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88-525: Judges 5 gives the same story in poetic form . This passage, often called The Song of Deborah , may date to as early as the twelfth century BCE, and is perhaps the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry . In the Book of Judges , it is stated that Deborah was a prophetess , a judge of Israel and the wife of Lapidoth. She rendered her judgments beneath a date palm tree between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in

176-574: A Peshitta (Syriac version) of Judith in support of his rendering of Deuteronomy 21:14. Although early Christians , such as Clement of Rome , Tertullian , and Clement of Alexandria , read and used the Book of Judith, some of the oldest Christian canons, including the Bryennios List (1st/2nd century), that of Melito of Sardis (2nd century), and Origen (3rd century), do not include it. Jerome , when he produced his Latin translation of

264-548: A book considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church . The story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Judean countrymen for not trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors. She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the Assyrian general, Holofernes , with whom she slowly ingratiates herself, promising him information on

352-524: A decision challenged as "rash" by Judith. Chapter 9 constitutes Judith's "extended prayer", "loudly proclaimed" in advance of her actions in the following chapters. This runs to 14 verses in English versions, 19 verses in the Vulgate. Today, it is generally accepted that the Book of Judith's historicity is refuted. The fictional nature "is evident from its blending of history and fiction, beginning in

440-470: A god". Holofernes is ordered to take revenge on those who refused to ally themselves with Nebuchadnezzar. Achior , an Ammonite leader at Nebuchadnezzar's court; in chapter 5 he summarises the history of Israel and warns the king of Assyria of the power of their God, the "God of heaven", but is mocked. He is protected by the people of Bethulia and is Judaized , and circumcised on hearing what Judith has accomplished. Bagoas , or Vagao (Vulgate),

528-492: A host of people. Then Deborah said, according to Judges 4:14 : "Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. As Deborah prophesied, a battle is fought (led by Barak), and Sisera is completely defeated. He escapes on foot while his army is pursued as far as Harosheth Haggoyim and destroyed. Sisera comes to

616-581: A later copyist or translator, who lived centuries later. Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin argues the possibility that the book of Judith is a roman à clef , a historical record with different names for people and places. Ashurbanipal is never referenced by name in the Bible, except perhaps for the corrupt form " Asenappar " in 2 Chronicles and Ezra 4:10 or the anonymous title "The King of Assyria" in 2 Chronicles ( 33:11 ), which means his name might have never been recorded by Jewish historians, which could explain

704-571: A place in Jewish and Christian lore, art, poetry and drama. The etymology of her name meaning "woman of Judea ", suggests that she represents the heroic spirit of the Jewish people , and that same spirit, as well as her chastity , have endeared her to Christianity . Owing to her unwavering religious devotion, she is able to step outside of her widow's role, and dress and act in a sexually provocative manner while clearly remaining true to her ideals in

792-501: A plausible explanation for the origin of the Greek name "Saosduchin". However, while Nebuchadnezzar and Ashurbanipal's campaigns show clear and direct parallels, the main incident of Judith's intervention has not been found in any record aside from this book. An additional difficulty with this theory is that the reasons for the name changes are difficult to understand, unless the text was transmitted without character names before they were by

880-471: A tendency to destroy the temples of other religions. Both women were widows whose strategical and diplomatic skills helped in the defeat of the invader. Both stories seem to be set at a time when the temple had recently been rededicated, which is the case after Judas Maccabee killed Nicanor and defeated the Seleucids . The territory of Judean occupation includes the territory of Samaria , something which

968-505: Is a few hours south of Geba . The Jewish Encyclopedia subscribes to the theory, suggesting that it was called by a pseudonym because of the historical animosity between the Jews and Samaritans. The Jewish Encyclopedia claims that Shechem is the only location that meets all the requirements for Bethulia's location, further stating: "The identity of Bethulia with Shechem is thus beyond all question". The Catholic Encyclopedia writes: "The city

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1056-450: Is a hymn that celebrates a military victory of two women: Deborah, the prophetess and Jael, the warrior. Jael—the heroine of the Song of Deborah—shares parallels with the main character of the Book of Judith , who uses her beauty and charm to kill an Assyrian general who has besieged her city, Bethulia . The Song of Deborah is commonly identified as among the oldest texts of the Bible, but

