JUDITH, BOOK OF

JUDITH, BOOK OF, a historical narrative dating from Second Temple times, included by the Septuagint and the canon of the Catholic and Greek churches in the Bible and by the Protestants in the Apocrypha.

The story is as follows: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria who reigned in Nineveh, after having defeated Arphaxad, king of Media, in the valley of Ragau, sent Holofernes, his commander in chief, on a campaign of conquest, in the course of which he overran all the countries from the border of Persia to Sidon and Tyre. When he reached the valley of Esdraelon before the narrow pass leading to Judea and Jerusalem, he found that, by order of the high priest in Jerusalem, all the passes had been occupied by the Jews living in the fortified mountain-pass towns of Bethulia and Betomesthaim. At this Holofernes summoned a council, as a result of which he ordered that Achior, the Ammonite chief, who had spoken confidently of the victorious power of Israel so long as they remained faithful to God, be sent to the Jews of Bethulia. Holofernes then laid siege to the town. After a month, when there was no water left in Bethulia and its leaders had already decided to open the gates to the enemy, there suddenly appeared a widow named Judith the daughter of Merari. She was of the tribe of Simeon and a resident of Bethulia, young and beautiful, righteous and wealthy. With the permission of the leaders of the town she went down to the camp of Holofernes who, attracted by her wisdom and beauty, invited her to a feast. When Holofernes fell asleep, overcome by wine, Judith took his dagger, cut off his head, and handing it to her maid returned with her to Bethulia. Deprived of their commander in chief by Judith's courageous deed, the panic-stricken Assyrian soldiers fled.

There are many obscure elements in the story. Its date has been assigned to the period of the return to Zion after the Babylonian Exile. At that time the kingdoms of Assyria and Media no longer existed, and hence various other theories have been advanced by scholars. Some (following Luther) have maintained that it is merely an allegory. More probably it is a historical novel written in the days of the Hasmoneans to inspire courage, its historical kernel being found in the events which took place under Artaxerxes III, when in 352 B.C.E. a Cappadocian prince named Holofernes fought against the Egyptians (Diodorus Siculus xvii, 6, 1). However, even this theory presents some difficulty, since the story contains no Greek features (and its geographic and ethnic background even conflicts with such an interpretation). On the other hand it contains definitely Persian names (Holofernes, Bagoas) and elements (such as άκινακή for "dagger"; presenting "earth and water" to the king as a sign of surrender; the appellation "the God of heaven" for God of Israel; and the royal designation, "the king of all the earth"). It has therefore been suggested that the entire book is a "Persian" production. While, according to this view, the background of the story is Darius I's war against Phraortes, the "king" of Media at the time of the return to Zion (which is mentioned in the book), it was written only at the end of the Persian period, in the wake of the great revolt of 362 B.C.E. (in the reign of Artaxerxes II) which also spread to Ereẓ Israel. Nor, according to this theory, is the most important geographical detail in the book, namely the reference to a Jewish (Simeonite) settlement on the border of the valley of Dothan, a fabrication. For a combination of various sources (Meg. Ta'an. for 25 Marḥeshvan (chap. 8); Jos., Ant. 13:275f., 379f: Wars 1:93f.; and also apparently I Macc. 5:23) shows that at the time of the return in the region of Samaria, in the neighborhood of what was known as "the cities of Nebhrakta," there was a Jewish-Simeonite settlement (which may in effect have existed as early as in the days of the First Temple and being of Semite origin: cf. II Chron. 34:6, 15:9; and also I Chron. 4:31). The supposition is that in the great revolt at the end of the reign of Artaxerxes II (404–359 B.C.E.) this region fulfilled some function.

From a literary standpoint, by virtue of its epic description, the book is one of the most finished productions of Second Temple times. A prose work, it embodies two poems, Judith's prayer before setting out for the camp of Holofernes (9) and the thanksgiving of Israel after the victory (16). Very close to the later biblical poetry, in its structure and poetic imagery, this song of thanksgiving antedates those found at Qumran. The book is also significant by reason of both the halakhah it contains and the religious faith it reflects. Yet it reveals no trace of sectarianism, as do the works written in the post-Hasmonean period.

As is clearly evident from its many Hebraisms, the book was originally written in Hebrew (cf., for example, the expressions: "the space of 30 days"; "all flesh," as a designation for human beings; "let not thine eye spare"; "the face of the earth"; and "smote with the edge of the sword," etc.). In the precise Greek translation there is also discernible the special Ereẓ Israel spelling (the substitution of the ע״ו verb by פ״י).

The book is extant in four principal Greek versions (A, B, Codex 58, and Codex 108), all of which derive from the Hebrew. In ancient times an abridged Aramaic translation was made, on the basis of which Jerome translated the work into Latin (this being the Vulgate version). At an early stage the Hebrew book was lost, but in one form or another (chiefly through translations and adaptations from the Latin), from the 10th–11th centuries, several abridged Hebrew versions of the work found their way back into midrashic literature.

[Yehoshua M. Grintz]

In the Arts

Judith has attracted more writers, artists, and composers than any other figure in the Apocrypha. Two of the earliest literary works were Judith, a fragmentary Old English epic, and a Middle High German poem of the same title dating from the 13th century. One of the first recorded plays about Judith and Holofernes was that staged at Pesaro, Italy, in 1489 by the local Jewish community. By the beginning of the 16th century, the subject was arousing fresh attention – particularly among Protestant writers, who reinterpreted it in terms of the triumph of virtue over wickedness. Martin *Luther favored the use of Old Testament material as a basis for drama, especially recommending Judith as a tragic theme. Two pioneering works of the Renaissance era were Judita (1521), a religious epic by the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić and the German playwright Sixtus Birck's Judith (1532). Another Judith (1551) was written by the German Meistersinger Hans Sachs. In Italy, where the subject was treated in an orthodox Catholic fashion, Luca (Ciarafello) de Calerio produced the drama Giuditta e Oloferne (Naples, 1540), and G. Francesco Alberti the tragedy Oloferne (1594). The subject retained its popularity throughout the 17th–19th centuries and was the subject of plays in various countries. Thus in Spain, the Marrano dramatist and preacher Felipe *Godínez wrote Judit y Holofernes (1620); and Iyudif (1674), a seven-act Russian prose drama, was one of the first biblical works to be staged in Moscow. An anonymous work of 1761, Sefer Yehudit ve-Sefer Yehudah ha-Makkabi, appeared at Amsterdam. Two curiosities of the 19th century, both written in *Judeo-Italian and titled La Betulia liberata, were a poem by Luigi Duclou (1832) and an epic by Natale Falcini (1862). An outstanding tragedy on the theme was the German dramatist Friedrich Hebbel's Judith (1841). In the United States, the Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier included "Judith at the Tent of Holofernes" (1829) among his biblical poems, while Thomas Bailey Aldrich dramatized his Judith and Holofernes (1896), and Adah Isaacs *Menken wrote her sensual story, "Judith" (in Infelicia, 1888). An impressive number of works about Judith have been written by authors of the 20th century. The German expressionist Georg Kaiser adopted an original approach in his comedy Die juedische Witwe (1911). The urge to "modernize" the subject was particularly evident in England, where Thomas Sturge Moore's Judith (1911; staged 1916) suggested that the heroine became the tyrant's mistress before she killed him. The Judith of Lascelles Abercrombie (in Emblems of Love, 1912) contained strong undertones of suffragette thinking, while Arnold Bennett's heroine (1919) created a furore by appearing on the stage in a revealing costume. Among the plays that appeared between the world wars were Henry *Bernstein's drama Judith (1922), Bartholomaeus Ponholzer's Judith, die Heldin von Israel (1927), and Ricardo Moritz's Giuditta (1938). In his psychological tragedy, Judith (1931), the French writer Jean Giraudoux went even further than the British by treating the whole story as a myth, transforming the heroine into a courtesan and the villain into the more likeable character.

