Book of Judith
- "Judith" redirects here.
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The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles, but excluded by Jews and Protestants. Although artfully constructed the book contains numerous historical anachronisms.
The story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for being unwilling to engage their foreign conquerors. During the final stages of siege which has convinced her city of Bethuliah to surrender, she travels to the camp of the enemy general, Holofernes and seductively ingratiates herself to him. Soon, 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 are soon routed and Israel is saved. Though she is courted by many, Judith remains quietly unmarried for the rest of her life.
The name Judith (Hebrew: יְהוּדִית, Standard Yehudit Tiberian Yəhûḏîṯ ; "Praised" or "Jewess", Arabic: يهوديت Yahūdīt) is the feminine form of Judah.
Setting and date
As a historical tale, Judith's scenes are enlivened and given immediacy by their setting. Rather than a work of sacred history, however, it is best understood as a type of pious historical novels. "Nebuchadnezzar" is portrayed as a "King of Assyria" who reigns in Nineveh, but the real king of that name was a Babylonian. Nor can he be the Assyrian king of the same name, for the setting is clearly after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. With the very first words of the tale—"In the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned over the Assyrians in Nineveh"—compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia argue that the narrator sets his story in the equivalent of "once upon a time."
The story's geographical setting in a city called "Bethulia," a possible pun on the Hebrew word for "virgin," is also believed by many to be fictional, but some suggest either Shechem or Meselieh as the story's actual setting. The historical Nebuchadnezzar II actually did conquer Judah after the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by the Assyrians, but here is foiled.
The Book of Judith was probably written in Hebrew. However the oldest versions of its actual text are Greek translations included in the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible. Although the book was later rejected by rabbinical authorities, it was recognized as canonical by Christians until the Protestant Reformation, which generally rejected it. Even though the Book of Judith is not part of the official Jewish religious canon, it regained popularity among Jews in the medieval period and remains popular today.
Judith in later artistic renditions
The Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric wrote a homily about Judith. See Judith (homily). A poem Judith in Old English also treats the beheading of Holofernes. See Judith (poem).
In the Renaissance, the story of Judith became an exemplum of the courage of local people against tyrannical rule from afar. The Dalmatian Humanist Marko Marulić (1450-1524) reworked the Judith story in his Renaissance literary work, Judita. His inspiration came from the contemporary heroic struggle of the Croats against the Ottomans in Europe.
Judith and Holofernes, the famous bronze sculpture by Donatello, bears the implied allegorical subtext that was inescapable in Early Renaissance Florence, that of the courage of the commune against tyranny. Michelangelo painted Judith in the corner of the Sistine chapel. Other Italian painters who took up the theme include Botticelli, Giorgione, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Caravaggio, Leonello Spada, Bartolomeo Manfredi and Artemisia Gentileschi. In the north, Lucas Cranach, Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens used the story. In European art, Judith is normally accompanied by her maid at her shoulder, which helps to distinguish her from Salome, who also carries her head on a silver charger (plate). However a Northern tradition developed whereby Judith had both a maid and a charger, famously taken by Erwin Panofsky as an example of the knowledge needed in the study of iconography.
In the Renaissance, especially in Germany an interest developed in female "worthies" and heroines, to match the traditional male sets. Subjects combining sex and violence were also popular with collectors. Like Lucretia, Judith was the subject of a disproportionate number of old master prints, sometimes shown nude. Barthel Beham engraved three compositions of the subject, and other of the "Little Masters" did several more. Jacopo de' Barberi, Girolamo Mocetta after a Mantegna design, Parmigianino, and Jacques Callot also made prints of the subject. The first reproductive print of his work commissioned by Rubens was an engraving by Cornelius Galle of his violent "large Judith," now in the Palazzo Barberini.[1] Judith was one of the virtuous women whom Van Beverwijck mentioned in his published apology (1639) for the superiority of women to men.[2] Judith was depicted by Eglon van der Neer.
Alessandro Scarlatti wrote an oratorio in 1693, La Giuditta; Juditha triumphans was written in 1716 by Antonio Vivaldi; Mozart composed in 1771 La Betulia Liberata (KV 118), to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. Judith is by Russian composer Alexander Serov.
In 1841 Friedrich Hebbel published his closet drama Judith, but in the English language, blanket censorship of all biblical subjects on the stage set the theme off-limits until the twentieth century,[citation needed] when the British playwright Howard Barker examined the Judith story and its aftermath, first in the scene "The Unforeseen Consequences of a Patriotic Act," as part of his collection of vignettes, The Possibilities. Barker later expanded the scene into a short play Judith.
In 2007 Philippe Fénelon (French, born in 1952) composed Judith, an opera with one act and five pictures (monodrama), based on a booklet adaptated from the Friedrich Hebbel's drama, in German (creation on 28/11/07 at the Pleyel Room, Paris, ordered by the Opera National de Paris).
See also
- List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes
- Michelangelo Buonarroti 038.jpg
Michelangelo's Judith carries away the head of Holofernes
Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi
- Klimpt01.JPG
Judith I by Gustav Klimt
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
External links
- The Book of Judith Full text (also available in Arabic)
- Text of the Book of Judith
- Another text, this one including a link to download as a single document
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Judith
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Book of Judith
- World Wide Study Bible: Judith
- A Historical Commentary on the Book of Judith
| Preceded by: Tobit |
Books of the Bible |
Succeeded by: Esther |
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