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Instructions of Angel Raphael to Tobit and Tobiah 1–5. Tobit offers Raphael a reward for Tobiah's service. 6–10. The angel instructs Tobit and Tobias to confess the greatness and good deeds of God, praising prayer and alms. 11–15. Raphael reveals himself to Tobit and Tobiah, declares to them his heavenly nature and his ministry received from God and, in particular, his mission regarding Tobit and Sarah. 16–22. The angel calms the father and son, orders everything that happened to be written down in a book, and then becomes invisible. Tob.12:1 And Tobit called his son Tobiah and said to him: Prepare, my son, the wages of the man who walked with you; he needs to add more. Comrade 12:2 He answered: my father, I will not be at a loss if I give him half of everything that I brought; Comrade 12:3 because he brought me to you healthy and healed my wife, and brought me my silver, and he also healed you. Comrade 12:4 The elder said: This is what he should do. Comrade 12:5 And he called the Angel and said to him: Take half of all that you have brought and go in peace. Comrade 12:6 Then, calling them both separately, the Angel said to them: Bless God, glorify Him, recognize His greatness and confess before all the living what He has done for you. A good deed is to bless God, exalt His name and reverently preach about the works of God; and you are not lazy in glorifying Him. 6. Glorifying the wonderful deeds of God's mercy towards Tobit and his family, for the sake of zeal for the glory of God and the spiritual and moral benefit of their neighbors, was, according to the instructions of the Angel, the duty of Tobit and Tobias, and they, according to his own instructions (v. 20), were to perpetuate the miraculous events that took place in their destinies in writing. Comrade 12:7 It is fitting for a king to keep a secret, but it is commendable to announce the works of God. Do good and evil will not befall you. 7. The meaning of the saying, repeated below (v. 11) and perhaps formerly a proverb, is to figuratively and in antithesis present a moralizing thought about glorifying the wonderful deeds of God. Comrade 12:8 A good deed is prayer with fasting and almsgiving and justice. Better is a little with justice than a lot with unrighteousness; It is better to give alms than to collect gold, Comrade 12:9 For alms delivers from death and can cleanse all sin. Those who do alms and deeds of righteousness will live long. 8–9. The angel's instructions about the virtues: almsgiving, prayer, fasting, justice are of a general biblical nature, are essentially identical with the teaching of the Old and New Testaments about these virtues and do not at all constitute any teaching on the part of the writer of the book of Tobit. It is completely arbitrary for Graetz to assert that the saying of the Angel Raphael that alms (ελεημοσύνη) cleanses or atones for sins (Art. 9, Chapter XII) and that, thus, in addition to sacrifice, there is another means of purification or reconciliation, represents a new teaching, first expressed by the famous Jew Jochanan ben Zakkai after the destruction of the second the Temple of Jerusalem as a consolation for their fellow tribesmen, who lamented the impossibility, due to the lack of a church, of making sacrifices for the atonement of sins (Gratz H. Das Buch Tobias oder Tobit, siene Ursprache, seine Abfassungszeit und Tendanz, 1879, see Prof. Drozdov, pp. 541–542). Similar thoughts and expressions about the conditions for the validity of sacrifices and the preference of good deeds and especially alms over sacrifices are found in many holy, Old Testament books, for example, in the prophet Hosea (Hos. VI: 6) and Isaiah (Is. I:11–13, 16–19), directly about almsgiving (ελεεμοσύνη), as a virtue that cleanses sins, is spoken of in Proverbs. XVI:6, Dan. IV and Sir. III:30. Comrade 12:10 Sinners are the enemies of their own lives. Comrade 12:11 I will not hide anything from you; I have already said: it is proper for a king to keep a secret, but it is commendable to announce the works of God. Comrade 12:12 When you and your daughter-in-law Sarah prayed, I offered up the memory of your prayer before the Holy One, and when you buried the dead, I was also with you. Comrade 12:13 And when you were not lazy to get up and leave your dinner to go and remove the dead, your charity was not hidden from me, but I was with you. Comrade 12:14 And now God has sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah. Comrade 12:15 I am Raphael, one of the seven holy Angels who offer the prayers of the saints and ascend before the glory of the Holy One. 11–15. Now the Angel, hitherto revered by Tobit and Tobias as the man Azariah, reveals to them his true being and dignity. At the same time - according to the general course of development of biblical angelology - first (vv. 12-14) he informs them about his actions in relation to Tobit and Sarah (cf. III: 16-17) - about his earthly mission (vv. 14), and then reveals to them his heavenly dignity, position in the heavenly hierarchy. Having mentioned the hidden, invisible side of the story described in the book of Tobit - that just as the prayer of Tobit and Sarah (III: 2-6, 11-15) was at one time offered by an Angel before the Holy One (cf. Rev. VIII: 3-4), so Tobit’s charity in burying his dead fellow tribesmen (I: 17-19; II: 1-5) was performed in the invisible the assistance of an Angel (vv. 12–13), then about his activities as a heavenly messenger to heal the ailments of Tobit and Sarah (vv. 14). The angel finally declares his true nature to Tobit and Tobiah: “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy Angels who offer the prayer of the saints and ascend before the glory of the Holy One” (v. 15). Instead of the words found in the accepted Greek text of the book: 'oi προσαναφέρουσιν τάς προσευχάς των αγίων - they offer up the prayers of the saints - words apparently transferred to Art. 15th from verse 12th, in the Codex Sinaiticus there are the words: οι παρεσιήκασι, “who stand (by the glory of the Holy)”; likewise in the Vulgate: qui adstamus ante Dominum. The expression “to stand” before someone is taken from the practice or customs of the ancient eastern royal courts and in the Bible is often used both about earthly relations - the standing of the king’s servants before his throne (1 Kings XXII:7; 1 Kings X:8, XII:6, 8), and to express the idea of \u200b\u200bthe heavenly service of angels to God (for example, see 1 Kings XXII:19; Isa. VI:2; Dan. VII:10). Of course, this “presentation” of angels to God must be understood in the completely general meaning of serving their God, which service cannot be limited to the heavenly sphere of existence of angels, but also includes their sending by God to earth for the purpose of saving people. Therefore, the rabbis’ division of angels into those actually “coming” (assistentes) and “serving” (ministrantes) to God is false, of which only the latter could be sent by God into the world, and the first were exclusively present by the glory of God. The Book of Tobit speaks against this assumption: the Angel Raphael, who “stands” before God, is sent by God to earth for the purpose of saving people. The general concept of “standing” or serving angels to God includes, of course, the angels offering up the prayers of people before God, v. 12: the intercession of angels before God for people is assumed both in the Old Testament biblical angelology (see, for example, Job V:1, XXXIII:23; Zech. I:12), and - especially in the New Testament - in the classic place of the Apocalypse ch. VIII, art. 2–4. Therefore, the reading of Art. 15 in accepted Greek. text (“who offer the prayers of the saints”), although it is comparatively less textually attested, it has all the power of internal reliability (cf. A. Glagolev, Old Testament biblical doctrine of angels: pp. 269, 274–275). As for the sevenfold number of angels standing before God, as the book of Tobit speaks about (XII:15), there is no clear evidence of exactly seven angels in the Old Testament canonical writing before the time of captivity. But in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel IX:1-2) there appear seven punitive men, apparently angels (cf. Zech. IV:10), and the Apocalypse more than once speaks of seven spirits or angels standing before the throne of God (Rev. 1:4, 4:5, 8:2, 6). At the same time, the book. Tobit and the book The Apocalypse represents these seven angels as the highest, i.e. archangels. Thus, in its essential features, the angelology of the book. Tobit coincides with biblical angelology in general (cf. Prof. Drozdov, p. 368 and d. A. Glagolev, pp. 408–409). Comrade 12:16 Then both were embarrassed and fell face down on the ground, because they were in fear. Comrade 12:17 But he said to them: Do not be afraid, peace will be with you. Bless God forever. Tov.12:18 For I came not according to my own will, but according to the will of our God; therefore bless Him forever. Comrade 12:19 All the days I was visible to you, but I did not eat or drink - only this was presented to your eyes. 16–19. The description of the impression made by the revelation of the Angel on Tobias and Tobit is quite similar to other biblical tales about how biblical persons received the appearance of angels (for example, Judges VI:22). But here it is only emphasized more clearly (v. 19) that the angels, although during their appearances to people they acted like the people whose image they took, their eating of food was only an apparent action, not accompanied by the transformation of food and drink into blood - an essential process of nutrition. (Hugo Grotius paraphrases the words of the Angel in v. 19 as follows: non vertebantur cibi et potus in meam substantiam). Comrade 12:20 Now therefore glorify God, for I am ascending to Him who sent me, and write all that has happened in a book. Comrade 12:21 And they arose and saw him no more. Comrade 12:22 And they began to tell about the great and wonderful works of God, and how the Angel of the Lord appeared to them. 20–22. According to the commandment of the Angel, Tobit and Tobias verbally confessed the great deeds of God that had happened to them, and recorded these events in writing for the glory of God and for the benefit of their neighbors and posterity.