Judith (Heb. Yēhūdhith, Vulg. Iudith)

JUDITH (Heb. Jēhūdhith, Vulg. Iudith). — A pious and heroic widow who delivered Bethulia; the name Jēhūdhith had already been borne by the wife of Esau, daughter of the Hittite Beeri (Gen. 26:34). She gives her name to the sacred book which recounts her deeds.

Here is the book’s content. King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria defeats the Medes and sends Holofernes to exact vengeance on the western peoples who had refused to aid him (1–2:20). The lands are devastated, Phoenicia and Philistia surrender; Holofernes advances to Esdraelon against the Jews, who alone resist (2:21–4:15). The Ammonite Achior explains to Holofernes the reason for this resistance in the protection of Yahweh and advises caution (5:1–21). Enraged, Holofernes has him bound and delivered into the hands of the Jews. He besieges Bethulia and, by cutting off access to the springs, reduces it to the utmost extremity (5:21–7:32).

Faced with the decision to surrender imposed on the leaders by the Bethulians, Judith intervenes with her ardent faith; she prays, mortifies herself, promises deliverance, and conceives a bold plan (8–9). Carefully adorned, she goes forth with her maidservant toward the Assyrians; she captivates Holofernes and obtains freedom of movement for her religious observances (10–12:9). Invited to the banquet and left alone with Holofernes, while he, drunk with wine, lies in a deep sleep, she severs his head and returns with her trophy to Bethulia (12:10–13:20).

Judith arranges everything for the victory. The Assyrians, learning of their leader’s death, scatter in all directions, pursued by the Jews (14–15:7). The people exalt Judith, who bursts forth in a song of praise and thanksgiving to God (15:8–16:17). Virtuous life, long life, and death of Judith (16:18–25).

The original Hebrew text (L. Soubigou [see bibl.], pp. 483–86) is lost; it survives in a threefold Greek version; the best (mss. BAS) underlies the critical text (ed. A. Rahlfs, I, Stuttgart 1935, pp. 951–73); the other two, ms. 58 (Old Latin and Syriac) and mss. 19, 108 (Lucianic recension), derive from the former (A. Miller [see bibl.], p. 17 ff.). The Vulgate, a hurried and rather free adaptation by St Jerome (PL 29, 39 ff.) from an Aramaic exemplar, is about one-fifth shorter than the Greek and occupies a secondary place (A. Vaccari [see bibl.], p. 304). In the greater and more serious part of the cases the texts agree: an index of authentic, original reading (Vaccari).

The most important problem concerns the historicity of the book of Judith. The text offers here and there data that are clearly contradictory: Nebuchadnezzar (605–562) king of Nineveh (destroyed in 612); whereas he would be (Jdt. 4:3; 5:18 ff. [Vulg. 22 ff.]) after the exile and the rebuilding of the Temple (538–438). Nebuchadnezzar would wage war against Arphaxad (unknown) king of the Medes, capture Ecbatana; whereas it is known that he did not fight the Medes nor ever capture Ecbatana. Finally, apart from the strange geographical indications, Bethulia, the high priest Joakim (or Eliakim), Judith herself are unknown throughout the Old Testament. For non-Catholics, beginning with Luther (and some Catholics: J. Jahn, F. C. Movers, F. Lenormant), this is merely a didactic-parenetic book (cf. E. Schürer [see bibl.]; G. Luzzi [see bibl.], pp. 225–28), without any historical foundation. The author teaches that Israel has in Yahweh its sure, omnipotent protector; a theme of timeliness and great utility for sustaining the Jews in the Maccabean period and immediately before.

All the ancients, however, upheld its historicity; even among moderns: G. Brunengo, F. Vigouroux, etc.; G. Brunner; and the Protestants J. von Gumpach, O. Wolff. It can now be said that the intermediate position is common among Catholics: it is a didactic composition with historical foundation; or rather a free narration of a historical event for didactic-parenetic purpose (Miller, Soubigou, Vaccari, etc.). In reality, if one looks closely, the difficulties arise from the names chosen by the author for persons and places: a choice connected with the principal aim already noted. For example, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyer of Jerusalem, as a type of the enemies of the theocratic nation; Nineveh, whose end was foretold by Nahum and so ruinously fulfilled, as an expression of the power of Yahweh, a motive of trust for Israel. “Everything leads one to think that the sacred author, for some reason of expediency or symbolism, wished to give places and persons names different from the true ones. To contemporaries it must have been easy, to us however very difficult, to understand what is concealed beneath the veil of those strange names” (Vaccari [see bibl.], p. 304).

