The Book of Judith

This article surveys the story told in the Septuagint Book of Judith, its historicity and date, and the characters and structure of the work. It discusses biblical influences on the apocryphal book, the debated issue of the work’s original language, and theories about the author’s identity. The article also looks at the different approach to Judith found in Jerome’s influential Vulgate version, and points to the moral and feminist questions raised by the figure of Judith. As for the latter, at first sight, Judith, the savior of her people, seems to have the makings of a feminist heroine. She is undoubtedly superior to all the men who surround her, superior in wisdom as well as in action. Judith is strong and self-reliant, controlled and calm, and in many ways she seems to be an androgynous figure, an honorary male, so to speak. However, Judith’s role in the plot requires that she be without family ties, attractive, and deceptive, while her role as a religious authority and mouthpiece for the author’s theological ideas requires that she be wise, pious, and observant. This makes Judith a complex and sometimes contradictory figure, but not a feminist one.The article ends with a very brief account of the book’s reception history.