Judith

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

Here is the content of the book. Nebuchadnezzar king of Assyria defeats the Medes and sends Holofernes to take vengeance on the western peoples who had refused to come to his aid (1-2:20). The countries are devastated, Phoenicia and Philistia surrender; Holofernes arrives at Esdrelon against the Jews, who alone resist (2:21-4:15). Achior the Ammonite gives Holofernes the reason for this resistance in the protection of Yahweh and advises prudence (5:1-21). Holofernes, irritated, has him bound and fall into the hands of the Jews. He besieges Bethulia and, by cutting off access to the springs, reduces it to extremity (5:21-7:32).

In the face of the determination to surrender, imposed on the leaders by the Bethulians, J. intervenes with her ardent faith; she prays, mortifies herself, promises salvation and conceives a bold plan (8-9). Carefully adorned, she goes out with her maidservant toward the Assyrians; she captivates Holofernes and obtains from him freedom of movement, for her religious practices (10-12:9). Invited to a banquet and left alone with Holofernes, while he, drunk with wine, lies in a deep sleep, she cuts off his head and returns with her trophy to Bethulia (12:10-13:20).

J. arranges everything for victory. The Assyrians, having learned of the death of their leader, scatter, pursued from every side by the Jews (14-15:7). The people exalt J., who breaks forth into a canticle of praise and thanksgiving to God (15:8-16:17). The virtuous, long-lived life and death of J. (16:18-25).

The original Hebrew text (L. Soubigou [v. bibl.], pp. 483-86) has been lost; its place is taken by the Greek version in threefold form; the best (codd. BAS) is the basis of the critical text (ed. A. Rahlfs, I, Stuttgart 1935, pp. 951-73); the other two, cod. 58 (ancient Latin and Syriac version) and codd. 19, 108 (Lucianic recension) are derived from the former (A. Miller [v. bibl.], p. 17 ff.). The Vulgate, a hasty and rather free elaboration by St. Jerome (PL 29, 39 ff.) on an Aramaic exemplar, is a fifth shorter than the Greek and holds a secondary place (A. Vaccari [v. bibl.], p. 304). In the greater and more serious part of the cases the texts agree: an indication of an authentic, original reading (Vaccari).

The most important problem concerns the historicity of the book of J. The text offers passim clearly conflicting data: Nebuchadnezzar (605-562) king of Nineveh (destroyed in 612); whereas it would be (Judt. 4:3; 5:18 ff. [Vulg. 22 ff.]) after the exile and the rebuilding of the Temple (538-438). Nebuchadnezzar would fight against Arphaxad (unknown) king of the Medes, would storm Ecbatana; whereas it is known that he did not fight the Medes, nor did he ever conquer Ecbatana. Finally, besides the strange geographical indications, Bethulia, the high priest Joachim (or Eliakim), and J. herself are ignored by the whole Old Testament. For non-Catholics, starting from Luther (and some Catholics: J. Jahn, F. C. Movers, F. Lenormant), it is a merely didactic-parenetic book (cf. E. Schürer [v. bibl.]; G. Luzzi [v. bibl.], pp. 225-28), without any historical foundation. The author teaches that Israel has in Yahweh its sure, omnipotent protector; a theme of topicality and great usefulness for sustaining the Jews in the Maccabean period and the one immediately preceding.

All the ancients, on the other hand, maintained its historicity; still among the recent: G. Brunengo, F. Vigouroux, etc.; G. Brunner; and the Protestants J. von Gumpach, O. Wolff. It may well be said that the intermediate position is by now common among Catholics; it is a didactic composition with a historical foundation; or rather a free narration of a historical fact for a didactic-parenetic purpose (Miller, Soubigou, Vaccari, etc.). In reality, if one observes well, the difficulties arise from the names chosen by the author for the persons and places: a choice connected with the principal purpose already mentioned. For example, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyer of Jerusalem, as the type of the enemies of the theocratic nation; Nineveh, whose end was foretold by Nahum and so ruinously realized, as an expression of the power of Yahweh, a motive of confidence for Israel. "Everything leads one to think that the sacred author, for some reason of expediency or of symbolism, wished to give to places and persons names different from the true ones. For contemporaries it must have been easy, for us instead very arduous, to understand what is hidden under the veil of those strange names" (Vaccari [v. 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 that reach as far as Trajan (G. Volkmar), while the book of J. is already known by St. Clement of Rome (ca. 95 A.D.): cf. A. Condamin (v. bibl.), col. 1560 ff.