1144-532: Is generally assumed that the book takes place after Manasseh's return from captivity in Assyria and his subsequent repentance. Nicolaus Serarius, Giovanni Menochio and Thomas Worthington speculated that Manasseh was busy fortifying Jerusalem at the time (which also fits with 2 Chronicles 33) and left the matters of the rest of the Israelites to the high priest. Others, such as Houbigant and Haydock, speculate that

1232-423: Is located, and there are several possible candidates of ancient towns in that area that are now ruins. It has widely been speculated that, based on location descriptions in the book, that the most plausible historical site for Bethulia is Shechem . Shechem is a large city in the hill-country of Samaria, on the direct road from Jezreel to Jerusalem, lying in the path of the enemy, at the head of an important pass and

1320-467: Is not otherwise known. Theologians Antoine Augustin Calmet , Wilhelm Gesenius and Franz Karl Movers all worked to explain bizarre geographical locations in the book as copyist or translation mistakes. For instance, Movers explained χαλλαίων ("challaion") as referring to χαλδαίων, or "Chaldean". A few more of these disputed locations include: The character of Judith is larger than life, and she has won

1408-423: Is the feminine form of Judah . The surviving manuscripts of Greek translations appear to contain several historical anachronisms , which is why some Protestant scholars now consider the book ahistorical. Instead, the book is classified as a parable , theological novel , or even the first historical novel . The Roman Catholic Church has historically maintained the book's historicity , assigning its events to

1496-633: The Babylonian captivity ) might refer to the chaos that resulted in people fleeing Jerusalem after Manasseh was taken captive by the Assyrians. The reinforcement of the cities as described in Judith 4:5 matches up with the reinforcement that happened in response to the Assyrians under Manasseh. Judith 4:6 claims that the High Priest of Israel was in charge of the country at the time. However, it

1584-798: The Canaanite commander Sisera before hammering a tent-peg into his forehead. There are also thematic connections to the revenge of Simeon and Levi on Shechem after the rape of Dinah in Genesis 34 . In the Christian West from the patristic period on, Judith was invoked in a wide variety of texts as a multi-faceted allegorical figure. As a " Mulier sancta ", she personified the Church and many virtues – Humility , Justice , Fortitude , Chastity (the opposite of Holofernes' vices Pride , Tyranny , Decadence , Lust ) – and she was, like

1672-916: The Middle Ages . The two surviving Hebrew manuscripts of Judith are translated from the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. The Hebrew versions name important figures directly, such as the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes , and place the events during the Hellenistic period when the Maccabees battled the Seleucid monarchs. However, because the Hebrew manuscripts mention kingdoms that had not existed for hundreds of years by

1760-557: The Nowell Codex ). "The opening of the poem is lost (scholars estimate that 100 lines were lost) but the remainder of the poem, as can be seen, the poet reshaped the biblical source and set the poem's narrative to an Anglo–Saxon audience." At the same time she is the subject of a homily by the Anglo-Saxon abbot Ælfric . The two conceptual poles represented by these works will inform much of Judith's subsequent history. In

1848-703: The Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the apocrypha . It tells of a Jewish widow, Judith, who uses her beauty and charm to kill an Assyrian general who has besieged her city, Bethulia . With this act, she saves nearby Jerusalem from total destruction. The name Judith ( Hebrew : יְהוּדִית , Modern :   Yəhūdīt , Tiberian :   Yŭhūḏīṯ ), meaning "praised" or "Jewess",

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1936-524: The eunuch who had charge over Holofernes' personal affairs. His name is Persian for a eunuch. He brought in Judith to recline with Holofernes and was the first one who discovered his beheading. Uzziah or Oziah , governor of Bethulia; together with Cabri and Carmi , he rules over Judith's city. When the city is besieged by the Assyrians and the water supply dries up, he agrees to the people's call to surrender if God has not rescued them within five days,

2024-438: The king of Media , until Israel also becomes a target of his military campaign. Judith's courage and charm occasion his death. Nebuchadnezzar , the king of Nineveh and Assyria. He is so proud that he wants to affirm his strength as a sort of divine power, although Holofernes, his Turtan (commanding general), goes beyond the king's orders when he calls on the western nations to "worship only Nebuchadnezzar, and ... invoke him as

