The Righteous Judith

• The Book of Judith: Annotated St. Pachomius Library edition.
  • Paraphrases:
    • St. Sulpitius Severus, Historia Sacra, Book II, Chapters xiv-xvi
    • The Anglo-Saxon Judith Poem

• ABOUT:
  • Wikipedia entry
  • Jewish Encyclopedia:
  • 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia: (Read with caution)

  • St. Ambrose of Milan: De Officiis Ministrorum (Duties of the Clergy). PL 16:0023-0184; Book III Chapter xiii.
  • St. Ambrose of Milan: De Viduis (On Widows). PL 16:0233-0397; Chapter VII.
  • St. Jerome: Præfatio in Librum Judith. PL 29:37. Jerome's preface to his Latin translation for the Vulgate Bible. Latin text with translation by Andrew S. Jacobs. --- Tertullian.org

  • Deborah F. Sawyer: Crossing the Boundaries, (2002). Chapter V of her God, Gender and the Bible, (London: Routledge, 2002). One of the better modern secular/feminist studies; particularly interesting are her observations on parallels with the story of David and Goliath.

• CANONICITY: The Book of Judith was controversial in the early Christian Era, and was excluded from the Hebrew Masoretic text of Scripture although long familiar to Jews from the Greek Septuagint. The Orthodox Church accepts it, although a few early Fathers apparently did not. Possible reasons for this hesitation include the apparently impossible historical setting (when Nebuchadnezzar King of Assyria invaded Palestine after the return of the exiles) and the extremely divergent textual traditions.
  • Sources which excluded Judith from the canon:
    • St. Athanasius, Epistle 39: His discussion is hard to follow. First he says the Deuterocanonical books, including Judith, are "not included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us, and who wish for instruction in the word of godliness." But then he adds that Judith and certain other books, in contrast to e.g. the Shepherd of Hermas, are in the Canon.

    • Implicitly excluding (i.e. not listing): Synod of Laodicea, Canon LX; St. Amphilochius of Iconium, Iambics to Seleucus; St. Gregory Theologus, Poem ??;

  • Sources explicitly declaring Judith canonical: Obviously most patristic commentators, with the possible exception of St. Jerome who uses many qualifying phrases, also accept the canonicity of Judith.
    • Apostolic Canon LXXXV: But not in all MSS.
    • Synod of Carthage (419), Canon XXVII (Greek numbering)

• HISTORICITY:
  • Annette Reed: The Book of Judith and Jewish History. A good popular-level summary of the historical difficulties in tabular form, biased toward the Maccabæan theory. --- Annette Reed

  • Judith in time of Assyrian Empire?:
    • Damien Mackey: A Historical Commentary on the Book of Judith. Actually, more of a research paper arguing that the book takes place during Sennacherib's invasion and is essentially historical. --- Specialty Interests Network

  • Judith in time of Persian Empire?:
    • Apostolic Constitutions, VIII, ii. "In the time of Darius ... "

    • Ecbatana was attacked by Cyrus the Great around 550 BC [Chronicle of Nabonidus] when he conquered the Medes and united them to Persia. It was attacked again by Darius I when it became the centre of a Median nationalist revolt.

    • Josephus, Contra Apion. I, 194. Makes the strange remark, often considered to be a scribal error or a case of "Homer nodding", that "myriads" of Jews were carried off into Babylonian exile by "the Persians". Josephus makes no direct allusion to the story of Judith in any of his writings.

    • St. Sulpitius Severus, Hist. Sac. II, xiv. Sulpitius is puzzled by the chronology. He rejects the possibility that "Nebuchadnezzar" was Cambyses son of Cyrus and concludes that he was Artaxerxes III Ochus.

    • Diodorus Siculus, Hist. XXXI, xix, 2. Tells the story of Holophernes, a Cappadocian general in the army of Artaxerxes III Ochus who leads an invasion of Egypt. However this Holophernes is successful, gets a medal for bravery (hyper andreias), and dies at home in peace.

