mother” 47, and she is so proficient
at her job that she earns a bonus on top of her salary, undercutting
several patriarchal stereotypes in the process. As a woman, Anna pos-
sesses a skill that proves advantageous in the local economy, takes the
initiative to find employment on her own, risks ignominy as a female
entering the workforce, manages to support her family as the lone
wage earner, successfully ventures into a network of relationships that
extends beyond the confines of the home, and receives accolades from
her (presumably) male employers.
The shift in family dynamics leaves Tobit feeling helpless, and his
ensuing quarrel with Anna only marginalizes him further. In narrating
the scene, Tobit explains that the goat given to Anna was a bonus for
a job well done, but, as a character in the scene, he cannot share his
wife’s joy but tries to diminish her sense of accomplishment. He pet-
tily accuses her of stealing the goat and demands that she return it to
its rightful owner. Anna calmly explains that her employers gave
her the goat as a bonus, but Tobit refuses to believe her and becomes
flush with anger, insisting that she return the animal. The personality
traits exhibited here by the two spouses are the reverse of what rab-
binic literature suggests. As noted above, Genesis Rabbah castigates
women as lazy and jealous, but the Book of Tobit shows Anna to be
industrious, while her husband is the jealous one.
Anna’s newfound success as the family’s breadwinner has filled
her with a sense of pride and independence, and she will not stand for
her husband’s baseless accusations. After offering a calm explanation
to his first query, Anna now attacks Tobit with a stinging rejoinder,
“Where are your charitable acts? Where are your righteous deeds?
Look, these things are known about you!” (Tob 2,14). Anna needles
Tobit on a vulnerable point: his righteous deeds have only brought him
blindness and the threat of destitution, and his sullied reputation in the
community is a sore spot for a man proud of his piety (1,3-18). Her
rhetorical questions imply that “either his apparent good works are
false, or he has been betrayed by God” 48. Tobit cannot muster the
courage to respond to Anna’s retort, and any control he exerted over
his wife has now dissipated. He wanted her to give up the goat, but
instead she gave him a piece of her mind, and all Tobit can do now is
turn to the Lord for help.
47
I. NoWeLL, “Tobit”, NIB III, 973-1071, here 1003.
48
I. NoWeLL, The Book of Tobit. Narrative Technique and Theology (Ph.d.
diss.; The Catholic university of America 1983) 133.