Judith has often been portrayed by artists. For medieval Christianity, the Jewish heroine's slaying of Holofernes represented the triumph of the Virgin over the devil. It also signified the victory of sanctimonia (chastity and humility) over lust and pride. Judith is usually shown either with the sword in her right hand and Holofernes' head in her left, or dropping the head into a receptacle held by her servant. A dog, the symbol of fidelity, often accompanied her. In Renaissance and later painting she was sometimes shown nude. The story was treated in narrative cycles and in isolated incidents. An early cycle exists in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura (Rome, ninth century). The arches over the north portal of Chartres Cathedral (13th century) depict several episodes, as does a window of the same period in La Sainte-Chapelle, Paris. The subject was found suitable for tapestry, two examples being a Tournai cycle (15th century in Brussels' Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire), and a French version (c. 1515; now in the Cathedral of Sens). In the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, there is an ornate sculpture of the subject by Donatello. Among the Renaissance painters, Andrea Mantegna treated the subject several times and Botticelli painted some episodes from the story of Judith that are not commonly illustrated: Judith and her maid arriving home with the head, and the discovery of the dead body of Holofernes (both in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence). There is a painting of Judith with the head by the same artist in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. Michelangelo included figures of Judith and her maid in his Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Several of the great Venetian artists painted Judith. There is an upright figure of the heroine delicately trampling on Holofernes' head by Giorgione (Hermitage, Leningrad). Paolo Veronese painted a very attractive Judith (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), and there is a study of her in the act of killing Holofernes by Tintoretto (Prado, Madrid). Of the later Italian artists, Caravaggio painted the same scene (Naples Museum) with a certain violence. The German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach was particularly attracted by the subject of Judith and Holofernes and painted it several times. One version is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Rubens used a dramatic chiaroscuro to portray Judith in the act of killing Holofernes (Brunswick Museum).

In Jewish musical tradition, the story of Judith is represented by the singing of the piyyut, Mi Khamokha Addir Ayom ve-Nora (Davidson, Oẓar, 1143) on the Sabbath of Ḥanukkah, a custom retained in several communities. The "Canticle of Judith," Hymnum cantemus Domino (Judith 16: 15–21), is prescribed in the Catholic Church for the Laudes (dawn service) on Wednesdays, and intoned to a simple psalmodic melody. Polyphonic settings of the text appear only rarely: one instance is O bone Deus, ne projicias by Jacobus Gallus (Handl), the text being a combination of verses from chapters 8, 14, 16, and 19 of the Apocryphal book. With the rise of the oratorio, the subject – possessing a naturally dramatic plot – came into its own and it continues to maintain its popularity. Two factors contributed to the remarkably frequent appearance of Judith oratorios in the second and third quarters of the 18th century: first of all, the appeal of Metastasio's libretto, Betulia liberata (commissioned by the emperor Charles VI of Austria, and first performed in the Imperial Chapel, Vienna, with music by Georg Reutter, in 1734); and secondly, the reign of Maria Theresa (1740–80), who was symbolized as a latter-day Judith standing up to the new Holofernes – Frederick the Great of Prussia. The regular production of operas about Judith only began toward the middle of the 19th century, by which time biblical subjects were permitted on the stage and the early romantic "horror opera" had prepared audiences for the sight of Holofernes' severed head.