2112-460: The people of Israel . Gaining his trust, she is allowed access to his tent one night as he lies in a drunken stupor. She decapitates him, then takes his head back to her fearful countrymen. The Assyrians , having lost their leader, disperse, and Israel is saved. Though she is courted by many, Judith remains unmarried for the rest of her life. The Book of Judith can be split into two parts or "acts" of approximately equal length. Chapters 1–7 describe

2200-632: The "Commentaire littéral sur tous les livres de l'ancien et du nouveau testament". Calmet listed all of "the main objections that can be made against the truth of Judith's Story" and spent the rest of his commentary on the book addressing them, stating: "But all this did not bother Catholic writers. There were a large number of them who answered it expertly, and who undertook to show that there is nothing incompatible in this history, neither with Scripture, nor even with profane (secular) history". There were other Catholic writers who held this view as well, such as Fulcran Vigouroux , who went even farther, identifying

2288-577: The "Elymeans" ( Elamites ), called "Arioch", is referenced in Judith 1:6. If the twelfth year of "Nebuchadnezzar" is to be identified as the twelfth year of Ashurbanipal, this Arioch would be identified as Teumman , who rebelled against Ashurbanipal on many occasions, eventually being killed at the Battle of the Ulai in 653 BC, around the time Catholic theologians place "Nebuchadnezzar's" western campaign. The identification of "Nebuchadnezzar" with Ashurbanipal

2376-625: The 12th century BCE, roughly contemporaneous with the period of time it depicts. Comparable to earlier works of the Canaanites discovered at Ugarit, the composition is characterized by a 'parallelistic variety of repetition whereby imagery unfolds in a beautifully layered or impressionistic style' so that 'the parallel line adds colour, nuance, or contrast to its neighbouring description'. The lines (in bicola or tricola) are generally about parallel in length. The content itself draws upon traditional Israelite media of expression, also employed by others in

2464-543: The 6th century AD, shows a settlement named "Betylion" (Greek Β[ΗΤ]ΥΛΙΟΝ). Many believe this to be Bethulia, but this is unlikely because it is located much farther south. It instead is located on the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, in modern-day Sheikh Zuweid . Whilst a number of the places referred to are familiar biblical or modern place names, there are others which are considered fictional or whose location

2552-401: The Assyrians from retaking Egypt, which gained independence from Assyria around 655 BC. Numerous theologians, including Antoine Augustin Calmet , suspect that the ultimate goal of the western campaign was for the Assyrians to sack Egypt, because Holofernes appeared to be heading directly towards Egypt on his campaign through the west. If Calmet and others are correct in suspecting that Holofernes

2640-426: The Assyrians. Judith's maid, not named in the story, remains with her throughout the narrative and is given her freedom as the story ends. Holofernes , the antagonist of the book. He is a dedicated soldier of his king, general-in-chief of his army, whom he wants to see exalted in all lands. He is given the task of destroying the rebels who did not support the king of Nineveh in his resistance against Cheleud and

2728-422: The Bible and in secular historical records. The Assyrian army that besieged Jerusalem in 2 Kings 19 was said to have been 185,000 strong, a number several tens of thousands larger than the Assyrian army described in the book of Judith. Also, the Greek historian Herodotus described the walls of Babylon to have been similar in size and extravagance to the walls of Ecbatana in the book of Judith. Herodotus's account

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2816-496: The Book of Judith was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, as the oldest existing version is from the Septuagint , a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. However, due to the large number of Hebraisms in the text, it is generally agreed that the book was written in a Semitic language , probably Hebrew or Aramaic , rather than Koine Greek . When Jerome did his Latin Vulgate translation, he asserted his belief that

2904-538: The Canons of Nicaea, and it is uncertain whether Jerome was referring to the book's use during the council's discussion or spurious canons attributed to that council. Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin speculates that Jerome was correct about the Council of Nicea establishing a canon and that the documents about this have been lost to time. Regardless of Judith's status at Nicaea, the book was also accepted as scripture by