The identification with Artaxerxes III Ochus (358-337) is by now common: already Sulpicius Severus (5th cent.: PL 20, 137 ff.), Condamin, Miller, Soubigou, Vaccari, etc. The era is after the exile (Judt. 4:3, 13 ff.; 5:18; 9:1, 13; 16:17 ff.); there is no trace of idolatry (8:18); the exact observance of the law is in force (12:2-9, etc.; Miller, pp. 7-13). The expression "to prepare the earth and the 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 Vagao, in the Septuagint Bagoas (12:10; etc.), are exactly named by Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca historica, XVI, 47, 4; XVII, 5, 3; XXXI, 19, 2 ff.); they take part as subordinate commanders in the campaign against Egypt and the rebellious western satraps (353-351 ca.). In this time the episode of J. finds its place (Soubigou, pp. 492, 512 ff., 556; cf. Schürer, p. 169 ff.). Brunner identifies Nebuchadnezzar with Araka, a rebel against Darius I (ca. 520); in fact Araka took the name of Nebuchadnezzar IV (inscription of Behistun, line 49 ff.). He thus better explains why the Jews, faithful to Darius, were not molested following the killing of Holofernes; but every other reference is lacking (A. Miller, in Biblica, 23 [1942], pp. 95-100).

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

The author, who wrote in the 3rd century B.C., wishes to show how fidelity to Yahweh saves Israel from every danger (8:11-27; 16:1-7); the example of J., chaste and pious (8:4 ff.; 12:2-9; 16:22 ff.), who triumphs over the powerful enemy, is effective proof of this. The stratagem of J. does not go beyond what was then held lawful in war against the enemy. "The impure affections that could arise in the heart of Holofernes J. neither sought nor even feared, supported as she was in God (13:16-19). By having cut off the head of the enemy without injury to her chastity, she won a double triumph, moral and civil at once. For this reason Catholic piety saw in J. a figure of the Immaculate, who, untouched by the impure breath of the tempter, crushes the head of the infernal serpent" (Vaccari, p. 305).

The book of J. is missing from the Hebrew canon, from the end of the 1st century A.D.; such exclusion was arbitrary (v. ECCLESIASTICO). Both in the Fathers and in ecclesiastical documents the divine origin of J. 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

G. was represented, together with Esther, in the 5th-century basilica of St. Felix in Nola (St. Paulinus of Nola, Carmen, 28, 26: PL 61, 663).

Representations of G. in art are very numerous, going back to 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 Bible of Winchester Cathedral, from the 12th century. Most often G. is depicted either in the act of cutting off Holofernes' head, or, immediately afterward, with the severed head in one hand and the sword in the other, or else on the road back to Bethulia followed by the maidservant carrying the spoils of the miraculous victory. Thus she appears in the reliefs of the north portal of Chartres Cathedral, in another at Rouen, in the illustrations of certain Bibles of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, preserved in Oxford, Munich, and Paris, or in the works of great painters of the following centuries. It suffices to recall Botticelli's diptych at the Uffizi, Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel, Giorgione's G. in the Hermitage, that of Baldassarre Peruzzi in the church of S. Maria della Pace in Rome (1517), the celebrated canvases of Tintoretto in the Prado Museum. Also to be remembered are those of Lucas Cranach in Gotha and Cassel; the other by H. Baldung in the German Museum in Berlin, that of the Pitti Gallery by Orazio Gentileschi, and the others still, highly dramatic, by Artemisia Gentileschi, in the Vatican Pinacoteca and the Uffizi Gallery.

Serena Madonna Setti