Concerning Magic in Tobit (Apocrypha)?

[Hatikvah]

In Tobit 6:5-7, it refers to the Angel Raphael, under the identity of Azariah, commanding Tobit to use a form of magic to ward off a demon. What can we learn from this – if anything? Aren’t we commanded not to use any sort of magic/magick in the Scriptures?

I’m aware that the Jews didn’t use Tobit, despite how it was assembled before the completion of Jewish canon (Tobit is dated to almost the 9th century by Wikipedia).

God bless!

 

[Nelka]

It’s not apocrypha.

It’s not magic, Jesus spat on the ground and made a paste, He didn’t need to do that. No different to Raphael saying that Tobit had to burn part of the fish. It does state that Raphael chased the demon away.

I wouldn’t trust wikipedia with anything.

 

[dmar198]

In Tobit 6:5-7, it refers to the Angel Raphael, under the identity of Azariah, commanding Tobit to use a form of magic to ward off a demon. What can we learn from this – if anything? Aren’t we commanded not to use any sort of magic/magick in the Scriptures?

I’m aware that the Jews didn’t use Tobit, despite how it was assembled before the completion of Jewish canon (Tobit is dated to almost the 9th century by Wikipedia).

God bless!

You might find this link helpful:

Answers to Supposed Errors in the Deuterocanonical Books
historyandapologetics.com/2015/02/answers-to-supposed-errors-in.html

The first one on there is this:

1. 
   *]Tobit 6:5-7 is about using magic to scare away the devil
   
   The first objection is wrong because Tobit 6:5-7 doesn’t mention magic. It says that an angel told Tobias to burn the heart and liver of a fish to free a person from demonic oppression, because the demon would smell the smoke and flee. This is not because the fish was magic and the text does not say it was. Instead, the text indicates that the fish’s parts were a sacrifice offered as a prayer of deliverance. Tobit 6:16-17 and Tobit 8:2 make this clearer by specifying that the fire had to be produced by means of incense and/or an incense censor. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were offered for the sins of the people, and the fish has messianic significance. This offering of deliverance backed up by the power of the Messiah was what caused the oppressing demon to become fearful when he smelled the fish offering. The interpretation that the fish was magic has no support in the text; the interpretation that the fish was a sacrifice for sins does have support in the text. source

 

[MarcoPolo]

Here was a good answer from a few years ago:

What happened in Tobit that some mistakenly describe as witchcraft reminds me of the story in 2 Kings 2:19-23 where the prophet Elisha threw a bowlful of salt into a spring and forever changed the quality of the water it produced from bad to wholesome. I am also reminded of what Jacob did with the peeled rods to create spotted and speckled sheep and goats in Genesis 30:37-43. And of the prophet Elisha directing Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River to cure his leprosy in 2 Kings 5:10-14.

See this thread for further discussion.