2992-579: The Great (140–56 BC), a powerful King of Armenia who, according to Josephus and Strabo , conquered all of the lands identified by the Biblical author in Judith. Under this theory, the story, although fictional, would be set in the time of Queen Salome Alexandra , the only Jewish regnant queen, who reigned over Judea from 76 to 67 BC. Like Judith, the Queen had to face the menace of a foreign king who had

3080-536: The Great . For hundreds of years, the most generally accepted view within the Catholic Church is that the book of Judith occurs during the reign of Ashurbanipal , a notoriously cruel and brutal Assyrian king whose reign was marked by various military campaigns and invasions. Ashurbanipal ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from Nineveh in 668 to 627 BC. The Challoner Douay-Rheims Bible states that

3168-516: The Hebrew Bible, the Vulgate , counted it among the apocrypha, (though he later changed his mind, quoted it as scripture, and said he merely expressed the views of the Jews), as did Athanasius , Cyril of Jerusalem , and Epiphanius of Salamis . Many influential fathers and doctors of the Church, including Augustine , Basil of Caesarea , Tertullian , John Chrysostom , Ambrose , Bede

3256-532: The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also frequently differ from the Biblical record regarding the names of the high priests of Israel . Elsewhere in the Bible there are also names of rulers that are unknown to history, such as Darius the Mede from the Book of Daniel , or Ahasuerus from the Book of Esther . The large size of the Assyrian army and the large size of Median walls in the book have also been criticized, but both of these have been attested to elsewhere in

3344-610: The Old Testament only those books that are found in the Jewish canon. Martin Luther viewed the book as an allegory, but listed it as the first of the eight writings in his Apocrypha. In Anglicanism , it has the intermediate authority of the Apocrypha of the Old Testament and is regarded as useful or edifying, but is not to be taken as a basis for establishing doctrine. Judith is also referred to in chapter 28 of 1 Meqabyan ,

3432-695: The Venerable and Hilary of Poitiers , considered the book sacred scripture both before and after councils that formally declared it part of the biblical canon. In a 405 letter, Pope Innocent I declared it part of the Christian canon . In Jerome's Prologue to Judith , he claims that the Book of Judith was "found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures". No such declaration has been found in

3520-550: The basis of the minor Jewish tradition to eat dairy products during Hanukkah. In that respect, the Jewry of Europe during the Middle Ages appear to have viewed Judith as the Maccabean - Hasmonean counterpart to Queen Esther , the heroine of the holiday of Purim . The textual reliability of the Book of Judith was also taken for granted, to the extent that biblical commentator Nachmanides (Ramban) quoted several passages from

3608-507: The battle between "Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians" and "Arphaxad, the king of the Medes" as the battle that occurred between Ashurbanipal and Phraortes . This battle occurred during the seventeenth year of Ashurbanipal's reign, and the book of Judith states that this battle occurred in the seventeenth year of "Nebuchadnezzar's" reign. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet expressed a similar view regarding this. The scholars used specific examples from

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3696-422: The biblical tradition. The structure of the Song of Deborah is as follows: The call to hear this song contains parallel terms and syntax with the formulaic introduction 'hear/give ear' (cf Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2), to state that YHWH , both the muse and victor, is the ultimate source and receiver of the song. Verses 24–27 present another version of the tale of Jael in wonderfully economic style, with

3784-440: The book dates to the reign of Manasseh corresponds to Ashurbanipal's reign, and Ashurbanipal's records name Manasseh as one of a number of vassals who assisted his campaign against Egypt. The profanation of the temple described in Judith 4:3 might have been that under king Hezekiah (see 2 Chronicles 33 :18–19), who reigned between c. 715 and 686 BC. And in that same verse, the return from the dispersion (often assumed to refer to

3872-525: The book was attributed to the prophet Samuel , but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History , which spans the books of Deuteronomy through Kings , attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in the 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judge Deborah , belonging to a section comprising Judges 3:1 to 5:31 . This chapter

3960-746: The book was written "in Chaldean (Aramaic) words". Jerome's Latin translation was based on an Aramaic manuscript and was shorter because he omitted passages that he could not read or understand in the Aramaic that otherwise existed in the Septuagint. The Aramaic manuscript used by Jerome has long since been lost . Carey A. Moore argued that the Greek text of Judith was a translation from a Hebrew original, and used many examples of conjectured translation errors, Hebraic idioms, and Hebraic syntax. The extant Hebrew manuscripts are very late and only date back to

