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A modern translation of this Apocryphal Scripture is accompanied by information about its background, story, and meaning
- GenresJudaismChristianity
286 pages, Hardcover
Published August 13, 1985
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December 21, 2024According to research: It's not clearly known when the story of Yehudit (Judith) took place. The story first appeared in an ancient book written in Hebrew. The original text was lost. A Greek translation followed, and naturally, it was not very accurate.
The enemy came to destroy everyone, men, women, and children, and there are those who say that the great miracle occurred through a woman. Her name was Judith, as the story goes, and she was the daughter of Yochanan, the high priest. She was extremely beautiful, and the Greek king wanted her to lay with him. She fed him a dish of cheese to make him thirsty, so that he would drink a great deal and became drunk, and recline and fall asleep. And it happened just that way, and once he was asleep, she took his sword and cut off his head. She brought his head to Jerusalem, and when the armies saw that their leader had been killed, they fled. For this reason, we have the custom of eating a cheese dish on Hanukkah.
Rabbi Sacks on why Chanukah and the story of Judith do not appear in the Tanach: "The answer is that Chanukah was only saved because in the course of a century and a half, the Jewish people had decided that that first story (military) was not the primary one. The second story (the oil) was the real one. [It was the cultural one]. And we can see now how right they were because the military victory lasted 100 years, but the spiritual victory has lasted more than 2000 years."
The building, the Temple, may have gone, but the hope hasn't gone. We still have the hope
The enemy came to destroy everyone, men, women, and children, and there are those who say that the great miracle occurred through a woman. Her name was Judith, as the story goes, and she was the daughter of Yochanan, the high priest. She was extremely beautiful, and the Greek king wanted her to lay with him. She fed him a dish of cheese to make him thirsty, so that he would drink a great deal and became drunk, and recline and fall asleep. And it happened just that way, and once he was asleep, she took his sword and cut off his head. She brought his head to Jerusalem, and when the armies saw that their leader had been killed, they fled. For this reason, we have the custom of eating a cheese dish on Hanukkah.
Rabbi Sacks on why Chanukah and the story of Judith do not appear in the Tanach: "The answer is that Chanukah was only saved because in the course of a century and a half, the Jewish people had decided that that first story (military) was not the primary one. The second story (the oil) was the real one. [It was the cultural one]. And we can see now how right they were because the military victory lasted 100 years, but the spiritual victory has lasted more than 2000 years."
The building, the Temple, may have gone, but the hope hasn't gone. We still have the hope
August 18, 2012
As far as biblical Apocrypha goes, this one is a very strange and unique narrative. It has everything that we find in a lot of modern films and storytelling, particularly the use of the female character. Of course like all biblical text, it is carefully coded with metaphor, but I find this one more base than the books included in the bible. I'll spare you my theological interpretation of it (much of it is in the fact that she is a widow, and carnation of Shekinah while the cannon itself focuses on the Kings who are the carnation of the Sun/Son, but that's one man's opinion), and say that the editor did a fine job providing a context for the text, and showing both arguments for and against the authenticity of the story. It's a good one even if you're not terribly interested in the rest of the bible. I do however, warn of 'feminist' interpretations without considering Judaic texts as a whole, otherwise she just seems like a badass, Aeon Flux style jewess cutting off heads for the Lord.
June 14, 2018
Kind of brutal with its "God guided you as you cut off the head of our deadliest enemy" stuff. But the story overall was quite good and easy to follow. Had more of a coherent story rather than a diatribe about repentance. Judith herself may very well be one of the earliest feminist heroes as well.
March 8, 2018
Eh it's not bad but nothing special either. Better than most bible texts
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