Tobit — Chapter 8

PROTULIT DE CASSIDILI SUO PARTEM JECORIS POSUITQUE EAM SUPER CARBONES VIVOS — \"Cassidile\" is a traveler's wallet (like a small net or helmet) in which wayfarers keep their provisions; \"live coals\" means ardent and flaming coals — fire in its leaping flame appears to live. The Greek is fuller: \"He placed the heart and liver of the fish, and made smoke; and when the demon smelled the odor, he fled to the uttermost parts of Egypt\" (i.e., Upper Thebaid). So it appears from the Greek that the smoke had some physical effect. Lapide explains this was aided by the holiness, merits, blessing, and prayers of both Raphael and Tobias, just as the bell-ringing of a church drives away the demon stirring up storms, not by force of the sound but by the force of the Church's blessing.

ET RELIGAVIT ILLUD IN DESERTO SUPERIORIS AEGYPTI — Three ways Raphael could \"bind\" Asmodeus: (1) commanding him not to move under threat of severe punishment; (2) impressing on the demon a detaining quality or force; (3) most effectively, praying God to withdraw the divine concurrence needed for the demon's local motion — just as demons are bound in hell (Apoc. 20:2) and the four Angels at the Euphrates (Apoc. 9:14). Lapide judges Asmodeus was probably bound for the entire life of Tobias and Sara, for whose sake he was bound. The place chosen — the desolate desert of Upper Egypt (Thebaid) — is fitting: impassable, full of serpents, far from men; here the ancient desert fathers (Antony, Macarius) drove out demons from their territory. Lapide enumerates seven virtues that bind the demon: abstinence; prayer; chastity (he quotes an exorcist who would repeat his vow of chastity when feeling Asmodeus approach); meditation on the Passion; Scripture reading; the Eucharist (\"Let us depart from that table as lions breathing fire, made terrible to the devil\" — Chrysostom, Serm. 61); and almsgiving.

DEPRECEMUR DEUM HODIE ET CRAS ET SECUNDUM CRAS — Three nights of prayer with Sara before consummating the marriage, as Raphael commanded in ch. 6:18-22. Tobias exhorts Sara: \"We are children of saints and cannot be joined together as the Gentiles who know not God.\"

NON LUXURIAE CAUSA ACCIPIO SOROREM MEAM CONJUGEM — Tobias calls Sara \"my sister\" not because she is a blood sister (which would prohibit marriage) but generically as a kinswoman from the same people and tribe — \"sister\" meaning fellow-citizen and fellow-tribesman.

CIRCA PULLORUM CANTUM UT FODERENT SEPULCRUM — At cockcrow (before sunrise) Raguel secretly ordered a grave to be dug, fearing young Tobias might be slain by Asmodeus as the seven previous suitors were; though Raphael had reassured him, he still feared on account of the prior deaths. The rest of this chapter (Sara and Tobias found safe, Raguel's benediction, the feast, the gift of half the goods) Lapide judges plain enough not to require detailed comment.