The starting point for determining the historical nucleus is the identification of Nebuchadnezzar. About twenty substitutions have been proposed, from Adad-nirari III (810–782) to Demetrius I Soter (161–151), with attempts extending even to Trajan (G. Volkmar), while the book of Judith was already known to St Clement of Rome (c. AD 95): cf. A. Condamin (see bibl.), cols. 1560 ff.

The identification with Artaxerxes III Ochus (358–337) is now common: already Sulpicius Severus (5th cent.: PL 20, 137 ff.), Condamin, Miller, Soubigou, Vaccari, etc. The period is after the exile (Jdt. 4:3, 13 ff.; 5:18; 9:1, 13; 16:17 ff.); there is no trace of idolatry (8:18); exact observance of the law prevails (12:2–9, etc.; Miller, pp. 7–13). The expression “prepare the land and water” to indicate the aid to be given to the troops (2:7; Soubigou, p. 513) is proper to the Persians (Herodotus, II, 48 ff.). Holofernes (2:4, etc.) and Bag(o)as, Septuagint Bagoas (12:10; etc.), are exactly named by Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca historica, XVI, 47:4; XVII, 5:3; XXXI, 19:2 ff.); they participate as subordinate commanders in the campaign against Egypt and the rebellious western satraps (c. 353–351). In this period the episode of Judith fits (Soubigou, pp. 492, 512 ff., 556; cf. Schürer, p. 169 ff.). Brunner identifies Nebuchadnezzar with Araka, rebel against Darius I (c. 520); indeed Araka took the name of Nebuchadnezzar IV (Behistun inscription, lines 49 ff.). This better explains why the Jews, loyal to Darius, were not molested after the killing of Holofernes; but every other reference is lacking (A. Miller, in Biblica, 23 [1942], pp. 95–100).

The other identification, more widespread especially in the past, of Nebuchadnezzar with Ashurbanipal (668–626), against his brother Shamash-shum-ukin, regent of Babylon, and the western allies, among whom Manasseh (F. Rouvio, Brunengo, E. Kalt, L. Dennefeld, etc.), clashes with the certain post-exilic data mentioned above (Soubigou, p. 490 ff.).

The author, who wrote in the 3rd century BC, wishes to show how fidelity to Yahweh saves Israel from every danger (8:11–27; 16:1–7); the example of Judith, chaste and pious (8:4 ff.; 12:2–9; 16:22 ff.), who triumphs over the powerful enemy, is an effective proof. Judith’s stratagem does not exceed what was then considered permissible in warfare against the enemy. “The impure affections that might arise in Holofernes’ heart Judith neither sought nor feared, sustained as she was in God (13:16–19). By cutting off the enemy’s head without impairing her own honor, she won a double triumph, moral as well as civic. For this Catholic piety saw in Judith a figure of the Immaculate One, who, untouched by the impure breath of the tempter, crushes the head of the infernal serpent” (Vaccari, p. 305).

The book of Judith is missing from the Hebrew canon from the end of the 1st century AD; this exclusion was arbitrary (see ECCLESIASTICUS). Both in the Fathers and in ecclesiastical documents the divine origin of Judith is attested.

Commenti recenti: M. Löhr, in E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen, I, Friburgo 1900, pp. 147-64; A. Piffard, Lilla 1901; T. André, Les Apocryphes de l'Ancien Testament, Firenze 1903, pp. 158-63; A. E. Cowley, in R. H. Charles, The Apokrypha, I, Oxford 1913, pp. 24-267; J. Keulers, Bruges 1927; N.B. Coleman, in C. Gore - H. L. Goudge - A. Guillaume, A new commentary, II, 2ª ed., Londra 1929, pp. 58-62; *G. Luzzi, Apocrifi dell'Ant. Test. (La Bibbia, 10), Firenze 1930, pp. 221-265; A. Miller, Bonn 1940; A. Vaccari, La S. Bibbia, III, Firenze 1948, pp. 303-43; L. Soubigou (La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 4), Parigi 1949, pp. 483-575.

