Heroes of the Apocrypha, Part Two- Judith

Did you know that the Roman Catholic Bible contains a longer Old Testament than the one Protestants use? That’s because the Catholic Bible includes the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha are a set of biblical books with titles like “First and Second Maccabees”, “Tobit”, “Judith”, “Wisdom of Solomon”, “Baruch”, and “Ecclesiasticus”. They appeared in the first Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, and so they have been considered Holy by many Christians ever since. The Jews, however, later decided to exclude these books from their canon, leaving it to the Christians to preserve them. They were part of the Bible for all Christians until the Reformation, when Protestants decided to exclude them too. But in doing so, we miss out on a number of great stories and characters from these books. Perhaps the Apocrypha are to be considered less authoritative than the rest of scripture, but there is still much there to learn from and enjoy.

Judith is one of the great heroines of scripture, but she is not without controversy. She beguiles and beheads a ruthless enemy General and saves her town, but she wins by using deception, seduction, and murder. Yet Judith is a culture heroine, her moment of triumph celebrated in great works of art through the centuries. She has been considered a symbol of the victory of the weak over the strong, one who achieved victory because her cause was just.

The events of the Book of Judith include several historical and geographical inaccuracies which make the book more of a historical novel than a true history. It was written long after the events it describes, and it is more concerned with telling a good story than with getting the facts right. In this sense, it is like the Books of Esther and Daniel. It tells the story of the small Judean town of Bethulia, which guards the pass to Jerusalem, and the threat of the huge “Assyrian” army of “Nebuchadnezzar”, under the command of the fearsome General Holofernes. (Here you can see one of the inaccuracies - Nebuchadnezzar was King of Babylon, not Assyria.) The King decides to punish every nearby country which refused to help him in an earlier war, including Judea. His army, 132,000 strong, sets out to slaughter and plunder, destroying country after country, and spreading terror. Holofernes takes many slaves as he goes, and destroys their temples, demanding that the vanquished people worship Nebuchadnezzar as a god. The Judeans hear about all this, and become afraid for Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord. The country prays and prepares for war. It is up to the small town of Bethulia to stop the army from entering the narrow pass into Judea.

Holofernes is enraged at this defiance. The conquered Ammonite leader Achior warns Holofernes that the God of Judea will defend his people, as long as they have not sinned. The General scoffs at this, seeing only a weak nation to be crushed. Achior is sent to Bethulia to die with the Judeans, and he warns the city about Holofernes’ plans. The vast army camps in the valley below the town, and lays siege to it, cutting off its water supply. The elders of Bethulia keep faith and call on God for help, but eventually, severe thirst breaks the spirits of the people, and they begin to call for surrender to the Assyrians. Believing that God has abandoned them, they prefer to become slaves rather than to die. The elders decide that if God does not help them in five days, they will surrender.

At this point, the heroine Judith steps forward. Her name means “Jewish woman”, and she is the essence of all that is beautiful, brave, and God-fearing. A widow for three years, Judith has mourned for her husband, maintained his estate, and worshipped God with great devotion. She tells the elders that their five-day plan is wrong. How can they put God to the test like that? She reminds them that their ancestors were given over to their enemies only when they worshipped idols. Surrender will mean slavery and the desecration of God’s sanctuary. No, it is the people who are being put to the test. They must not fail the Lord.

Judith tells the elders that she will go out of the city with her maid, and within the five days, the Lord will save the city through her actions. After praying to God, she puts away her mourning clothes. She bathes and perfumes herself, does her hair, puts on beautiful clothes and jewels, and packs wine and bread. Alone with her maid, she goes into the army camp below, now swollen to 182,000 soldiers. She tells an Assyrian patrol that she is fleeing the town to escape death. If she is taken to Holofernes, she will tell him of a way to take the city without losing a single man. Struck by her beauty, they take her to the General. Judith bows before him and he promises her safety, if she will serve Nebuchadnezzar. Judith praises and flatters Holofernes for his wisdom and his military genius. She reiterates that her people will not be defeated unless they sin, but then she reveals that they are all about to sin by eating, in their desperation, sacred food consecrated to God, which they have been forbidden to eat. When that happens, she will hear about it from God in prayer, and will tell the General that her God will then hand Bethulia over to the Assyrians. Holofernes will soon have a throne in Jerusalem.

Holofernes praises Judith for her beauty and wisdom. Over four days, she comes and goes freely in the camp, praying and pretending to wait for a sign from God. Holofernes becomes attracted to her, and decides he must have her. She drinks wine alone with the General, but he never becomes intimate with her because he drinks so much that he passes out. Taking his sword, Judith grabs his hair and strikes off his head. Her maid places the head in her bag, and they go out of the camp, supposedly to pray, and return to Bethulia. Once among the people, she shows the head, and cries out that God has destroyed their enemy by her hand. Everyone rejoices and blesses her.

In the morning, the head is placed atop the city wall. Achior sees it and converts to Judaism on the spot. Judean soldiers assemble in front of the city. In response, the Assyrians prepare for battle, but they find the General dead and his head missing. Their army suddenly loses morale, and they retreat, suffering losses all along the way. Judith is celebrated by the whole country, for the enemy has been undone by beauty and struck down by the hand of a woman. Judith lives out her days in Bethulia, never remarrying, but becoming more and more famous, until she dies at age 105, and is buried with her husband.

It is not hard to see why Judith is a heroine of the Apocrypha. She saved her people, after all. But from a religious standpoint, it is fair to ask whether she did so in a sinful way, using deceit and murdering a sleeping man. Did Judith sin in her actions? Reading the story, we do not know what God thinks about all this. God does not speak to Judith. We might assume that since the Assyrians lost, that God approved. Judith thought that God approved and acted through her. In her speech to God before dressing up in her finery, Judith lays out the reasons that God should support her plan. Let’s list them, and judge for ourselves.

1. Long ago, Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, was raped by a local prince (Genesis 34), and her brothers killed the prince and took bloody revenge on the prince’s whole city. Judith says that everything that happens is according to God’s will. If enemies are punished, as the prince was, God must have willed it as a judgment. Judith is praying that it is God’s will that the Assyrians be punished. The “prince”, Holofernes, she hopes, deserves to die.
2. The Assyrians do not worship God. They only worship their own strength, and intend to use it to destroy God’s Temple. Judith asks God to overturn their expectations. Instead of the army, a widow will have the “strength” to win, the strength of God’s power, which does not depend on numbers.
3. God is the helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, and savior of those without hope. The Assyrians plan such cruelties, that God should protect his people. No one protects Israel but God alone. Judith asks God to do this so that all nations will see that it is true.
4. Judith plans to use deceit to win, but she asks God to make use of her lies to punish the Assyrians.
5. We cannot understand God’s thoughts. God may hear us, and help or destroy us as he chooses. We can only call on his help, and wait, and hope in the Lord. In the meantime, we must thank God, and take action as if we are being put to the test to prove what is in our hearts.

What do you think of Judith’s reasoning and prayers? Is she a heroine in your eyes? How would Jesus answer Judith? These are not easy questions. On the surface, the Book of Judith inspires us with a tale of one woman killing a powerful General. Dig deeper, and you find more questions than answers. That is why exploring the Apocrypha, or any canonical biblical book, is so worthwhile.