Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Word of God · Book I: On the Canonical Books
Chapter 11: On the book of Tobias
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. I, De Verbo Dei, Book I: On the Canonical Books of Scripture. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Now we shall treat of the several books separately, and both fortify them with their proper arguments, and briefly dissolve the peculiar objections which are made against them. Now, then, the book of Tobias, besides the common testimonies of the Councils and Fathers a little before adduced, has a signal testimony from St. Cyprian, who in the sermon On Alms says: “The Holy Spirit speaks in the Scriptures, and says, By alms and faith sins are purged.” Pope Callixtus I, in epistle 2, alleging Tobias: “Well,” he says, “saith the sacred Scripture.” And St. Ambrose, in the book On Tobias, chapter 1, says that this book is prophetic Scripture. Likewise St. Basil, in the Oration on Avarice, calls a sentence written out of Tobias a divine precept. St. Augustine too, in the Speculum, prefaces that he will collect sentences out of the canonical books, and yet omits not Tobias.
But on the contrary it is wont to be objected that this book seems somewhere to fight with itself. For in chapter 3 Sara, whom the younger Tobias was to have to wife, is said to have dwelt in Rages, a city of the Medes; where also we have that Gabelus was (Tobias 4). Yet afterward, in chapter 9, when Tobias had come to the place where Sara was, thence he sent the Angel to Gabelus in Rages; it is false, therefore, that the house of Sara was in Rages. Michael Medina, book 5 On Right Faith in God, chapter 14, thinks that in chapter 3 “in Rages” is read by a fault of the scribes, since in the Greek it is “in Ecbatana.” But it is scarcely credible that such an error could have happened, since there is no likeness between Rages and Ecbatana. Others, as Lyra, say either that there were two Rages in Media, or at least that in chapter 3 is named Rages, not the city itself, but some neighboring place; for he is said to dwell at Rome who dwells at Tusculum, or elsewhere in the Roman territory. This opinion is the more common and the truer.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XI. De libro Tobiee. Nunc de singulis libris seorsim agemus, eosque et propriis argumentis communie¬ mus, et peculiares objectiones , quae adver¬ sus eos fiunt , breviter diluemus. Jam igitur liber Tobiee praeter communia testimonia Conciliorum et Patrum paulo ante adducta, testimonium insigne habet a S. Cypriano, qui in sermone de eleemosyna : « Loquitur, inquit, in Scripturis Spiritus sanctus , et di¬ cit, eleemosynis et Fide delicta purgantur. » Callixtus Papa I. in epist. 2. Tobiam alle¬ gans : (( Bene, inquit, sacra ait Scriptura; » et S. Ambrosius in libro De Tobia cap. 1. librum hunc propheticam Scripturam esse dicit. Item S. Basilius in Oratione de avari¬ tia sententiam ex Tobia descriptam divinum praeceptum appellat. Sanctus quoque Augus¬ tinus in Speculo praefatur, ex canonicis libris se sententias collecturum, nec tamen omittit Tobiam. Contra vero objici solet, quod hic liber se- cum ipse alicubi pugnare videatur. Nam in cap. III. dicitur Sara, quam in uxorem ha¬ biturus erat Tobias junior, habitasse in Ra- ges civitate Medorum : ubi etiam fuisse Ga- belum habemus, Tob. IV. Postea tamen c. IX. cum Tobias pervenisset ad locum ubi erat Sara inde misit Angelum ad Gabclum in Rages ; falsum est igitur domum Sarae fuisse in Rages. Michael Medina lib. Vt. De recta in Deum Fide cap. XIV, vitio Scriptorum cap. III. legi arbitratur, in Rages cum in Graeco sit h ix/Sa-avotj. Sed vix credibile est talem erro¬ rem contingere potuisse, cum nulla sit inter Rages et Ecbatane similitudo. Alii, ut Lyra- nus, dicunt, vel duas fuisse Rages in Media, vel certe in c. III. vocari Rages , non ipsam civitatem , sed locum aliquem vicinum : di¬ citur enim habitare Romae, qui Tusculi , vel alibi in agro Romano habitat. Haec sententia communior est, 'et verior. LIBER I. 94 \