Judith, The Book of

The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical text included in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Old Testament but not in the Hebrew Bible or Protestant canon. It tells the story of Judith, a beautiful and devout Jewish widow from the fictional city of Bethulia, who saved her people from the Assyrian general Holofernes during a siege. Presenting herself as a defector, she gained access to Holofernes's tent, intoxicated him with wine at a banquet, and beheaded him with his own sword, causing the Assyrian army to flee in panic. The book is widely recognized as a work of historical fiction or didactic novella rather than straightforward history: it contains numerous anachronisms (confusing Nebuchadnezzar as an Assyrian king ruling from Nineveh; Bethulia is unidentifiable; the timeline conflicts with established history). Scholars date its composition to the Maccabean period (second century BC) as an encouragement to faithful resistance under foreign oppression. The figure of Judith as a model of piety, courage, and national deliverance became influential in later Jewish and Christian art and literature.