6:1 And Tobias went forward, and the dog followed him and they came in the evening to the river Tigris, and they lodged there.

AMBROSE. What shall I say about dogs who have a natural instinct to show gratitude and to serve as watchful guardians of their masters’ safety Hence Scripture cries out to the ungrateful, the slothful, and the craven: ’Dumb dogs, not able to bark.’ (Is. 56.10) To dogs, therefore, is given the ability to bark in defense of their masters and their homes. Thus you should learn to use your voice for the sake of Christ, when ravening wolves attack His sheepfold. Have the word ready on your lips, lest, like a silent watch-dog, you may appear because of your unfaithfulness to abandon the post entrusted to you. Such a dog was the friend and companion of an angel. Not without reason did Raphael in the prophetic book cause this dog to accompany the son of Tobit when he went on a journey, in order to drive out Asmodeus and thereby confirm the marriage. The demon is driven out as the result of a grateful recognition and the union is stabilized. And so, under the symbolism of a dumb animal, the angel Raphael, as director of the young man Tobias whom he had agreed to protect, was able to arouse sentiments of gratitude in him. Who would not feel shame if he did not return thanks to those who are well deserving of it, when he sees that even beasts shun the sin of ingratitude These animals hold in grateful memory the sustenance they have acquired. Are you not mindful of the salvation you have received [Ambrose of Milan, Hexameron, PL 14.6.17.248A-B]

BEDE. When the Lord came to save the nations, holy preachers followed in his footsteps to fulfill what he commanded: Go and teach all nations. (Matt. 28:19) And so the Lord himself first filled Cornelius’ household with the Holy Spirit and Peter duly baptized them with water. (Acts 10:44-48) Now teachers are here called ‘dogs’ because they defend their Master’s spiritual household, wealth, and sheep from thieves and beasts, that is, from unclean spirits and heretical persons. [Bede the Venerable, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL91.928A}°’ BASIL. And Tobias went forward, and the dog followed him. The dog is not gifted with a share of reason; but with him instinct has the power of reason. The dog has learned by nature the secret of elaborate inferences, which sages of the world, after long years of study, have hardly been able to disentangle. When the dog is on the track of game, if he sees it divide in different directions, he examines these different paths, and speech alone fails him to announce his reasoning. The creature, he says, is gone here or there or in another direction. It is neither here nor there; it is therefore in the third direction. And thus, neglecting the false tracks, he discovers the true one. What more is done by those who, gravely occupied in demonstrating theories, trace lines upon the dust and reject two propositions to show that the third is the true one Does not the gratitude of the dog shame all who are ungrateful to their benefactors Many are said to have fallen dead by their murdered masters in lonely places. Others, when a crime has just been committed, have led those who were searching for the murderers, and have caused the criminals to be brought to justice. [Basil the Great, Hexameron Homily 9.4 NPNF s.2 v.8]

6:2 And when the young man went down to wash himself, a fish leaped out of the river, and would have devoured him.

AUGUSTINE. That fish which came alive out of the river to Tobias, whose heart, liver, consumed by passion, put the demon to flight, was Christ, and by the bitterness of the gall, the blind man was healed, and the world was restored. [Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 40n Peterand Paul]

OPTATUS. But I do not know if it came with that fish, which is understood as Christ, which in the recitation of the patriarchal narratives is said to have been caught in the Tigris, whose gallbladder and liver Tobias took to guard the woman Sara and to bring light to the blindness of Tobit; by the insides of the same fish the demon Asmodeus was driven away from the girl Sara, who is understood as the Church, and blindness was expelled from Tobias. This is the fish, which baptism is introduced into the waves of the font, so that what was water may also be called a fish pool because of the fish. [Optatus of Mileve, De schismate Donatistarum, PL 11.3.2.991A}°8

