page_title: Book of Judith
section_title: Literary structure
hierarchical_section_title: Book of Judith / Contents / Literary structure
caption_attribution_description: English: Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860. Deutsch: Holzschnitt aus "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860. Français&#160;: Gravure en bois pour «Die Bibel in Bildern», 1860.
context_page_description: The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible, but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to their apocrypha. It tells of a Jewish widow, Judith, who uses her beauty and charm to destroy an Assyrian general and save Israel from oppression. The surviving Greek manuscripts contain several historical anachronisms, which is why some scholars now consider the book non-historical: a parable, a theological novel, or perhaps the first historical novel.
  The name Judith is the feminine form of Judah.
context_section_description: The Book of Judith can be split into two parts or "acts" of approximately equal length. Chapters 1–7 describe the rise of the threat to Israel, led by the evil king Nebuchadnezzar and his sycophantic general Holofernes, and is concluded as Holofernes' worldwide campaign has converged at the mountain pass where Judith's village, Bethulia, is located. Chapters 8–16 then introduce Judith and depict her heroic actions to save her people. Part I, although at times tedious in its description of the military developments, develops important themes by alternating battles with reflections and rousing action with rest. In contrast, the second half is devoted mainly to Judith's strength of character and the beheading scene.
  The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha identifies a clear chiastic pattern in both "acts", in which the order of events is reversed at a central moment in the narrative (i.e., abcc'b'a').
  Part I (1:1–7:23)
  A.  Campaign against disobedient nations; the people surrender (1:1–2:13)
  B.  Israel is "greatly terrified" (2:14–3:10)
  C.  Joakim prepares for war (4:1–15)
  D.  Holofernes talks with Achior (5:1–6.9)
  E.  Achior is expelled by Assyrians (6:10–13)
  E'.  Achior is received in the village of Bethulia (6:14–15)
  D'.  Achior talks with the people (6:16–21)
  C'.  Holofernes prepares for war (7:1–3)
  B'.  Israel is "greatly terrified" (7:4–5)
  A'.  Campaign against Bethulia; the people want to surrender (7:6–32)
  Part II (8:1–16:25)
  A.  Introduction of Judith (8:1–8)
  B.  Judith plans to save Israel (8:9–10:8)
  C.  Judith and her maid leave Bethulia (10:9–10)
  D.  Judith beheads Holofernes (10:11–13:10a)
  C'.  Judith and her maid return to Bethulia (13.10b–11)
  B'.  Judith plans the destruction of Israel's enemy (13:12–16:20)
  A'.  Conclusion about Judith (16.1–25)
caption: Judith Returns to Bethulia, 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld
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