Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink
A Commentary
Published on 22. November 2018
Book
Hardback
296 pages
978-90-04-38244-2 (ISBN)
Description
In Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink, Naomi S.S. Jacobs explores how the numerous references to food, drink, and their consumption within The Book of Tobit help tell its story, promote righteous deeds and encourage resistance against a hostile dominant culture.
Jacobs' commentary includes up-to-date analyses of issues of translation, text-criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, and issues of class and gender. Jacobs situates Tobit within a wide range of ancient writings sacred to Jews and Christians as well as writings and customs from the Ancient Near East, Ugarit, Greece, Rome, including a treasure trove of information about ancient foodways and medicine.
Jacobs' commentary includes up-to-date analyses of issues of translation, text-criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, and issues of class and gender. Jacobs situates Tobit within a wide range of ancient writings sacred to Jews and Christians as well as writings and customs from the Ancient Near East, Ugarit, Greece, Rome, including a treasure trove of information about ancient foodways and medicine.
Reviews / Votes
"De lectura sencilla, agradable y sorprendente en algunos casos, esta obra se convertira, sin duda, en un punto de referencia para los estudiosos del libro de Tob no solo en cuanto a su tratamiento de la comida y bebida, sino tambien a nivel de critica textual y redaccional."Emilio Lopez Navas, Gregorianum 2021
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Annotated edition
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-38244-2 (9789004382442)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Naomi S.S. Jacobs Ph.D (2007), Durham University, has written extensively on Tobit, including for The Jewish Annotated Apocrypha (Oxford, 2018), "Scribal Innovation in the Book of Tobit: A Long Overdue Discussion" and "What About the Dog?: Tobit's Mysterious Canine Revisited."
Content
Preface
Abbreviations and Sigla
Introduction
Background Issues for This Study
?1?Storyline and Major Themes of Tobit
?2?The Texts of Tobit
?3?Possible Sources Utilised by the Book of Tobit
?4?Questions of Redaction
?5?Date and Provenance
?6?Class, Gender and Wealth
?7?Tobit, Hybridity and Resistance
?8?How This Commentary is Organized
1 Walking in the Ways of Righteousness: Food and Eating in Tobit's Testimonial (Tob. 1)
?1?Tithes and First Fruits (1:6-8)
?2?Gentile Food (1:10-11)
?3?Food to the Hungry (1:17)
?4?Conclusion
2 'The Table Was Set Before Me': Tobit's Shavuot Meal, Its Aftermath and the Parallel Woes of Sarah (Tob. 2-3)
?1?The Shavuot Meal (2:1-7)
?2?Blinding by Bird Droppings (2:9-10)
?3?Ahiqar's Help (2:10)
?4?Hannah's Help and the Goat (2:11-14)
?5?No Food in 3:1-17
?6?Conclusion
3 'Live Uprightly All the Days of Your Life': Food and Drink in Tobit's Testament and the Preparations for Tobiah's Journey (Tob. 4-5)
?1?Overall Issues Important for Exegesis of Chapter 4
?2?Hunger (or Famine) as Punishment (4:13)
?3?Binge Drinking and Drunkenness (4:15)
?4?Food to the Hungry (4:16)
?5?Consumable Substance(s) on the Graves of the Righteous (4:17)
?6?Preparations for the Journey (5:17)
?7?Conclusion
4 'Leaping Up from the Water, a Great Fish': An Eat-or-Be Eaten Struggle and the Acquisition of Medicinal Fish Organs (Tob. 6 and Its Echoes in 8 and 11)
?1?Tobit and the Hungry Fish (6:2-6)
?2?Medicinal Organs (6, 8, 11)
?3?Harvest (6:5-6)
?4?Heart and Liver (6:7-8, 17-18; 8:2-4)
?5?Gall (6:9; 11:4-8, 11-14)
?6?Conclusion
5 'I Will neither Eat nor Drink Here until You Resolve the Things Concerning Me': Food and Wedding Celebrations (Tob. 7-9 and Elsewhere)