BEDE. Here again the mystery of the Lord’s suffering is plainly signified. For the huge fish that Tobias killed at the angel’s prompting, after it tried to devour him, signifies the ancient devourer of humankind, namely the devil, whom the divine power snared while the devil was eagerly anticipating the death of the flesh in our Redeemer. The river Tigris, which owing to its rapid course takes its name from the tiger, the swiftest beast, indicates the downward course of our death and mortality. In it the enormous fish lay hidden because humanity’s invisible seducer had power over death. (Heb. 2:14) Tobias remained at the flowing Tigris because when the Lord appeared in the world, he led his life among sinners and mortals, yet the water of sin did not touch him nor did the prince of darkness find anything of his own in the Lord when he came near. And just as Tobias went out to the river to wash his feet, so the Lord accepted death, to which he owed no debt, so that he might wash all the faithful (that is, his own members) from death’s and sin’s pollution. The fish fell upon Tobias and wanted to devour him; when the Lord suffered on the cross, the devil, who had instructed that he be crucified-came hoping by chance to find some wickedness in his soul. [Bede the Venerable, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL 91.928B]*

6:3 Then the angel said unto him, Take the fish. And the young man laid hold of the fish, and drew it to land.

BEDE. Terrified of the fish, Tobias cried out in a loud voice saying, ‘Sir, it is coming upon me.’ So also, when the point of death drew near, the Lord began to fear and grow weary. (Mk. 14:33) He feared not the devil, but did shudder at death, which entered the whole world through the devil’s envy through the natural weakness of the flesh. [Bede the Venerable, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL 91.928B]*°

6:4 To whom the angel said, Open the fish, and take the heart and the liver and the gall, and put them up safely.

BEDE. Now he grabbed his gill so that he might cut off that most vile head from the trapped body with the right hand of his power; that is, so that the loving Redeemer might both sever the ancient enemy’s wickedness from the heart of those whom he had wickedly united to himself-and had made as though they were one body with him-and engraft these into the body of his own Church. For a fish has its gill where its head and body meet. Now just as our Lord is the head of his Church, and the Church is truly his body, so too is the devil head of all the wicked and they are all his body, his members. So the Lord grabbed that monstrous fish’s gill, drew the fish to himself, and delivered and confidently uprooted those whom he foreknew to be sons of light from the power of darkness.

BEDE. Now when he had done this, it says, the fish began to pant at his feet on the shore. When the Lord overcame the wicked enemy’s iniquity, brought it into the light, and made it apparent to all, the devil still struggled pridefully to stir up persecution among the Lord’s elect. [Bede the Venerable, Allegorca interpretatio in Tobiam PL91.928D]“

6:5 So the young man did as the angel commanded him; and when they had roasted the fish, they did eat it: then they both went on their way, till they drew near to Ecbatane.

BEDE. The Lord disemboweled the fish when he plainly revealed the devil’s wickedness to the saints and cut out the secrets, as it were, of his snares. He set aside for himself his heart because he wanted to point out to the saints, from Scripture, the devil’s cunning, about which it says, Now the serpent was more cunning than all the creatures of the earth. (Gen. 3:1) Of that heart Paul also said, For we are not ignorant of its designs. (2 Cor. 2:11) He set aside even his gall-bladder because, on account of his zeal for caution, he wanted it to be written and remembered with how much malicious frenzy the devil rages against humankind. He also set aside the liver because he deigned to show us through teachers of truth the seasoned male violence of Satan’s cogitations against us. For they say that the liver’s heat and secret strength boil down foods that have been swallowed so that they can be digested. For when by careful meditation we truly inquire about in which those things that we determine to do should be completed, we boil them down, just as we, using the liver’s heat, boil down foods taken into the stomach. [Bede the Venerable, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL91.929A]*

6:6 Then the young man said to the angel, Brother Azarias, to what use is the heart and the liver and the gal of the fish 7 And he said unto him, Touching the heart and the liver, if a devil or an evil spirit trouble any, we must make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and the party shall be no more vexed. 8 As for the gall, it is good to anoint a man that has whiteness in his eyes, and he shall be healed. 9 And when they were come near to Rages,

AUGUSTINE. Now demons are attracted to dwell in certain temples by means of the creatures (God’s creatures, not theirs), who present to them what suits their various tastes. They are attracted not by food like animals, but, like spirits, by such symbols as suit their taste, various kinds of stones, woods, plants, animals, songs, rites. [Augustine of Hippo, City of God, 21.6 s.1 v.2]

6:10 The angel said to the young man, Brother, today we shall lodge with Raguel, who is your cousin; he also has one only daughter, named Sara; I will speak for her, that she may be given to you for a wife. 11 For to you does the right of her appertain, seeing you only are of her kindred. 12 And the maid is fair and wise: now therefore hear me, and I will speak to her father; and when we return from Rages we will celebrate the marriage: for I know that Raguel cannot marry her to another according to the law of Moses, but he shall be guilty of death, because the right of inheritance does rather appertain to you than to any other.