4048-510: The book, introduced in chapter 8 as a God-fearing woman, she is the daughter of Merari, a Simeonite , and widow of a certain Manasseh or Manasses, a wealthy farmer. She sends her maid or "waitingwoman" to Uzziah to challenge his decision to capitulate to the Assyrians if God has not rescued the people of Bethulia within five days, and she uses her charm to become an intimate friend of Holofernes, but beheads him allowing Israel to counter-attack

4136-547: The characters and events in the Book as either an allegorical representation of actual events, or a historical document that had been altered or translated improperly. The practice of changing names has been observed in documents from the Second Temple period , such as the Damascus Document , which apparently contains references to an uncertain location referred to by the pseudonym of "Damascus". The writings of

4224-417: The coming of Sisera with the spoils of war, it was Sisera himself who has been despoiled at the hands of a warrior woman. The abrupt burst by which the song ends depicts the completeness of the overthrow, causing it to be long remembered as an example of Israel's triumph over God's enemies ( Psalm 83 :9–10; Psalm 83:12–15). Book of Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in

4312-581: The councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393), Carthage (397), and Florence (1442) and eventually dogmatically defined as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church in 1546 in the Council of Trent . The Eastern Orthodox Church also accepts Judith as inspired scripture; this was confirmed in the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 . The canonicity of Judith is typically rejected by Protestants, who accept as

4400-468: The date of its composition is controversial. Many scholars claim a date as early as the 12th century BCE, while others claim it to be as late as the 3rd century BCE. Some hold that the song was written no earlier than the 7th century BCE. Traditional Jewish chronology places Deborah's 40 years of judging Israel ( Judges 5:31 ) from 1107 BC until her death in 1067 BC. The Dictionary of World Biography: The Ancient World claims that she might have lived in

4488-652: The defeat of Canaanite adversaries by some of the tribes of Israel. The song itself differs slightly from the events described in Judges 4 . The song mentions six participating tribes: Ephraim , Benjamin , Machir —a group associated with the Tribe of Manasseh — Zebulun , Issachar and Naphtali , as opposed to the two tribes in Judges 4:6 (Naphtali and Zebulun) and does not mention the role of Jabin (king of Hazor ). The song also rebukes three other tribes ( Reuben , Dan , and Asher ) for their lack of patriotism, not mentioning

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4576-465: The eighteenth year of Ashurbanipal's reign. The book of Judith states that "Nebuchadnezzar" ravaged the western part of the empire in the eighteenth year of his reign. If the events of this book did occur during Ashurbanipal's reign, it is possible that Assyrians did not record it because they were preoccupied with Šamaš-šuma-ukin's revolt, which was not crushed for years to come. Ashurbanipal's successful crushing of Šamaš-šuma-ukin's civil war also prevented

4664-644: The epic, she is the brave warrior, forceful and active; in the homily she is an exemplar of pious chastity for cloistered nuns. In both cases, her narrative gained relevance from the Norse Viking invasions of the period. Within the next three centuries Judith would be treated by such major figures as Heinrich Frauenlob , Dante , and Geoffrey Chaucer . In medieval Christian art, the predominance of church patronage assured that Judith's patristic valences as "Mulier Sancta" and Virgin Mary prototype would prevail: from

4752-436: The events in the book of Judith, this theory has largely been abandoned. Modern scholars argue in favor of a 2nd–1st century context for the Book of Judith, understanding it as a sort of roman à clef, i.e. a literary fiction whose characters stand for some real historical figure, generally contemporary to the author. In the case of the Book of Judith, Biblical scholar Gabriele Boccaccini, identified Nebuchadnezzar with Tigranes

4840-502: The events of the book begin in A.M. 3347, or Ante C. 657, which would be during the reign of Ashurbanipal. This would be the twelfth year of Ashurbanipal's reign, which lines up with the book of Judith beginning in the twelfth year of "Nebuchadnezzar". If the rest of the book occurs in the seventeenth and eighteenth years of Ashurbanipal, the years would be 653 and 652 BC, years that correspond to revolts and military campaigns across Ashurbanipal's empire. The traditional Catholic view that

