Edna (wife of Raguël)

Edna (Hebrew: "bliss, loveliness") is a minor character in the deuterocanonical or apocryphal book Tobit in the Old Testament .

Edna is the wife of Raguël , a relative of Tobit and his son Tobias . Edna's daughter Sara is loved by a demon who killed her seven husbands on the respective wedding night. Tobias takes Sara as his wife after the archangel Raphael betrayed him a smoking spell against the demon Ashmodai . As a result, the fate of both families turns for the better.

The literary plot of the story contrasts two families like a parable : Tobit and his wife Hanna with son Tobias on the one hand, Raguël and his wife Edna with daughter Sara on the other. While Hanna takes on the role of the skeptic who ridicules her husband's trust in God and always expects the worst, Edna plays the role of the believer who, against appearances, trusts in God's salvation and also urges her daughter to trust God ( Tob 7, 17  EU ). With the same firm faith she later blesses her son-in-law Tobias and entrusts him with her own daughter ( Tob 10.13  EU ).

See also

• Maria Looser of the Knot with Tobias and Raphael (Augsburg pilgrimage picture)

literature

• Helen Schüngel-Straumann: Tobit, Herder's Theological Commentary on the Old Testament (HThKAT) , Freiburg im Breisgau 2000