POGLED NA OBITELJ U KNJIZI O TOBIJI
FAMILY IN THE BOOK OF TOBIT

Summary/Abstract: The Book of Tobit is in one way a summary of Jewish traditional religion, where Tobit represents an orthodox Jew in Diaspora. One of the basic components of this book is the praise of marvelousness that appears from the outside to be magic, but that is based on accidental overlapping with some kind of non-historical circle. The way in which Tobit's marriage and family is described is just one of the proofs that the whole of biblical history can be seen as history of the family. Although the Book of Tobit describes just two families, Tobit's and Raguel's, a textual analysis shows that Tobit's family reflects one type of Jewish family. This article presents Tobit's pious life in his native land and in the foreign land as refugee; later on it gives a view of the family in the Book of Tobit. Some of the aspects of the family life described in this book are: a sense for the family; the rules of endogamy and monogamy; relationships between parents and their children; the problem of transmission of a family experience; and the role of woman and man in family life. The Book of Tobit is an artistically created story, but that story is just a sketch of family life, social customs and personal experiences. Although the Book of Tobit is a short book, it contains much wisdom. That wisdom is a key to enter the mystery of life and the key to understand the reality of marriage and family relations.

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