Judith

Summary:

Judith is an obviously fictional ironic folktale (or Jewish novella) about a beautiful widow who single-handedly defeats the Assyrians in a battle to save her city of Bethulia. Assyria's King Nebuchadnezzar calls on his chief general, Holofernes, to lead a great army to conquer the Judeans, only recently returned from Exile. The city refuses to submit and pay tribute in defiance of Yahweh. But when the Assyrians capture the town's water supply, its leaders decide that if God doesn't rescue them in five days, they must surrender. Upon hearing the decision, Judith devises a plan to defeat the Assyrians and prays for God's. She employs her feminine charms to deceive and decapitate the military leader. The Assyrian army flees in dismay and the Israelites plunder their camp.

Canonical Status:

Among the Deuterocanonical books of the Roman Catholic and Greek and Orthodox Churches Among the Old Testament Apocrypha of Protestants Found in the Septuagint (LXX: Greek) and Vulgate (Latin)

Author: an anonymous Jew, probably a Pharisee from Palestine

Date: Its final form was probably completed around 100 B.C.

Original Language:

The LXX has many features suggesting it translates an earlier Hebrew text. The surviving Hebrew texts seem to be translations of the Latin translation. Notes prepared by David Arnold (Senior Religion Major)

for the Wesley Center for Applied Theology at Northwest Nazarene University

Copyright 2000 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology

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