Curing Blindness

Tobit 2–11 (selections)

3rd–1st Century BCE

Chapter 2

⁹That same night I [Tobit] washed myself and went into my courtyard and slept by the wall of the courtyard; and my face was uncovered because of the heat.

¹⁰I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall; their fresh droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films. I went to physicians to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments the more my vision was obscured by the white films, until I became completely blind. For four years I remained unable to see. [ . . . ]

Chapter 6

¹[ . . . ] The young man [Tobias] went out and the angel [Raphael] went with him [ . . . ] ³Then the young man went down to wash his feet in the Tigris river. Suddenly a large fish leaped up from the water and tried to swallow the young man’s foot, and he cried out. ⁴But the angel said to the young man, “Catch hold of the fish and hang on to it!” So the young man grasped the fish and drew it up on the land. ⁵Then the angel said to him, “Cut open the fish and take out its gall, heart, and liver. Keep them with you, but throw away the intestines. For its gall, heart, and liver are useful as medicine. [ . . . ] ⁹And as for the gall, anoint a person’s eyes where white films have appeared on them; blow upon them, upon the white films, and the eyes will be healed.” [ . . . ]

Chapter 11

⁷Raphael said to Tobias, before he had approached his father, “I know that his eyes will be opened. ⁸Smear the gall of the fish on his eyes; the medicine will make the white films shrink and peel off from his eyes, and your father will regain his sight and see the light.” [ . . . ]

¹⁰Then Tobit got up and came stumbling out through the courtyard door. Tobias went up to him, ¹¹with the gall of the fish in his hand, and holding him firmly, he blew into his eyes, saying, “Take courage, father.” With this he applied the medicine on his eyes, ¹²and it made them smart. ¹³Next, with both his hands he peeled off the white films from the corners of his eyes.

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

The story of Tobit relates how the pious and just Tobit becomes blind and is later cured. One night, while Tobit is sleeping outdoors, bird excrement drops into his eyes, causing “white scales” to settle on them. He does not go completely blind, however, until he is treated by doctors who apply ointments to his eyes. The angel Raphael, sent by God to heal Tobit, appears in the guise of a young man called Azariah and, traveling with Tobit’s son, Tobias, instructs him to catch an aggressive fish—which attacks him—and to make an ointment from its gall. That ointment is to be applied to Tobit’s eyes. Reunited with his father, Tobias follows the angel’s instructions, and his father regains his sight.

In this story, those attempts to heal Tobit that are not explicitly linked to God are called therapeuo (Tobit 1:7; 2:10; 12:3), whereas the term iaomai is used for healing acts that are part of a theological horizon (Tobit 3:17; 5:10; 12:14); the latter are medical acts legitimized by divine revelation.

The only appearance of the term leucomata in the Septuagint is in the book of Tobit (2:10; 3:17; 6:9; 11:8). Although no ancient traditions provide direct equivalents of this affliction, translated here as “white films,” Babylonian texts include descriptions like “the white of the eyes is numerous” or “suffused with white color,” as in the phrase “[the inside of the eye] is suffused with white and yellow [color].” These descriptions bring to mind the “white films” mentioned in Tobit. In view of ancient Near Eastern medicine, the motif of blindness being caused by bird droppings entails an almost ironic component, as different sources—of both Egyptian and Babylonian provenance—attest that the excrement of birds (and more so of bats) was used for medical purposes, including to treat eye diseases.

Details

Curing Blindness

Chapter 2

Chapter 6

Chapter 11

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