Library/Deuterocanon

Judith

A widow walks into the tent of Holofernes and walks out with his head. A book about nerve, piety, and the vulnerability of empires to a single clever righteous person.

Status: Catholic & Orthodox deuterocanon
Date: 2nd century BCE (set in a compressed ‘Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria’ past)
Languages: Greek (surviving)
Setting: Bethulia under siege

What it contains

The siege
Judith’s prayer and dressing
The banquet
The head in the bag

Why it sits outside most canons

Historical compressions made it easy to set aside; the Reformers did. Older churches did not.

Themes

Courage
Purity
War
Women’s agency

Passages

Judith 13:7–8
She took down his sword and said, ‘Give me strength this day.’ And she struck twice, and took his head from him.