Raphael, Azariah and Jesus of Nazareth: Tobit's Significance for Early Christology

This article demonstrates that the apocryphal text of Tobit sheds important light on notions of deliverance that were emerging in Second Temple Judaism. Raphael, the angel-deliverer of Tobit, depicts a stage in the development of angelic mediation that stands apart from angelic deliverers in previous Jewish texts, and can be significantly associated with early Christianity's view of Jesus. Here, for the first time, is a heavenly being who appears as a nondescript Israelite and brings news of hope, healing and demonic liberation to suffering Israelites of little account. Raphael offers a precedent for Christian accounts that the historical Jesus was a preexistent savior who lived as a simple Israelite.