Blogging the Deuterocanon: Judith
My nose may be leaking like a faucet tonight, but that hasn’t prevented me from thoroughly enjoying the book of Judith.
The title of the book comes from its incredible protagonist, a pious yet seductive heroin who saves her people from certain doom. Judith is such a startling character for this time period that it is easy to see how people could theorize that her strong feminism caused the book to be excluded from the canon (see here, also includes a very good review of the plot). The story of Judith bears strong similarities to the story of Jael and Deborah in Judges 4-5 as well as the more courtly book of Esther. These stories of unlikely deliverance all feature strong female characters and imply that feminine charm can be a key attribute to success against enemies.
Unlike other stories of deliverance, Judith is written as deliberate political satire. The “setting” of the story is a place that can never be located in time or space, but is rather an amalgam of various historical events. The Jews face no real enemy, but rather the ridiculous megalomaniac “King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria” and his hedonistic henchman Holofernes (a Persian by name). Remember what I said about characters not being wildly drawn in Tobit (see previous post)? Well, Judith seems to take the exact opposite approach. To be fair these characters are far from two-dimensional. They engage each other in very interesting ways and even some of the lesser characters (like a Moabite mercenary who converts to Judaism) experience profound emotions and undergo personal change.
The plot as a whole is beautifully ironic. The Jews now returned from exile are living in righteousness when Nebuchadnezzar throws a fit and decides that all of the nations who didn’t help him overthrow Media must be wiped out. In actual history most of the Jews were put into exile by Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king who overthrew Assyria before his empire later fell to the Medes. Confusing, huh? The whole world of Judith is a topsy-turvy commentary on how the Jews of the inter-testamental period view themselves in relation to their foreign aggressors: if God tested them now they could easily overcome the same types of enemies who placed them into exile.
Thankfully the book is not just congratulatory nationalism. Judith expresses strong viewpoints on how righteous Jews should act and on how penitent foreigners should respond to them. In this light it gives a good glimpse into at least one view of what it meant to be an ideal Jew in a post-exile world. At the end of the day the foreign aggressors that the Jews may face (Moab, Philistia, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece) are far less important than the responses of the Jews, who rise or fall according to the measure of their faith and piety. The message of the book is fairly simple: “Woe to the nations that rise up against my people!” (Judith 16:17), because, God “is putting us to the test as he did our ancestors” and he will enable those who are faithful to overcome the most awesome foes and vindicate his holy name. I would argue that far from being just an entertaining story, contemporary Jews would have seen this book as a rallying cry—both moral and militant—against encroaching enemy forces.
If you have read Judith and have any thoughts you would like to share, please feel free to respond below. To read and comment on my reaction to Tobit, click here.