CYPRIAN. Marriage is not to be contracted with Gentiles. In Tobit: “Take a wife from the seed of your parents, and take not a strange woman who is not of the tribe of your parents.” Also in Genesis, Abraham sends his servant to take from his seed Rebecca, for his son Isaac. Also in Esdras, it was not sufficient for God when the Jews were laid waste, unless they forsook their foreign wives, with the children also whom they had begotten of them. Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “The woman is bound so long as her husband lives; but if he die, she is freed to marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be happier if she abide thus.” And again: “Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot Far be it from me. Or do you not know that he who is joined together with an harlot is one body For two shall be in one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Also in the second to the Corinthians: “Be not joined together with unbelievers. For what participation is there between righteousness and unrighteousness Or what communication has light with darkness?” Also concerning Solomon in the third book of Kings: “And foreign wives turned away his heart after their gods.” [Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise 13.3.62 ANF v.5]

BEDE. The angel suggested that upon entering Raguel’s house Tobit ask for Raguel’s daughter Sara to be his wife. Raguel signifies the Gentiles, whom the Lord deigned to visit through his preachers so that he might take a bride from its stock for himself, that is, so that he might make heathendom itself be his Church. Even the name ‘Sara’ corresponds to the Church on account of the Sara who-as wife of Abraham the patriarch-bore Isaac, son of the promise, that is, the free people of the Church. Now the name ‘Raguel’, which can be translated as ‘God is their food’ or ‘God is their friend,’ designates that people who, when the devil’s deceit had been conquered, bound themselves and their own to the Lord’s fellowship and learned to say, The Lord feeds me, I shall not want, and deserves to hear, Now I shall not call you servants, but my friends. (Ps. 23:1) [Bede the Venerable, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL 91.929C -D]*

6:13 Then the young man answered the angel, I have heard, brother Azarias that this maid has been given to seven men, who all died in the marriage chamber. 14 And now I am the only son of my father, and I am afraid, lest if I go in unto her, I die, as the other before: for a wicked spirit loves her, which hurts no body, but those which come unto her; wherefore I also fear lest I die, and bring my father’s and my mother’s life because of me to the grave with sorrow: for they have no other son to bury them. 15 Then the angel said unto him, Do you not remember the precepts which your father gave you, that you should marry a wife of your own kindred wherefore hear me, O my brother; for she shall be given you to wife; and make you no reckoning of the evil spirit; for this same night shall she be given you in marriage. 16 And when you shall come into the marriage chamber, you shall take the ashes of perfume, and shall lay upon them some of the heart and liver of the fish, and shall make a smoke with it: 17 And the devil shall smell it, and flee away, and never come again any more: but when you shall come to her, rise up both of you, and pray to God which is merciful, who will have pity on you, and save you: fear not, for she is appointed unto you from the beginning; and you shall preserve her, and she shall go with you. Moreover I suppose that she shall bear you children. Now when Tobias had heard these things, he loved her, and his heart was effectually joined to her.

PROSPER. That the design of the divine election does not do away with attention to prayer, I shall prove with evidence from one text, omitting all others for the sake of briefness. In the book of Tobit the angel Raphael says to Tobias, the son: Remember the commandments of your father, that he ordered you to take a wife from the family of your father. And now, hear me, brother, do not take into account that devil; but ask for her. And know that she will be given you for wife this night. And when you shall enter into the chamber, take of the liver of that fish, and put it on the coals: a smell will spread, and the devil shall smell it, and he will be driven away, and he shall never anymore make his appearance about her. And when you shall begin to desire to be with her, first rise both, and pray the Lord of heaven, that mercy and health be given you. And do not fear, for she was destined for you before the centuries, and you shall heal. Therefore, although it is impossible that God’s decree would not come true, yet it does not do away with the practice of prayer, nor does the design of the election diminish the effort of man’s free will. God rather preordained the effect He intended in such a way that He desires man’s merit to grow through the labor of good works, through perseverance in supplications, through the practice of virtues. He wants to crown the good works of men not only according to His own plan but also according to their merits. [Prosper of Aquitaine, De vocatione omnium gentium, PL 51.2.36.721A]“