Commentary on the book of Judith

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 The book “Judith” takes its name from the main character of its story - the beautiful and pious Israeli woman Judith, who became famous for saving her fatherland from Holofernes, sent by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Assyria, to devastate and conquer Judea. The authenticity of the book and historical accuracy have been the subject of considerable controversy in science, due to the significant number of historical, archaeological, geographical and other important errors made in the book. Despite this, the book of Judith has enjoyed the greatest respect from the earliest times, even to the point of acquiring canonical dignity for it. This dignity is bestowed upon her by the blessed one. Jerome, referring to the Council of Nicea, although among the rules of this council there is not a single one who would talk about this book, and Jerome himself does not give such a rule anywhere. Blazh. Augustine and the entire African Church also recognized this book as canonical. In general, in subsequent times, recognition of the non-canonical dignity of this book became more firmly established in the Church. The writer of the book is unknown, although some researchers call him by name. So, according to the blessed one. Jerome, the book was written by Judith herself; according to others, the author of the book was the high priest Eliakim; still others attribute it to Achior the Ammonite, mentioned in the book, or to Jesus, the son of Jozedek, Zerubbabel’s companion during the return from captivity in Babylon, etc. Of the various texts of the book, the most famous are: Greek LXX, ancient translations - Syrian and Latin, known under the name of Italic (Vetus Latinus) and Jerome’s in the Vulgate, made by him from the now lost Chaldean text. The original text of the book was, according to authorities, Jewish. The time of writing of the book is determined by researchers only approximately and in two ways - depending on how for someone the bewilderment caused by the most important historical slip of the book, which gives one or another illumination to the entire course of its narrative, is resolved: that is, either after the return from Babylonian captivity (Judith. IV: 3), and, in this case, the name of Nebuchadnezzar, and also called the king of Assyria, should be deleted from the story or corrected , or - if we recognize the inviolable power and plausibility of the latter, it is then possible to attribute the writing of the book to the pre-exilic time, and in this case consider inappropriate the indications of the narrative for the later post-exilic time, like the above passage of Judith, IV: 3 v. Which of these opinions has the most compelling arguments for itself and should be preferred is not easy to say, just as it is impossible to indicate a king who would satisfy all the extremely intricate details of the presentation of the case by the author of the book. More precisely, many researchers attribute the time of writing the book to the times of the Maccabees, and further processing even later - to the times of the first Christians. From this it is clear why the fame of Judith in the written monuments of antiquity begins quite late. Philo, Josephus and generally the writers of the Old Testament times say nothing about this book. The first mention of the book belongs only to St. Clement of Rome (in the 1st epist. to Cor. Chapter LV). Subsequent fathers and teachers of the Church - Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Ambrose, Blessed. Augustine and others, although they use the book of Judith for edification purposes, do not report any news or traditions about its origin. As for the incident itself, which forms the content of the book, some saw in it a simple metaphor - an image of the victory of the piety of Judaism over the wickedness of pagan polytheism. Others considered the story of Judith to be a pious poem, a mixture of fact and fiction, written to appeal to the religious and patriotic feelings of the Jews. Finally, others agree to recognize the actual historicity of the entire incident - however, not otherwise than on the condition that all erroneous names and inaccuracies are changed in the narrative and attributing the event to the times of the rule of the kings of Syria (the era of the Maccabees). The entirety and details of the story, in any case, bear the indelible imprint of the actual historicity of the incident, regardless of individual inaccuracies in the description. The story provides a lot of precious information on history, geography, chronology, gives a detailed genealogy of Judith, and mentions a holiday established in memory of the victory of this heroine; finally, the ancient Jewish prayers on the first and second Saturdays of the Feast of Dedication, which represent an abbreviated summary of the essence of the book of Judith, also show that the Jews believed in the reality of the facts conveyed in it, since they could not thank God for a fictitious liberation. To this must be added the existence of several ancient midrashim, independently of the book of Judith, telling about the same events. From time immemorial, universal tradition assumed the strictly historical nature of the book, and no one before Luther doubted this. And to this day, all objections raised against the truth of the facts of the book of Judith should be classified as unconvincing and unimportant. As for, finally, the king himself (called the Assyrian Nebuchadnezzar), to whose time the described event should most likely be attributed, then all attempts to more accurately indicate in the history of such a king, the most probable and corresponding to all the details of the presentation of the case of the book. Judith, are doomed to hopeless doubt and insoluble groundlessness. And it is not for nothing that there seems to be not a single king left, either before or after the captivity, who would not be considered the most identical person with Nebuchadnezzar - with the same complete credibility and lack of foundation - at the same time: we do not present here individual opinions and arguments in favor of them and do not enter into fruitless polemics, preferring to adhere to the exact instructions of the Bible and allowing everyone to adapt to them with their own views.