The following is a selective list of compositions about Judith; all are oratorios, if not designated otherwise: Caspar Foerster, Dialogus de Holoferne (1667); Antonio Draghi, La Giuditta (1668–69); Giovanni Paolo Colonna, Bettuglia liberata (1690); Alessandro Scarlatti, La Giuditta vittoriosa (1695); Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Judith sive Bethulia liberata (c. 1700); Antonio Vivaldi, Judith triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie (1716); Giuseppe Porsile, Il trionfo di Giuditta (1923); Wilhelm de Fesch, Judith (English libretto: London, 1733); Georg Reutter, Betulia liberata (first setting of Metastasio's libretto; Vienna, 1734); Joseph Anton Sehling, Firma in Deum fiducia… in Judith Israelis Amazone (melodrama; Prague, 1741); Niccolò Jomelli, Betulia liberata (Metastasio's text; Venice, 1743; the composer's first oratorio); Antonio Bernasconi, Betulia liberata (Metastasio's text; 1754); Giovanni Battista Martini, In cymbalis and Hymnum novum, two puzzle canons in his Storia della musica, 1 (1757), 165, 334; Ignaz Holzbauer, Betulia liberata (Metastasio's text; 1760); John Christopher Smith, Judith (scenic oratorio; 1760, not performed); Thomas Augustine Arne, Judith (1761, restaged 1773; first use of female choristers on the English stage); Domenico Cimarosa, Giuditta ("opera sacra," 1770); Florian Gassmann, Betulia liberata (Metastisio's text; Vienna, 1771; inaugurating the concerts of the Tonkuenstlersozietaet); Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Betulia liberata (Metastasio's text; 1771; see also below); Leopold Anton Koželuch, La Giuditta (c. 1780) and Judith und Holofernes (after Metastasio; as opera, c. 1779; as oratorio, 1799); Ludwig van Beethoven, three canons on "Te solo adoro" from Metastasio's libretto (1823); Samuele Levi, Giuditta (opera; Venice, 1844); Julius Rietz, Judith (ouverture and entr'actes to Hebbel's drama, 1851); Emil Naumann, Judith (opera, 1858); Alexander Serov, Judith (opera; text by the composer and three collaborators; St. Petersburg, 1863; his greatest success); Giacomo *Meyerbeer, Judith (operatic fragment, 1864; unpublished); Albert Franz Doppler, Judith (opera, 1870); Paul Hillemacher, Judith ("scène lyrique," 1876); Charles Lefebvre, Judith (opera, 1879); Cart Goetze, Judith (opera, 1887); Sir Hubert Parry, Judith (1888); George W. Chadwick, Judith ("lyric drama," 1901); August Reuss, Judith (for orchestra; "after Hebbel," 1903); Carlo Ravasenga, Giuditta e Oloferne (for orchestra, 1920); Max Ettinger, Judith (opera, 1920); Emil von Resniček, Holofernes (opera; libretto by the composer, based on Hebbel, 1923; the overture, in the form of an arrangement of Kol Nidre, was also performed and published separately); Arthur Honegger, Judith (opera; text by René Morax, 1926); Eugene Goossens, Judith (opera; text by Arnold Bennett, 1928); Gabriel Grad, Judith and Holofernes (opera in Hebrew; only parts published, 1931 and 1939); Carl Nathanael Berg, Judith (opera, 1931–35); Mordechai *Seter, Judith (ballet, 1963; reworked in 1967 as a "symphonic chaconne" for orchestra). Metastasio's Betulia liberata was translated into Hebrew by David Franco *Mendes in 1790–91 as Teshu'at Yisrael. It is not certain whether the translation was made for a performance with Mozart's music, since the manuscript bears only the direction Lahakat Meshorerim ("group of singers," i.e., chorus), and does not indicate the solos. F. Clément, in his Dictionnaire des Opéras (18972, 624), reports the United Hebrew Opera Company's performance in Boston of an opera titled Judithund Holofernes (1861), which was "sung in German, with the program printed in Hebrew." Both the performance and the program were probably in Yiddish.

[Bathja Bayer]

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Y.M. Grintz, Sefer Yehudit (1957), incl. bibl., 209–19; idem, in: Molad, 17 (1959), 564–6; A. Schalit, Namenwoerterbuch zu Flavius Josephus (1968), 130–3; A.M. Habermann, in: Maḥanayim, 52 (1961), 42–47; A.M. Dubarle, Judith, Formes et Sens des Diverses Traditions (1966); Y.L. Bialer, in: Min ha-Genazim, 2 (1969), 36–51. IN THE ARTS: R.E. Glaymen, Recent Judith Drama and Its Analogues (1930), incl. "a list… of plays based on the whole Bible": 112–34; E. Purdie, Story of Judith in German and English Literature (1927), incl. bibl., 1–22; M. Sommerfeld (ed.), Judith-Dramen des 16./17. Jahrhunderts (1933). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: C.A. Moore, "Judith: The Case of the Pious Killer," in: Bible Review, 6 (1990), 26–36.

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.