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Also, the Bible is a memorial to humanity and the base of the European culture and civilization. The biblical motives have been an inspiration to many artists. One of them is he motive of the beautiful widow Judith that makes a great sacrifice to save and defend her people from the army that invaded their town. The motive of an innocent victim and her victory through suffering was a great inspiration to artists. It is important to mention that only the Catholic Old Testament contains in its canon the Book of Judith because the Jews only consider the book written in Aramaic and Greek to be holy.
Those are the book written before the birth of Jesus. Deuterocanonical books Greek deuter — second are the books of the Old Testament written in Greek. Even though the Book of Judith and the Book of Tobit were written in Hebrew they do not make the part of the Protocanonical books because their original scriptures were lost and only translations to Greek were discovered. The Old Testament contains 46 books and it is divided into 5 larger groups. The Book of Judith is one of the Historical Books and the historians consider it to be the first moral story or parable.
Even though it describes the time when king Nabuchodonosor ruled, it is historically imprecise, so it is valued for its allegorical and moral content. Judith is a Jew and a beautiful widow that decides to seduce the soldier of the army called Holofernes and in that way save the Jewish people who, because of lack of faith, stopped resisting the army. She realized they were discouraged so she decided to make a sacrifice for her people. To completely understand the meaning of the work we have to take into consideration the time span in which it was written.
It was written during the Jewish struggle against Hellenization between the 2 nd and 1 st century B. Because of the never-ending wars, lack of food and water, many diseases the Jewish people were weak and is facing a constant threat of being banished. That is the reason why the glorification of the Jewish history line was needed. With her courage she sets an example to the Jews and restores their strength and power to fight.
The story has a happy ending when the Jews beat their opponents. It symbolically represents the victory of monotheism practiced by Jews over polytheism that was, in that time, one of the widest spread religion. In the beginning we find out that the plot is happening during the 12 th year of Nabuchodonosor dominion over the people of Assyria.
He decided to take his revenge upon all Jews for being disobedient when he called them to fight with him against his enemy. Since for the habitants of the west lands, Nabuchodonosor was just a regular man, they did not consider him to be a god so they ignored his demand and sent away his messengers empty handed, without showing them any respect.
Nabuchodonosor was furious because of the disrespect so he decided to invade their territory. Ecbatane, the capital of Medes, was invaded and Nabuchodonosor banished all of the enemy army away and gave an order to, whoever finds Arphaxad first, needs to kill him and he was captured in the mountains while he was trying to run away.
After the victory, alongside with his soldiers, NAbuchodonosor lived in between the walls of Ecbatane for days and they did nothing.
He was very satisfied with his victory so he started to plot his revenge upon the west lands. He called one of his finest generals, named Holofernes, and he told him to be in charge of the military invasion and she sent him towards the west lands with many soldiers.
Without arousing suspicion, the two of them pass through the camp as they have done on the previous nights, but instead of heading towards the spring they circle up the mountain towards Bethulia. Once there, they call to the guards to open the gates and let them in. Inside the safety of the walls Judith pulls out the grisly contents of the bag and shows it to the people, who are astounded by what she has done.
You would think this was enough for one night, but Judith knows the battle is not won. At dawn they are to make a loud noise with their weapons as if they are about to attack. Of course, they will find only his headless body and this, she hopes, will create a panic among the Assyrian soldiers, who will flee.
This is exactly what happens. In the ensuring hours the disordered Assyrian army is easy prey for the Israelites , who are familiar with the terrain and wage guerilla warfare on the hapless, leaderless soldiers. Judith becomes a national heroine , lauded by everyone.
Joakim, the high priest of Jerusalem, comes to Bethulia to pay homage to this extraordinary woman. In the final scene of the story, Judith leads a dancing procession of women, singing a hymn of praise to God, towards Jerusalem. When they have all worshipped there for three months they return, and Judith retires to her estate in Bethulia. She lives there, still much loved, until she is very old — one hundred and five. The faithful maid is set free, and Judith is eventually buried in the tomb of her husband.
Judith and Holofernes, detail of hand with knife, Galizia, They were surrounded throughout their history by huge and fearsome kingdoms, but God stood by them when they called on his help. Note: The Book of Judith was never intended as factual history — it is more like fiction with a theological message.
Many of the historical details are incorrect — for example, Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian, but the story presents him as ruler of the Assyrians. Note: The Book of Judith is not included in the Protestant or Jewish Scriptures, perhaps because of its sexual content.
Readers may have found its irony hard to swallow: Judith is a virtuous woman but also a murderess, and the basic message of her story is that the end justifies the means. Bible study activities. Judith: the Bible text. Top 10 Bible Villains. War in the Bible. Psychological war in the Bible. Famous paintings of Judith.
Ancient Jewels The sort of jewelry Judith might have worn. Make a list of movies about women who, like Judith, had to kill an enemy to save their people. Judith — Bible heroine. Judith: sex, courage, murder Who was Judith in the Bible? Bethuliah was saved. Judith was a heroine. Led by Holofernes, the Persians besiege the hilltop town of Bethulia — where Judith lives.
The townspeople beg their leaders to surrender. Playing for time, the leading citizen Uzziah asks God for a further five days. If God does not save them, they will surrender. Judith and the Elders Their plan, she says, is not the right course of action. She has her own secret plan, which she begins to put into action: she grooms herself so that she is alluringly beautiful, then leaves the city during the night.
Judith and Holofernes. Judith meets Holofernes, who is bowled over by her beauty. He plans to seduce her, but she turns the tables on him. After a lavish dinner, she waits until he is drunk, then she kills him by hacking off his head.
Aftermath, and the Song of Judith. She and her faithful maid wrap up the head of Holofernes and take it back to Bethulia. Then they hang it on the outer walls of the town. When the enemy troops see it they panic, and are easy prey for the Israelite troops. Judith has saved her people, and is hailed as a national heroine. Blood-stained sword with its sheath. Wolf with bared teeth.
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