Studi: G. Brunengo, II Nabuchodonosor di G., Roma 1888; G. Klein, Über das Buch Judith, Leida 1893; P. Rissler, Chronologische Fixierung der Heidenthat Judiths, in Der Katholik, 74, II (1894), pp. 1-8; F. Vigouroux, La Bible et les découvertes modernes, IV, 6ª ed., Parigi 1896, pp. 99-131; E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, III, 3ª ed., Lipsia 1898, pp. 167-74; F. Steinmetzer, Neue Untersuchungen über die Geschichtlichkeit der Juditherzählung, ivi 1907; A. Biolek, Die Ansicht des christlichen Altertums über den literarischen Charakter des Buches Judith (Weidenauer Studien, 4), Vienna 1911, pp. 324-68; C. Meyer, Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Buches Judith, in Biblica, 3 (1922), pp. 193-203; id., Utrum Iuditis laudanda au reprehendenda sit, in Verbum Domini, 3 (1923), pp. 173-79; E. E. Voigt, The latin versions of Judith, Lipsia 1925; I. de Vuippens, Darius I, le Nabuchodonosor du livre de Judith, in Estudis franciscans, 39 (1927), pp. 351-69; H. P. Chayes, Das Buch Judith, in Jüd. Jahrb. für Österr., 1 (1932-33), pp. 105-12; H.L. Jansen, La composition du chant de Judith, in Acta Orient., 15 (1936), pp. 63-71; F. Zimmerman, Aids for the recovery of the Hebrew original of Judith, in Journal of biblical literature, 57 (1938), pp. 67-74; G. Brunner, Der Nabuchodonosor des Buches Judith, Berlino 1940; J. Schwarz, Un fragment grec du livre de Judith (sur ostracam), in Revue biblique, 53 (1946), pp. 534-37; A. Colunga, El género literario de Judit, in Estudios bíblicos, 6 (1947), p. 449; e in Ciencia tomista, 74 (1948), pp. 98-125; F. Stummer, Geographie des Buches Judith, Stoccarda 1947 (cf. Revue biblique, 55 [1948], p. 138 sg.); A. Vaccari, Note estiche ed esegetiche. Judit 16, 11, in Biblica, 28 (1947), pp. 401-404; 29 (1948), p. 34

Francesco Spadafora

ICONOGRAPHY. – Judith was depicted, together with Esther, in the 5th-century basilica of St Felix at Nola (St Paulinus of Nola, Carmen, 28, 26: PL 61, 663).

There are very numerous representations of J. in art from as early as the Middle Ages. Sometimes the entire biblical story is narrated in various episodes, as in a 10th-century Byzantine manuscript preserved in the Vatican Library or in the Winchester Cathedral Bible of the 12th century. Most often, however, J. is depicted either in the act of severing Holofernes’ head, or immediately afterward with the severed head in one hand and the sword in the other, or on the return journey to Bethulia accompanied by her maidservant bearing the spoils of her prodigious victory. This is how she appears in the reliefs of the north portal of Chartres Cathedral, in another at Rouen, in the illustrations of certain 13th-, 14th-, and 15th-century Bibles preserved in Oxford, Munich, and Paris, or in the works of great painters of the following centuries. It suffices to recall Botticelli’s diptych in the Uffizi, Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Giorgione’s J. in the Hermitage, Baldassarre Peruzzi’s J. in the church of S. Maria della Pace in Rome (1517), the celebrated canvases by Tintoretto in the Prado Museum. Also noteworthy are those by Lucas Cranach in Gotha and Kassel; another by H. Baldung in the Germanic Museum in Berlin, the one in the Pitti Gallery by Orazio Gentileschi, and the other highly dramatic works by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Vatican Pinacoteca and the Uffizi Gallery.