4928-458: The events of the book occurred while Manasseh was still captive in Babylon . Whatever the case, it was a typical policy of the time for the Israelites to follow the high priest if the king could not or would not lead. Manasseh is thought by most scholars to have joined a widespread rebellion against Ashurbanipal that was led by his brother, Šamaš-šuma-ukin . Contemporary sources make reference to

5016-483: The form of a historical fiction , or a propaganda literary work from the days of the Seleucid oppression . It has also been called "an example of the ancient Jewish novel in the Greco-Roman period". Other scholars note that Judith fits within and even incorporates the genre of "salvation traditions" from the Old Testament, particularly the story of Deborah and Jael ( Judges 4–5), who seduced and inebriated

5104-633: The heroine, liturgical poems, commentaries on the Talmud, and passages in Jewish legal codes." Although the text does not mention Hanukkah , it became customary for a Hebrew midrashic variant of the Judith story to be read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah as the story of Hanukkah takes place during the time of the Hasmonean dynasty. That midrash, whose heroine is portrayed as gorging the antagonist on cheese and wine before cutting off his head, may have formed

5192-606: The lack of his name in the book of Judith. The identity of Nebuchadnezzar was unknown to the Church Fathers , but some of them attempted an improbable identification with Artaxerxes III Ochus (359–338 BC), not on the basis of the character of the two rulers, but due to the presence of a "Holofernes" and a "Bagoas" in Ochus' army. This view also gained currency with scholarship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, due to discrepancies between Artaxerxes's reign and

5280-526: The land of Ephraim . The people of Israel had been oppressed by Jabin , the king of Canaan , whose capital was Hazor , for twenty years. Stirred by the wretched condition of Israel she sends a message to Barak , the son of Abinoam, at Kedesh in Naphtali , and tells him that the Lord God had commanded him to muster ten thousand troops of Naphtali and Zebulun and concentrate them upon Mount Tabor ,

5368-520: The many allies of Chaldea (governed by Šamaš-šuma-ukin), including the Kingdom of Judah , which were subjects of Assyria and are mentioned in the Book of Judith as victims of Ashurbanipal's Western campaign. The Encyclopædia Britannica identified "Judah" as one of the vassal kingdoms in Šamaš-šuma-ukin's rebel coalition against Ashurbanipal. The Cambridge Ancient History also confirms that "several princes of Palestine " supported Šamaš-šuma-ukin in

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5456-491: The mountain at the northern angle of the great plain of Esdraelon . At the same time she states that the Lord God of Israel will draw Sisera , commander of Jabin's army, to the Kishon River . Barak declines to go without the prophet. Deborah consents, but declares that the glory of the victory will therefore belong to a woman. As soon as the news of the rebellion reaches Sisera, he collects nine hundred chariots of iron and

5544-537: The other heroic women of the Hebrew scriptural tradition, made into a typological prefiguration of the Virgin Mary . Her gender made her a natural example of the biblical paradox of "strength in weakness"; she is thus paired with David and her beheading of Holofernes paralleled with that of Goliath – both deeds saved the Covenant People from a militarily superior enemy. Judith , the protagonist of

5632-803: The people want to surrender (7:6–32) Part II (8:1–16:25) A. Introduction of Judith (8:1–8) A'. Conclusion about Judith (16.1–25) Similarly, parallels within Part II are noted in comments within the New American Bible Revised Edition : Judith summons a town meeting in Judith 8:10 in advance of her expedition and is acclaimed by such a meeting in Judith 13:12–13; Uzziah blesses Judith in advance in Judith 8:5 and afterwards in Judith 13:18–20. Most contemporary exegetes , such as Biblical scholar Gianfranco Ravasi , generally tend to ascribe Judith to one of several contemporaneous literary genres, reading it as an extended parable in

5720-535: The period between 1200 BC to 1124 BC. Based on archaeological findings, different biblical scholars have argued that Deborah's war with Sisera best fits the context of either the second half of the 12th century BC or the second half of the 11th century BC. Judges 5 Judges 5 is the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible . According to Jewish tradition

5808-509: The reader's mind, and her seduction and beheading of the wicked Holofernes while playing this role has been rich fodder for artists of various genres. The first extant commentary on The Book of Judith is by Hrabanus Maurus (9th century). Thenceforth her presence in Medieval literature is robust: in homilies, biblical paraphrases, histories and poetry. An Old English poetic version is found together with Beowulf (their epics appear both in

