I. The Story of Judith
The Book of Judith dates back to the second century B.C, was written in Alexandria or Palestine by an unknown author. In spite of being an apocryphal book, as it was not part of the Jewish sacred scriptures, it was included by St. Jerome in the Vulgate in the fifth century. After the Reformation, Judith’s book was excluded from the protestant Bible as it was considered by them as a fictional story. In fact, there is no historical basis to prove the veracity of the accounts consigned in the book: there is not geographical Bethulia nor a general called Holofernes. However, Judith’s story continued to be considered of allegorical importance by Protestantism.
The book starts by introducing the story of the conquest of the Near East by the army of the Assyrian Emperor, who sends his forces to attack the city of Bethulia in order to invade Israel. Under the enemy’s threat, the elders of the city are about to give up, losing any faith in finding a way to fight them and save their people. Judith, a widow woman, reprehends their lack of faith and promise to solve the situation without explaining her plan. After praying for strength and convinced by her faith, Judith leaves Bethulia and heads to the Assyrian camp in company of one of her maidservants. Judith manages to fool the soldiers and access to the camp by offering to give the army’s general, Holofernes, a strategy to conquest the city. Once there, she is welcomed by him, who invites her to join him in a banquet. Wearing her finest clothes and jewels, Judith attends the banquet and, afterwards, accompanies the heavily drunk general to his tent. Once they are left alone, Judith takes his sword from the bed and beheads him. Silently, both women leave the camp and return to Bethulia with Holofernes’ head. The finding of the headless body confuses and destabilized the Assyrian army. At the same time, Judith’s deed encourages the Israelites to attack the camp and fight the enemy. Judith is publically celebrated as her people’s savior, and later retires to live and acetic life, living along until her dead.
Judith is thus a self-reliant woman, willing to take action by herself in order to solve the city’s situation. She even defies the male authority of the city leaders and manages to defeat the army general. However, Judith’s strength is justified in her story as the product of God’s mediation, she acts as an instrument through which Good defeats Evil. This argument justifies too the violence involved in the story and frees her from being considered a murderer.
Furthermore, the strategy used by Judith to gain Holofernes’ sympathy in probably the element of the narrative that carried more ambiguity. She appeals to his vice, lust, and seduces him in order to get into the privacy of his tent and kill him. However, from the Early Middle Ages Judith’s decapitation of Holofernes was interpreted as the triumph of Virtue over Vice as Chastity over Lust and Humility over Pride. This paradox is somehow silenced and neutralized in the story by the life chosen by Judith after her return to Bethulia, remaining completely chaste and loyal to her faith.
Therefore, Judith’s story was used during the Middle Ages as a moralizing story, and her Book was influential in the shaping of Christian piety. Judith started to be depicted from the eighth Century, mainly as part of illuminated manuscripts like the Speculum Virginum and the Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Medieval representation of the story, both visual and literary, focused on the exceptional victory of the weak over the strong under the protection of God, emphasizing Judith’s humility, obedience and chastity over her strength or determination. Additionally, the visual depictions of the story usually presented different moments of the narrative, from the departure to her triumphal arrival and the victory of the Israelites over the Assyrian army.
Objects in this section
Speculum humanae salvationis - Provincial Library Amberg 2 Ms. 46. Folio 74 v and folio 75 r. Late 14th / early 15th century
In the middle ages, the figure of Judith was treated as a prototype of the Virgin Mary. On one hand, the main virtues associated to the heroine during this period, Humility and Chastity, easily allowed a paragon between both female figure. Mary’s willingness to follow God’s orders, Let be to me according to your word (Luke, 1:38), echoes Judith’s submission her Lord’s commands and the recognition of his sovereignty.
On the other hand, Judith’s triumph over Holofernes, understood as the triumph of these virtues over vice, was equaled to the Virgin’s triumph over the devil. Thus, in the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, Judith’s decapitation of Holofernes is presented as an antitype of the Virgin slaying the Devil.
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