Tobias
Tobi'as (Τωβίας), the Greek form of the name Tobiah or Tobijah, as it occurs of two men in the Apocrypha.
1. The son of Tobit, and central character in the book of that name. SEE TOBIT, BOOK OF.
2. The father of Hyrcanus, apparently a man of great wealth and reputation, at Jerusalem in the time of Seleucus Philopator (2 Macc. 3, 11). B.C. cir. 187. In the high-priestly schism which happened afterwards, SEE MENELAUS, "the sons of Tobias" took a conspicuous part (Josephus, Ant. 12, 5, 1). One of these, Joseph, who raised himself by intrigue to high favor with the Egyptian court, had a son named Hyrcanus (ibid. 4, 2). It has been supposed that this is the Hyrcanus referred to in 2 Macc. 3, 11; and it is not impossible that, for some unknown reason (as in the case of the Maccabees), the whole family were called after their grandfather, to, the exclusion of the father's name. On the other hand, the natural recurrence of names in successive generations makes it more probable that the Hyrcanus mentioned in Josephus was a nephew of the Hyrcanus in 2 Macc. (comp. Ewald, Gesch.'d. Volkes Israel, 4., 309; Grimm, Ad Macc. loc. cit.).
