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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

RAPHAEL

Major character in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit. When God heard the prayers of Tobit and Sarah, the angel Raphael was sent to their aid (Tb 3:17). This angel, posing as a dependable relative named Azarias (NLT “Azariah”), accompanied Tobit’s son Tobias on his journey to retrieve a sum of money from Gabael (5:1ff.). Traveling with Tobias’s dog, Toby, the two made camp by a river (6:1ff.). A fish leapt from the water and tried to swallow Tobias’s foot. At the suggestion of Raphael, Tobias eviscerated the fish and set aside its gall, heart, and liver for future use as remedies. When queried by Tobias, the angel revealed that “the gall is for anointing a person’s eyes when white patches have spread over them” (v 8). This happened to be the very malady that was plaguing Tobias’s father, Tobit (2:9-10).

The journey continued, and Raphael became matchmaker to Tobias and Sarah (6:9ff.). At Sarah’s home the two were married. In the bride’s chamber, the fish’s heart and liver came in handy for exorcising the demon that had prevented the success of Sarah’s previous seven marriages (8:2).

Meanwhile, Raphael continued on the errand to recover Tobit’s money from Gabael (9:1ff.). He succeeded at this task. Finally, Tobias and his new wife, Sarah, accompanied by the angel Raphael, with the dog Toby faithfully following at their heels, returned at long last to the home of Tobit (11:1ff.). There Tobias applied the angel’s fish-gall remedy to his father’s eyes. Tobit’s eyesight was immediately restored. At the urging of Tobit, Tobias offered to reward the disguised Raphael half of the money retrieved from Gabael. At this point the angel made his true identity known to them saying, “I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand in attendance on the Lord,” and adding, “Take note that I ate no food; what you saw was an apparition” (12:15, 19). Raphael then ascended out of sight.