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Judith and Holofernes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

Among the books of the Apocrypha two portions stand out in strong relief as bearing the marks of genius. One is the Book of Wisdom, with its sustained moral fervour and luxuriant yet devout fancy; the other, the noble tragedy of the Book of Judith. The latter work has the further interest of presenting a curious literary problem. Is ‘Judith’ in any sense history, or even based on history, or is it mere romance ? Certainly the writer takes great liberties with facts. Time and place have to yield to the requirements of the narrative. Famous names are mingled together in extraordinary combinations. Nebuchadnezzar reigns over the Assyrians at Nineveh; and he reigns soon after the Jewish return from Captivity. An Arphaxad rules at Ecbatane as king of the Medes. An unknown high priest Joachim is supreme at Jerusalem. The book opens moreover with a catalogue of nations brought under this Nebuchadnezzar's sway; and the list teems with contradictions of history and even of probability.

Learned opinion since the time of Grotius has been almost unanimous in pronouncing the book to be an historical romance, of the time of the Maccabees or later, wherein the writer sets forth in parable the hopes and fears of his nation, and stirs up his countrymen to heroic resistance to the oppressor.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1885

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References

page 261 note 1 Prolegomena in lib. Judith; similarly Mr. Churton, in his recent Uncanonical and Apocryphal Scriptures.

page 262 note 1 Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. Judith.

page 262 note 2 See Winer's Realwörterbuch, s.v.

page 262 note 3 Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iv. p. 618, foll.

page 262 note 4 Ewald, , Geschichte, iv. p. 451.Google Scholar

page 262 note 5 Deuteronomy xxxii. 30.

page 263 note 1 xi. 12.

page 263 note 2 1 Maccabees vii.

page 264 note 1 Ibid. p. 621, note.

page 264 note 2 Chandler, 's Travels in Asia Minor and Greece, edited by Revett, N., Esq., vol. i. pp. 199Google Scholar, foll.

page 265 note 1 Böckh's Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, No. 2904: Compare Droysen, , Hellenismus, i. 1, p. 202.Google Scholar

page 265 note 2 Strabo, xiv. p. 640:

page 266 note 1 Biography by Archdeacon Churton, prefixed to the Travels.

page 266 note 2 It has often fallen to my task to verify the readings of Greek inscriptions previously edited by Chandler, and I have seldom found his copy to require any alteration, whether in the way of addition or correction.

page 267 note 1 Pausanias, vii. 5, § 3:

page 267 note 2 See the interesting account of Prienè and the beautiful views given by Rayet, et Thomas, , Milet et le Golfe Latmique, Paris, 18771880.Google Scholar

page 268 note 1 M. Rayet says (ibid. vol. ii. p. 2) that as late as 1874 he proposed to the authorities of the Louvre to secure for the French nation various architectural fragments of great beauty even then remaining amid the ruins. His suggestion received no attention, and most of the marbles he spoke of are now destroyed.

page 268 note 2 These details we learn from the letter of Mr. Clarke himself to Gen. Fox, published by Mr.C. T., Newton in his paper ‘On an inedited Tetradrachm of Orophernes II.,’ in the Numismatic Chronicle, New Series, xi. p. 19.Google Scholar

page 270 note 1 Athen. x. 440, expressly citing Polybius as his authority; Diod. Sic. xxxi. 28.

page 270 note 2 Justin, xxxv. 1; Appian, , Syr. 47Google Scholar.

page 270 note 3 Diod. Sic. xxxi. 43.

page 270 note 4 Polyb. xxxii. 20.

page 271 note 1 Livy, , Epit. 47Google Scholar; Polyb. iii. 5.

page 271 note 2 Appian, , Syr. 47Google Scholar; Polyb. xxxiii. 12:

page 271 note 3 Polyb. xxxiii. 12 a; Athen. x. 440 b; Aelian, , Var. Hist. ii. 41Google Scholar; Diod. Sic. xxxi. 43.

page 271 note 4 Head, , Coins of the Ancients, plate 51, fig. 23.Google Scholar

page 271 note 5 Polyb. xxxiii. 12; Diod. Sic. xxxi. 4.

page 271 note 6 Aeschines, , De Falsa Leg. p. 286.Google Scholar

page 272 note 1 Reference may be made to an article on this subject in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, iv. p. 237.

page 272 note 2 Polyb. xxxiii. 12; Diod. Sic. xxxi. 43.

page 272 note 3 It will appear as No. ccccxxiv. of the Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, of which Part 3 is now in the press.

page 273 note 1 See the remarks of Mr. Newton, in the Memoir above cited.

page 273 note 2 Fragments of the colossal statue are now preserved in the British Museum; see Mr. Newton's remarks in the Numismatic Chronicle just cited; also in Part iv. of Antiquities of Ionia, p. 25.

page 274 note 1 The name is properly Orophernes (Ὀροφέρνης), being so written on the coins and in the inscription from Prienè, as well as in Polybius, Aelian, and Athenaeus. Diodorus Siculus appears to fluctuate between Ὀροφέρνης and Ὀλοφέρνης. Probably the Aramaic original of Judith spelt the name with l for r. The aspirate may be regarded as a mere corruption, arising from a recollection of compounds in ὁλο-.