- published: 25 Apr 2012
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The Book of Tobit (/ˈtoʊbɪt/; from the Greek: Τωβίθ Tōbith or Τωβίτ Tōbit, itself from Hebrew: טובי Tobi "my good"; Book of Tobias in the Vulgate from the Greek Τωβίας Tōbias, itself from the Hebrew טוביה Tovya "God is good") is a book of scripture that is part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon, pronounced canonical by the Council of Carthage of 397 and confirmed for Roman Catholics by the Council of Trent (1546).
The Book of Tobit is listed in the canon of the Councils of Hippo (393 AD), Carthage (397 AD), and Florence (1442), and is part of the canon of both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Churches, although Roman Catholics often refer to it as deuterocanonical.
Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England lists it as a book of the "Apocrypha".Protestants regard Tobit as apocryphal because it was not included in the Tanakh nor considered canonical by Judaism.
Before the 1952 discovery of Aramaic and Hebrew fragments of Tobit among the Dead Sea Scrolls in Cave IV at Qumran, scholars believed Tobit was not included in the Jewish canon because of late authorship, estimated to be 100 AD. Yet the Qumran fragments, which date from 100 BC to 25 AD, agree with the Greek text existing in three different recensions and evidence a much earlier origin than previously thought. These fragments evidence authorship no later than 2nd Century BC and at least contemporary to the date modern scholars ascribe to the final compilation of the Book of Daniel, which did attain canonical status.