5896-399: The reign of King Manasseh of Judah and that the names were changed in later centuries for an unknown reason. The Jewish Encyclopedia identifies Shechem (modern day Nablus ) as "Bethulia", and argues that the name was changed because of the feud between the Jews and Samaritans . If this is the case, it would explain why other names seem anachronistic as well. It is not clear whether

5984-408: The repetition that underscores the violent turn in the action as Jael is described as one who strikes, crushes, shatters, and pierces, as she at the same time seduced and slaughtered the enemy. In contrast to Jael as a tent-dwelling woman, the mother of Sisera is an noblewomen peering from a house with lattice-work windows (cf. 2 Kings 10:30), accompanied by ladies-in-waiting, but instead of expecting

6072-427: The revolt against Ashurbanipal, which seemingly confirms Manasseh's involvement in the revolt. This would explain the reinforcement of the cities described in this book and why the Israelites and other western kingdoms rejected "Nebuchadnezzar's" order for conscription, because many of the vassal rulers of the west supported Šamaš-šuma-ukin. It is of further interest that Šamaš-šuma-ukin's civil war broke out in 652 BC,

6160-525: The rise of the threat to Israel, led by king Nebuchadnezzar and his sycophantic general Holofernes, and is concluded as Holofernes' worldwide campaign has converged at the mountain pass where Judith's village, Bethulia , is located. Chapters 8–16 then introduce Judith and depict her heroic actions to save her people. The first part, although at times tedious in its description of the military developments, develops important themes by alternating battles with reflections and rousing action with rest. In contrast,

6248-480: The same as the Belamon of Judith 8:3 , and thence to Kyamon, or Chelmon , "which lies over against Esdrelon" ( Judith 7:3 ). These data point to a site on the heights west of Jenin (Engannim), between the plains of Esdrelon and Dothan, where Haraiq el-Mallah, Khirbet Sheikh Shibel and el-Bârid lie close together. Such a site best fulfills all requirements for the location of Bethulia. The Madaba Map mosaic from

6336-422: The second half is devoted mainly to Judith's strength of character and the beheading scene. The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha identifies a clear chiastic pattern in both "acts", in which the order of events is reversed at a central moment in the narrative (i.e., abcc'b'a'). Part I (1:1–7:23) A. Campaign against disobedient nations; the people surrender (1:1–2:13) A'. Campaign against Bethulia;

6424-487: The six refrains that state that the Israelites did evil in Yahweh's eyes: Panel One Panel Two Furthermore from the linguistic evidence, the verbs used to describe the Lord's response to Israel's sin have chiastic patterns and can be grouped to fit the division above: Panel One Panel Two The victory song attributed to Deborah in this chapter is one of the oldest extant Israelite literary compositions dating to around

6512-411: The tent of Jael and lies down to rest. He asks for a drink, she gives him milk and he falls asleep. While he is asleep she hammers a tent-pin through his temple. The Biblical account of Deborah ends with the statement that after the battle, there was peace in the land for 40 years ( Judges 5:31 ). The Song of Deborah is found in Judges 5:2–31 and is a victory hymn , sung by Deborah and Barak, about

6600-535: The text that line up with Manasseh's reign. As argued by Vigouroux, the two battles mentioned in the Septuagint version of the Book of Judith are a reference to the clash of the two empires in 658–657 and to Phraortes' death in battle in 653, after which Ashurbanipal continued his military actions with a large campaign starting with the Battle of the Ulai River (653 BC) in the eighteenth year of his reign. The King of

6688-468: The time of the Seleucids, it is unlikely that these were the original names in the text. Jeremy Corley argued that Judith was originally composed in Greek that was carefully modeled after Hebrew and pointed out "Septuagintalisms" in the vocabulary and phrasing of the Greek text. While the author was likely Jewish, there is no evidence aside from its inclusion in the Septuagint that the Book of Judith

