The story of a Jewish heroine who saves Israel

This book tells the story of a Jewish heroine who, imitating Jael, saved Israel by cutting off the head of Holofernes, the general of Nabuchodonosor, when he was besieging Bethulia, a city of the Samaritan hills, overlooking the plain of Esdraelon.

Contents of Judith

Chapters 1-7.

Nabuchodonosor's assault on the Jews.

Chs. 1-3. Having conquered the Medes in his twelfth year, Nabuchodonosor sends Holofernes to subdue the peoples of the west who had refused to submit to him.

Chs. 4-7. The Jews resist him, and he lays siege to Bethulia in spite of the warnings of Achior, captain of the children of Ammon; the dire straits of the besieged impel them to discuss the advisability of coming to terms.

Chapters 8-15:8.

The story of Judith who protests against any such submission.

Chs. 8-9. Her preparations for repelling the invader,

Chs.10-15:8. Her heroic deed.

Chapters 15:9-16.

The epilogue to the story.

The Text of Judith

No early Hebrew text exists. St. Jerome, to whom we owe the Latin translation in the Vulgate, says:

"By the Hebrews the Book of Judith is counted among the Apocrypha yet it is written in Chaldaic and accounted among the historical books. But since we read that the Synod of Nicaea numbered this Book among the Holy Scriptures, I have yielded to your request or rather demand, and, laying aside my pressing occupations, I have devoted to it one night's sitting and translated it, not so much word for word as sense for sense. I have removed (amputavi) the disgraceful discrepancies to which the MSS. bear witness, and I have only expressed in Latin those things which a sound understanding could discover in the Chaldaic. Receive, then, Judith the widow, an example of chastity, and sing her praises in triumphal song for ever. For God set her as an example not to women only but to men; He Who was the Rewarder of her chastity gave her power to conquer the unconquered of men and to overcome him whom none had overcome."

The Vulgate Latin translation is, then, made from the Chaldaic, and, as St. Jerome freely confesses, it is freely made. This is borne out by examination, we have only to compare 6:11, and 8:9, with the Greek.

The Greek text exists in at least two distinct forms; one, that in the Codices A, B, and Aleph, and another in the cursive MS. 59, which agrees with the Old Latin and Syriac texts. And these Greek texts differ extraordinarily from the Latin, we need only instance the geographical details in chapter 2, and the resumé of the history of the Hebrews given by Achior in chapter 5; the geography in the Latin is frankly impossible, in the Greek it is better. But it should be noted that though the general geography is confused, that of the Samaritan hills is clear and precise; the author must have been intimately familiar with the neighborhood.

Historical Character of the Book of Judith

In Judith 1:5, Nabuchodonosor is called "King of the Assyrians," and is said to reign in Ninive. Ninive was destroyed in 606 B.C., and Nabuchodonosor came to the throne of Babylon in 605; still it might be said that he was king in Ninive since his father's forces had destroyed it. When, however, we find his general enjoying the Greek name of Holofernes, 3:2, and when we find that the story is placed after the Restoration of the Jews in 536 B.C., 5:22-23, i.e. some twenty years after the death of Nabuchodonosor, we feel that we are either in the presence of names which are purely symbolical, or that the text has been corrupted as St. Jerome has told us. That the names may be only symbolical is not improbable, Bethulia means the virgin of the Lord, and Judith is simply the Jewess; St. Peter did not scruple to speak of Rome under the symbolical name of Babylon, 1 Peter 5:13. But the fact, if it be a fact, that the names are symbolical, will not preclude us from accepting the book as containing a true history.

The only difficulty will be to know at what precise point in Hebrew History we are to place it. Those who accept even the names as historical endeavor to find a period in Hebrew history when there was no king, and when the Assyrians were a great power. And it is natural to see in the story of Manasses captivity during the reign of Assurbanipal, 668-626 B.C., a period when there was no king in Israel. But it is impossible to reconcile with this view all the statements in the book; thus Achior expressly states, 5:22-23, that the Hebrews had recently returned from captivity and now possess Jerusalem again; with this well accords Judith's statement, 8:18-19, that there is now no idolatry in Israel. Hence it is far better to place the history in the post-Exilic period. Thus we note that the High Priest Eliachim, 4:5, is called Joachim 15:9 (and always in the Greek text); but the only Joachim among the High Priests was a son of Joshua and a contemporary of Zorobabel, cf. Nehemiah 12:10. At the same time it is not easy to assign any definite post-Exilic period for the story.

There exist several Hebrew versions of the story, none of them, however, belonging to an early date as far as can be ascertained; in these, Jerusalem, not Bethulia, is the city attacked, and Nicanor, 1 Maccabees 7, is the general slain by Judith. In consequence, many have attempted to see in the story a veiled account of the Maccabean wars. But Sulpicius Severus long ago suggested, Chron. ii. 14-16, that Judith lived under Artaxerxes III. (Ochus), 358-338 B.C., and not under Nabuchodonosor or Cambyses. Ochus certainly made an expedition against Phoenicia and Egypt about 350 B.C., and one of his generals was called Holofernes, and his eunuch was called Bagoas as in Judith 12:10.

Theology and Morals of the Book of Judith

The lesson of the book is that of the power of prayer, cf. Judith 4:11-17, 6:14-16, 6:21, etc. Zeal for the temple is prominent, 4:2, 9:11, etc., though this is much more clearly brought out in the Greek text. The author is familiar with the Psalter, cf. 9:16, 16:17-18.

In the account of Judith's preparations, Judith 10:5, in the account of her daily life, 8:6, of her behavior in the camp of Holofernes, 12:2, 12:7-9, etc., we seem to have an echo of the teachings of the Pharisees which developed later into the extravagance which Our Lord found it necessary to reprove.

God's providential care is beautifully insisted on, Judith 8:11-27, 9:5; He is the only God and Creator of all, 9:17-19. In 14:6, Achior becomes a proselyte. Judith undoubtedly lied to Holofernes, and this is more explicitly told in the Greek text, but we are not to judge of these things according to the ideas of our times, and because a thing is narrated in Scripture it does not follow that it is altogether praiseworthy.

Canonicity of Judith

St. Jerome, see above, refers to a declaration on the part of the Council of Nice that the Book of Judith was canonical. No trace of this enactment is to be found, and it may be that he is only referring to the use the Fathers of that Council may have made of the Book in their discussions. It is quoted by St. Clement, I. Cor. lv., with Esther; Origen defends it in his Epistle to Africanus; Tertullian uses it, and it is found in all the official Ecclesiastical lists. In 1 Corinthians 10:10, we have an apparent quotation of Judith 8:25, in the Vulgate text, not in the Greek.


by
Very Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., S.T.M.
Doctor in Sacred Scripture,
Member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and
late Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Collegio Angelico, Rome.