Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink: A Commentary

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.

Background Issues for This Study
Walking in the Ways of Righteousness: Food and Eating in Tobit’s Testimonial (Tob. 1)
‘The Table Was Set Before Me’: Tobit’s Shavuot Meal, Its Aftermath, and the Parallel Woes of Sarah (Tob. 2–3)
‘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)
‘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)
‘I Will Neither Eat nor Drink Here until You Resolve the Things Concerning Me’: Food and Wedding Celebrations (Tob. 7–9 and Elsewhere)
‘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)