6776-463: The tribes of Gad, Simeon and Judah. Michael Coogan writes that for the redactors of the Song of Deborah, that the Canaanite general Sisera ends up being murdered by a woman ( Jael )—the ultimate degradation—"is a further sign that Yahweh ultimately is responsible for the victory". Though the presence of victory hymns is conventional in the Hebrew Bible, the Song of Deborah is unusual in that it

6864-507: The very first verse, and is too prevalent thereafter to be considered as the result of mere historical mistakes." The names of people are either unknown to history or appear to be anachronistic, and many of the place names are also unknown. The Catholic Church has always considered the book to be a historical document, and it is included with the other historical books in the Old Testament of Catholic Bibles. For this reason, there have been various attempts by both scholars and clergy to understand

6952-401: Was corroborated by similar accounts of the scale of the walls of Babylon by the historians Strabo , Ctesias and Cleitarchus . The identity of the "Nebuchadnezzar" in the book has been debated for thousands of years and various rulers have been proposed by scholars, including Ashurbanipal , Artaxerxes III , Tigranes the Great , Antiochus IV Epiphanes , Cambyses II , Xerxes and Darius

7040-537: Was ever considered authoritative or a candidate for canonicity by any Jewish group. The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible does not contain it; it is not found among the Dead Sea Scrolls or any early Rabbinic literature. Speculated reasons for its exclusion include the possible lateness of its composition, possible Greek origin, apparent support of the Hasmonean dynasty (to which the early rabbinate

7128-660: Was intending to sack Egypt, this would give further evidence to the theory that the book is set during the reign of Ashurbanipal, who had previously sacked Thebes in 663 BC. The view that the book of Judith was written during the reigns of Manasseh and Ashurbanipal was held by a great number of Catholic scholars, including Calmet, George Leo Haydock , Thomas Worthington , Richard Challoner , Giovanni Stefano Menochio , Sixtus of Siena , Robert Bellarmine , Charles François Houbigant , Nicolaus Serarius , Pierre Daniel Huet and Bernard de Montfaucon . Many of these theologians are cited and quoted by Calmet in his own commentary on Judith,

7216-416: Was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus ( B ; G {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}} ; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus ( A ; G {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}} ; 5th century). A linguistic study by Chisholm reveals that the central part in the Book of Judges (Judges 3:7–16:31) can be divided into two panels based on

7304-475: Was opposed), and perhaps the brash and seductive character of Judith herself. After disappearing from circulation among Jews for over a millennium, however, references to the Book of Judith and the figure of Judith herself resurfaced in the religious literature of crypto-Jews who escaped Christian persecution after the capitulation of the Caliphate of Córdoba . The renewed interest took the form of "tales of

7392-583: Was originally written in the Hebrew language . It is divided into 31 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (originally

7480-457: Was possible in Maccabean times only after John Hyrcanus reconquered those territories. Thus, the presumed Sadducee author of Judith would desire to honor the great (Pharisee) Queen who tried to keep both Sadducees and Pharisees united against the common menace. Although there is no historically recorded "Bethulia", the book of Judith gives an extremely precise location for where the city

7568-405: Was situated on a mountain overlooking the plain of Jezrael , or Esdrelon , and commanding narrow passes to the south ( Judith 4:6–7; 6:11–13 ); at the foot of the mountain there was an important spring, and other springs were in the neighborhood ( Judith 6:11; 7:3, 7, 12 ). Moreover, it lay within investing lines which ran through Dothain , or Dothan, now Tell Dothân, to Belthem, or Belma, no doubt

7656-624: Was so widespread that it was the only identification in English Catholic Bibles for several hundred years. The 1738 Challoner revision of the Douay Rheims Bible and the Haydock Biblical Commentary specifically declare that "Nabuchodonosor" was "known as 'Saosduchin' to profane historians and succeeded 'Asarhaddan' in the kingdom of the Assyrians". This could only have been Ashurbanipal, as he

7744-531: Was the successor of Esarhaddon, his father. It is unclear where the name "Saosduchin" came from, although it is possible that it was derived from the Canon of Kings by the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy , who wrote in Greek that " Saosdouchinos " followed " Asaradinos " as the king of Assyria. While influential, Ptolemy's record is not perfect, and Ptolemy likely got Ashurbanipal confused with his brother, Šamaš-šuma-ukin, who ruled over Babylon, not Assyria. This would be

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