?1?A Proposed Wedding Celebration (6:13)
?2?Wedding-Linked Meals in Ecbatana (7:9-14; 8:1, 8:19-20; 9:16)
?3?The 'Welcoming Meal' (7:9-14; 8:1)
?4?The Wedding Celebration in Ecbatana (8:19-20; 9:6)
?5?The Length of the Fourteen-Day Wedding Celebration
?6?Raphael, Gabael and Tobiah at the Wedding Celebration (9:6)
?7?The Wedding Celebration at Nineveh (11:19 (Not S); 12:1)
?8?A Second Reference to the Wedding Celebration (12:1)
?9?Conclusion
6 'And Observe [Me] That I Did Not Eat Anything But [That] a Vision Was Beheld by You': Tobiah's Return to Nineveh, Raphael's Revelation, and the Story's Closure (Tob. 10-14)
?1?Fasting
?2?Consumption as Metaphor (12:9)
?3?Praise for Delayed Eating (12:13)
?4?Angelic Abstinence 12:19
?5?Almost No Food in Chapters 13 and 14
?6?Conclusion
Conclusion
?1?Relevance of Study for Ongoing Debates about Tobit
?2?Conclusion
?3?Epilogue
Bibliography
General Index
?Index of Modern Authors
?Index of Ancient Writings
?Index of Important Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Greek, and Latin Term and Phrases
Abbreviations and Sigla
Introduction
Background Issues for This Study
?1?Storyline and Major Themes of Tobit
?2?The Texts of Tobit
?3?Possible Sources Utilised by the Book of Tobit
?4?Questions of Redaction
?5?Date and Provenance
?6?Class, Gender and Wealth
?7?Tobit, Hybridity and Resistance
?8?How This Commentary is Organized
1 Walking in the Ways of Righteousness: Food and Eating in Tobit's Testimonial (Tob. 1)
?1?Tithes and First Fruits (1:6-8)
?2?Gentile Food (1:10-11)
?3?Food to the Hungry (1:17)
?4?Conclusion
2 'The Table Was Set Before Me': Tobit's Shavuot Meal, Its Aftermath and the Parallel Woes of Sarah (Tob. 2-3)
?1?The Shavuot Meal (2:1-7)
?2?Blinding by Bird Droppings (2:9-10)
?3?Ahiqar's Help (2:10)
?4?Hannah's Help and the Goat (2:11-14)
?5?No Food in 3:1-17
?6?Conclusion
3 'Live Uprightly All the Days of Your Life': Food and Drink in Tobit's Testament and the Preparations for Tobiah's Journey (Tob. 4-5)
?1?Overall Issues Important for Exegesis of Chapter 4
?2?Hunger (or Famine) as Punishment (4:13)
?3?Binge Drinking and Drunkenness (4:15)
?4?Food to the Hungry (4:16)
?5?Consumable Substance(s) on the Graves of the Righteous (4:17)
?6?Preparations for the Journey (5:17)
?7?Conclusion
4 'Leaping Up from the Water, a Great Fish': An Eat-or-Be Eaten Struggle and the Acquisition of Medicinal Fish Organs (Tob. 6 and Its Echoes in 8 and 11)
?1?Tobit and the Hungry Fish (6:2-6)
?2?Medicinal Organs (6, 8, 11)
?3?Harvest (6:5-6)
?4?Heart and Liver (6:7-8, 17-18; 8:2-4)
?5?Gall (6:9; 11:4-8, 11-14)
?6?Conclusion
5 'I Will neither Eat nor Drink Here until You Resolve the Things Concerning Me': Food and Wedding Celebrations (Tob. 7-9 and Elsewhere)
?1?A Proposed Wedding Celebration (6:13)
?2?Wedding-Linked Meals in Ecbatana (7:9-14; 8:1, 8:19-20; 9:16)
?3?The 'Welcoming Meal' (7:9-14; 8:1)
?4?The Wedding Celebration in Ecbatana (8:19-20; 9:6)
?5?The Length of the Fourteen-Day Wedding Celebration
?6?Raphael, Gabael and Tobiah at the Wedding Celebration (9:6)
?7?The Wedding Celebration at Nineveh (11:19 (Not S); 12:1)
?8?A Second Reference to the Wedding Celebration (12:1)
?9?Conclusion
6 'And Observe [Me] That I Did Not Eat Anything But [That] a Vision Was Beheld by You': Tobiah's Return to Nineveh, Raphael's Revelation, and the Story's Closure (Tob. 10-14)
?1?Fasting
?2?Consumption as Metaphor (12:9)
?3?Praise for Delayed Eating (12:13)
?4?Angelic Abstinence 12:19
?5?Almost No Food in Chapters 13 and 14
?6?Conclusion
Conclusion
?1?Relevance of Study for Ongoing Debates about Tobit
?2?Conclusion
?3?Epilogue
Bibliography
General Index
?Index of Modern Authors
?Index of Ancient Writings
?Index of Important Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Greek, and Latin Term and Phrases