Day 1: Tobit Chapter 1

So today I begin the Apocrypha. Should gave been yesterday, but, hey.

The first character I meet, Tobit son of Tobiel, is from Galilee, and at once my interest is piqued. Galilee hardly gets a mention in the Old Testament, but is clearly so crucial in the New. It will be fascinating to find out more about the place and its people.
Tobit remained faithful to the Temple in Jerusalem, even though all his neighbours and even the rest of his family worshipped at the alternative site in Dan, which Jeroboam had established, to prevent people keeping their allegiance to the south.
However, we find Tobit not in Galilee, but in Nineveh, where he as been deported by Shalmaneser, the Assyrian emperor. So this dates him to the around the time of the fall of Samaria, in the 700s BC. There his career seems to mirror that of Daniel, later deported by the Babylonians. He insists of eating kosher, and is trusted by the emperor and given high responsibility.
Tobit incurs the emperor’s wrath by being kind to Israelites, specifically by burying them decently after they had been killed (which seems to be a frequent occurrence). But his punishment doesn’t last long, because Shalmaneser dies and a new emperor listens to another Jew (Ahika, Tobit’s nephew) and pardons him.
So, echoes of Daniel. Echoes too of Esther, but Tobit is more explicit about his Jewish faith than she was. The flavour of exile is here. Let’s see how Tobit’s fortunes go tomorrow, under a new emperor.