Tobit — Chapter 6

PROFECTUS EST AUTEM TOBIAS ET CANIS SECUTUS EST EUM ET MANSIT PRIMA MANSIONE JUXTA FLUVIUM TIGRIS — The dog followed as family dogs follow their masters. Lapide notes this detail for the narrative continuity: when Tobias returned, his grieving parents recognized from the dog running ahead that their son was coming home (ch. 11:9).

ET ECCE PISCIS IMMANIS EXIVIT AD DEVORANDUM EUM — What kind of fish was this? Lapide rejects: (1) whale/baleen — too large for the Tigris; (2) crocodile (Dionysius) — it palpitated outside water as fish do, not as a crocodile would; (3) pike (Rabbins, George of Venice) — not large or bold enough to attack a man. He concludes with Valesius (Sacra Philos., ch. 43) that it was most probably the callionymus (uranoscopus — \"heaven-gazer\"), a large carnivorous fish with serrated teeth and eyes set on top of its head, extremely voracious and very rich in gall; Pliny (XXXII.7): \"The gall of the callionymus heals scars and consumes superfluous flesh of the eyes; no fish has it more copiously.\" It is called callionymus (\"beautiful name\") because, though ugly in body, it has its eyes on top always looking heavenward — a form more worthy of man than of fish, reminding us of Ovid: \"God gave man an uplifted face and bade him look at heaven.\"

CORDIS EJUS PARTICULAM SI SUPER CARBONES PONAS FUMUS EJUS EXTRICAT OMNE GENUS DAEMONIORUM — Three explanations of how the fish's heart drives away demons by its smoke: (1) by a supernatural virtue given to this fish by God, as holy water has power against demons, and the fire of hell has power to torment them (Valesius, Guillaume de Paris, Dionysius); (2) because the fumigation of a vile thing humiliates the supremely proud demon who flees the contempt — hence exorcists heap indignities on demons and use shameful words against them in the Roman Ritual; (3) Lapide's preferred view (Lyran, Serarius, Pererius, Abulensis): the smoke worked inchoately by natural means — impeding the demon's action through disposition contrary to melancholic humors which demons exploit (as David's music impeded the demon in Saul) — but its completion and real efficacy came from Raphael's angelic and divine power, using the fumigation as a conditional sign. This last is confirmed by the Greek: \"Make a fumigation of the heart and liver of the fish, and at this signal I will fulfill my promise and drive away the demon.\"

ET FEL VALET AD UNGENDOS OCULOS IN QUIBUS FUERIT ALBUGO ET SANABUNTUR — The gall of the callionymus healed the albugo (cataract, membrane) on Tobias's eyes by natural power, aided by Raphael. The blindness was from an external membrane over the eyes, not from extinction of the visual faculty; hence the gall's natural acrimony eroded and removed the membrane, as described in ch. 11:13-15. Pliny (XXXII.7): \"The gall of the callionymus heals scars and consumes superfluous flesh of the eyes; no fish has it more copiously.\" Galen (De simpl. med. X.11) confirms the bile of certain animals including the callionymus \"sharpens the keenness of the eyes and disperses the beginnings of suffusions.\" Allegorically: Tobias illuminating his father with gall prefigures Christ who illuminated the man born blind with his spittle and mud (John 9:6). Tropologically: gall is the bitterness of adversity and tribulation, which opens the eyes of minds blinded by the honey of earthly pleasure to see the ugliness of sin, the horror of hell, the beauty of virtue, and the joys of heaven.

AUDIO QUIA TRADITA EST SEPTEM VIRIS ET MORTUI SUNT...TIMEO ERGO NE FORTE ET MIHI HAEC EVENIANT — Tobias fears lest he too be slain by Asmodeus as the seven previous suitors were. The Greek adds that \"the demon loves her, who harms no one who approaches her except those who come near to her,\" i.e., the people believed Asmodeus killed them out of jealous love. But Lapide rejects the idea that Asmodeus truly loved Sara (since she was most chaste and would have resisted), noting that Tobias speaks from popular belief. Raphael in v.17 gives the true cause: the demon had power over those who took wives in a purely licentious manner, like horses and mules. Demons simulate love only to deceive women into sin; thus Lapide (citing Augustine, De Civitate Dei XV.23) discusses incubi, concluding that while the phenomenon is reported credibly, the demon does not truly desire carnal union but simulates love to draw souls into sin.

ET SUAE LIBIDINI ITA VACENT SICUT EQUUS ET MULUS QUIBUS NON EST INTELLECTUS — The horse is the most salacious of all animals (Aristotle, Hist. anim. VI.22); hence Jeremiah (5:7-8): \"They committed adultery; each one neighed after his neighbor's wife.\" The mule too, though sterile, burns with lust; hence the ancients depicted a mule to represent the licentious (Pierius, Hierogl. 13). The demon Asmodeus has power specifically over those who approach marriage in the manner of horses and mules — enslaved to lust rather than seeking God and offspring.

INCENSO JECORE PISCIS FUGABITUR DAEMONIUM — The demon will be driven away not so much by the fish's liver as by divine and angelic power, on account of Tobias's prayers and merits (as explained at v.8). Augustine (Serm. 4 De Petro et Paulo): \"Christ is that fish who ascended from the river to Tobias; by the assaying of his liver through the Passion the devil was put to flight.\" The liver is the seat of love and concupiscence — fittingly consumed by Christ's Passion. Mystically the three days of prayer before consummation signify the Triduum of Christ's Passion, burial, and Resurrection.

SECUNDA VERO NOCTE IN COPULATIONE SANCTORUM PATRIARCHARUM ADMITTERIS — On the second night you will be admitted to the fellowship of the holy patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the rest, sharing in their merits and holiness, so that as they begot distinguished and holy children from their wives, so shall you from Sara. Raphael commands Tobias to spend the three nights before consummation in prayer with Sara; Lapide earnestly urges Christian spouses to follow this counsel. He cites the Council of Trent (Sess. 24 De Reform. Matrim., ch. 1) which \"exhorts spouses, before they come together, to confess their sins diligently, and to approach the Most Holy Eucharist.\"

AMORE FILIORUM MAGIS QUAM LIBIDINE DUCTUS — The purpose of conjugal union must be the desire for faithful offspring. The three goods of matrimony are: fidelity, offspring, and sacrament (Augustine). Lapide quotes Augustine (De bono conjug. VI) at length: \"Conjugal intercourse for the sake of generation has no fault; that motivated by incontinence but still with a spouse for fidelity of the marriage bed has a venial fault.\" And Fulgentius (Ep. I.3): \"Conjugal intercourse is blameless when motivated not by lust but by the desire of offspring.\" Plato (De legibus IV) agrees: \"Parents ought to beget and educate children who shall pass life on like a torch to posterity.\"