Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook (2020-2021)
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2021) 295-309
Keywords:
Tobit (Apocryphal book) Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Time in post-biblical literature
Abstract:
The concept of the “shape of time” refers to the various ways of explaining the relationship between the past and the present. The perception of the “shape of time” is relative to one’s historical situation and experiences. This paper aims to explore how the Book of Tobit views the “shape of time.” The essay posits that the Book of Tobit regards the Second Temple present not as a temporal rupture but as a period of continuing punishment. Historical time is thus reconfigured; the post-exilic present of the Jews in the Diaspora is perceived as an ongoing exile and not as a new beginning. Foreign rule, the loss of political independence, and despair in the narrative all point to God’s absence and the enduring facet of exile. The building of the Second Temple did not end this particular period. In other words, the time that precedes the definitive return of God continued into the Second Temple present. The time of exile persists until the chronos tōn kairōn or the “times of fulfillment” (Tob 14:5). The times of fulfillment, however, are dramatized as bubbling forth and being made present in Tobit’s experience of God’s presence.
DOI:
10.1515/9783110705454-014
URL:
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