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Judith |
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Judith [Heb.,=Jewess], early Jewish book included in the Septuagint, but not included in the Hebrew Bible, and placed in the Apocrypha of Protestant Bibles. It recounts an attack on the Jews by an army led by Holofernes, Nebuchadnezzar's general. Bethulia, a besieged Jewish city, is about to surrender when Judith, a Jewish widow of great beauty and piety, takes it upon herself to enter the enemy camp. She gains the favor of Holofernes, who seeks an opportunity to seduce her. Judith beheads him while he is drunk. Judith returns to the city with his head, and the Jews rout the enemy. The story depicts Judith as an example for godly Jews when God's commitment to saving his people is mocked. Texts of Judith exist in several ancient languages. The book might be based on a folk-tale and was probably composed in Palestine during the Hasmonean period (c.160–37 B.C.). The identification of Nebuchadnezzar as king of Assyria (he was king of Babylon) may indicate that the book is not intended as literal history. However, there are historical analogies for the invasion, especially that of Antiochus IV Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) (āntī`əkəs ēpĭf`ənēz), d. 163 B.C., king of Syria (175 B.C. ..... Click the link for more information. . Another Judith, a wife of Esau, is named in the Book of Genesis. BibliographySee C. A. Moore, Judith (1985). See also bibliography under Apocrypha 1)); First and Second Maccabees ; the Prayer of Manasses (see Manasseh ). All are included in the Septuagint , with the exception of 2 Esdras=4 Ezra. However, they were not included in the Hebrew canon (ratified c.A.D. 100). JudithLegendary Jewish heroine, the central character in the Book of Judith in the Apocrypha. (The book is excluded from the Hebrew Bible.) A beautiful Jewish widow whose city is besieged by the Assyrians under their general, Holofernes, Judith leaves the city in pretended flight and foretells victory to Holofernes. Invited into his tent, she cuts off his head as he lies in a drunken sleep, and the Jews defeat the leaderless Assyrians. Probably fictional, the story may have been written in the 2nd century BC, after the end of the Maccabean revolt. Judith saved her city from the onslaught of Holofernes by beheading him during a drunken sleep. [Apocrypha: Judith 13:4-10] See : Heroism |
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I could almost fancy it was thirty years back, and I was a little gell at home, looking at Judith as she sat at her work, after she'd done the house up; only it was a little cottage, Father's was, and not a big rambling house as gets dirty i' one corner as fast as you clean it in another--but for all that, I could fancy you was your Aunt Judith, only her hair was a deal darker than yours, and she was stouter and broader i' the shoulders. And there with the strained craft steeply leaning over to it, by reason of the enormous downward drag from the lower mast-head, and every yard-arm on that side projecting like a crane over the waves; there, that blood-dripping head hung to the Pequod's waist like the giant Holofernes's from the girdle of Judith. The other Queen for whom they retain a great veneration is Candace, whom they call Judith, and indeed if what they relate of her could be proved, there never was, amongst the most illustrious and beneficent sovereigns, any to whom their country was more indebted, for it is said that she being converted by Inda her eunuch, whom St. |
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Judith