    • Diodorus Siculus, Hist. XV, xl, 4. Remarks in passing that Ochus always stayed home, sending out his generals to fight for him, but that his campaigns usually ended in failure because the generals were cowardly and incompetent. While this indeed sounds like the situation in Judith, it does not really agree with other accounts of Ochus's reign.

  • Judith in time of Seleucids? The brief Hebrew retellings of the Judith story turn the Assyrians into "Greeks" and their leader into "Seleucus"; the action takes place during the Maccabæan revolt (at Jerusalem itself, rather than "Bethulia".) This explanation has attracted many advocates of Judith's historicity, who say that the long versions are corrupt and romanticised. On the other hand, since the extant Hebrew versions are known to be later than the Greek text, they themselves might well represent an attempt to rationalise the impossible chronology, or, more likely, to explain why the Judith story is read at Chanukah.

  • Deliberately ahistorical? Many writers, especially modern ones, feel that Judith is either a work of fiction or an historical account in which the details have been intentionally changed to focus the reader's attention on spiritual rather than chronological issues. This position has been memorably expressed by C. C. Torrey (The Apocryphal Literature, Yale, 1945, p. 89): "When Napoleon Bonaparte was king of England ... "

• PERSONS FREQUENTLY MENTIONED WITH JUDITH:
  • St. Anna the Prophetess: e.g. St. Jerome, Ep. 79, x;
  • The Prophetess Deborah, and Jael:
  • The Righteous Esther:
  • The Righteous Patriarch Simeon and his sister Dinah:
  • The Theotokos: see below.

  • Bagoas
  • Holophernes

• PLACES:
  • Bethulia

• VARIOUS:
  • Judith as an exemplar of chastity: St. Ambrose, De Viduis, VII; St. Jerome, Ep. 22, xxi; 54, 16; 79, 10; St. Methodius of Olympus, Symposium XI, ii, 14; Prudentius, Psychomachia, 63;

    • St. Ambrose elsewhere [De Virginibus II, 24] tells the story of a virgin-confessor condemned to sexual slavery who took comfort from the story of Judith: "It is preferable to have a virgin mind to a virgin body ... no-one considered Judith an adulteress. This instance turned out well."

  • Judith as a type of the Church, with Holofernes as the Devil: St. Jerome, Ep. 79, x;

  • Judith as an exemplar of continual prayer: Apostolic Constitutions, III, vii; St. Jerome, Ep. 79, x;

  • Judith's courage and "manly deeds": St. Ambrose, De Off. Min., 82-85; De Viduis, 37; St. Clement of Rome, 1 ad Cor., 55:4; St. Jerome, Ep. 54, xvi;
    • Judith's feminine weakness as a type of the weakness of human nature in general, which God, especially by the Incarnation, makes powerful: Prudentius, Psychomachia, 63;

  • Judith and the power of fasting: Apostolic Constitutions, V, xx; St. Ambrose, De Viduis, 38; St. Jerome, Ep. 79, x;

  • Judith's humility: Apostolic Constitutions, VIII, ii;

  • Judith and lying: Judith's apparent lies to Holofernes disturbed some commentators. St. Jerome writes [Cont. Rufin. I, 18]: "But a person who is obliged by necessity to lie must exercise extreme caution to use the lie as a remedy or as a form of medicine on occasion so as to preserve moderation in its use, lest he overstep its limits, as did Judith ... He should imitate Esther, who ... concealed the true identity of her race for a long while."

  • Judith's modesty: Prudentius, Psychomachia, 63;

  • Judith one of the prophets: Apostolic Constitutions, VIII, ii;

  • Judith's sobriety vs. Holofernes's drunkenness: St. Ambrose, De Viduis, 40;

  • Judith as a type of the Theotokos: St. Jerome, Ep. 22, xxi; Prudentius, Psychomachia, 63;

  • Judith as an ideal widow: Apostolic Constitutions, III, vii; VIII, xxv; St. Ambrose, De Viduis, VII; St. Braulio of Saragossa, Ep. 16; St. Jerome, Ep. 54, xvi; 79, x;

    • St. Braulio (op. cit.) sent a copy of the Books of Tobit and Judith to the newly-widowed Apicella: Tobit as a reminder of her wonderful marriage and Judith as an encouragement in her widowhood.