Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

JUDITH, THE BOOK OF

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 543 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

JUDITH, THE See also:BOOK OF , one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament. It takes its name from the heroine Judith ('IovalO, 'IovhB, i.e. n'7vr, Jewess), to whom the last nine of its sixteen chapters relate. In the See also:Septuagint and See also:Vulgate it immediately precedes See also:Esther, and along with See also:Tobit comes after See also:Nehemiah; in the See also:English Apocrypha it is placed between Tobit and the apocryphal additions to Esther. See also:Argument.—In the twelfth See also:year of his reign See also:Nebuchadrezzar, who is described as See also:king of See also:Assyria,having his See also:capital in See also:Nineveh, makes See also:war against Arphaxad, king of See also:Media, and overcomes him in his seventeenth year. He then despatches his See also:chief See also:general Holofernes to take vengeance on the nations of the See also:west who had withheld their assistance. This expedition has already succeeded in its See also:main See also:objects when Holofernes proceeds to attack See also:Judaea. The See also:children of See also:Israel, who are described as having newly returned from captivity, are apprehensive of a desecration of their See also:sanctuary, and resolve on resistance to the uttermost. The inhabitants of Bethulia (Betylua) and Betomestham in particular (neither See also:place can be identified), directed by See also:Joachim the high See also:priest, guard the See also:mountain passes near Dothaim, and place themselves under See also:God's See also:protection. Holofernes now inquires of the chiefs who are with him about the Israelites,and is answered by Achior the See also:leader of the See also:Ammonites, who enters upon a See also:long See also:historical narrative showing the Israelites to be invincible except when they have offended God. For this Achior is punished by being handed over to the Israelites, who See also:lead him to the See also:governor of Bethulia. Next See also:day the See also:siege begins, and after See also:forty days the famished inhabitants urge the governor Ozias to surrender, which he consents to do unless relieved in five days. Judith, a beautiful and pious widow of the tribe of See also:Simeon, npw appears on the See also:scene with a See also:plan of deliverance.

Wearing her See also:

rich attire, and accompanied by her maid, who carries a bag of provisions, she goes over to the hostile See also:camp, where she is at once conducted to the general, whose suspicions are disarmed by the tales she invents. After four days Holofernes, smitten with her charms, at the See also:close of a,. sumptuous entertainment invites her to remain within his See also:tent over See also:night. No sooner is he overcome with See also:sleep than Judith, seizing his See also:sword, strikes off his See also:head and gives it to her maid; both now leave the camp (as they had previously been accustomed to do, ostensibly for See also:prayer) and return to Bethulia, where the See also:trophy is displayed amid See also:great rejoicings and thanksgivings. Achior now publicly professes Judaism, and at the instance of Judith the Israelites make a sudden victorious onslaught on the enemy. Judith now sings a See also:song of praise, and all go up to See also:Jerusalem to See also:worship with See also:sacrifice and rejoicing. The book concludes with a brief See also:notice of the closing years of the heroine. Versions.—Judith was written originally in See also:Hebrew. This is shown not only by the numerous Hebraisms, but also by mistranslations of the See also:Greek See also:translation, as in ii. 2, iii. 9, and other passages (see Fritzsche and See also:Ball in loc.), despite the statement of See also:Origen (Ep. ad Afrir. 13) that the book was not received by the See also:Jews among their apocryphal writings.

In his See also:

preface to Judith, See also:Jerome says that he based his Latin version on the See also:Chaldee, which the Jews reckoned among their Hagiographa. Ball (See also:Speaker's Apocrypha, i. 243) holds that the Chaldee See also:text used by Jerome was a See also:free translation or See also:adaptation of the Hebrew. The book exists in two forms: the shorter, which is preserved only in Hebrew (see under Hebrew Midrashim below), is, according to Scholz, See also:Lipsius, Ball and Gaster, the older; the longer See also:form is that contained in the versions. Greek Version.—This is found in three recensions: (I) in A B, (2) in codices 19, io8 (See also:Lucian's text); (3) in codex 58, the source of the old Latin and See also:Syriac. Syriac and Latin Versions.—Two Syriac versions were made from the Greek—the first, that of the Peshito; and the second, that of See also:Paul of Tella, the so-called Hexaplaric. The Old Latin was de-rived from the Greek, as we have remarked above, and Jerome's from the Old Latin, under the See also:control of a Chaldee version. Later Hebrew Midrashim.—These are printed in See also:Jellinek's See also:Bet ha-Midrasch, i. 130-131; ii. 12-22; and by Gaster in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archceology (1894), pp. 156-163. Date.—The book in its See also:fuller form was most probably written in the 2nd See also:century B.C.

The writer places his See also:

romance two centuries earlier, in the See also:time of Ochus, as we may reasonably infer from the attack made by Holofernes and See also:Bagoas on Judaea; for See also:Artaxerxes Ochus made an expedition against See also:Phoenicia and See also:Egypt in 35o B.C., in which his chief generals were Holofernes and Bagoas.

End of Article: JUDITH, THE BOOK OF

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
JUDICATURE ACTS 		[next]
JUDSON, ADONIRAM (1788-1850)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries