by
Damien F. Mackey
Is the Book of Judith merely a pious fable, and thus quite
un-historical, with a character like “Arioch”, the ruler of Elam, thrown in due
to the author’s supposed “love of archaism”?
This is what I wrote about “Arioch” in my university
thesis:
A Revised History
of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
(Volume Two, pp. 46-47):
Verses 1:6:
“Arioch, king of the Elymeans”
In [the Book of Judith] 1:6, which
gives a description of the geographical locations from which Arphaxad’s allies
came, we learn that some of these had hailed from the region of the “Hydaspes,
and, on the plain, Arioch, king of the Elymeans”. I disagree with Charles
that: …. “The name Arioch is
borrowed from Gen. xiv. i, in accordance with the author’s
love of archaism”. This piece of
information, I am going to argue here, is actually a later
gloss to the original text. And I
hope to give a specific identification to this king, since, according to Leahy:
…. “The identity of Arioch (Vg Erioch) has not been established …”.
What I am going to propose is that Arioch
was not actually one of those who had rallied
to the cause of Arphaxad in
Year 12 of Nebuchadnezzar, as a superficial reading of [the Book of
Judith] though might suggest, but that this was a later addition to the text
for the purpose of making more precise for the reader the geographical region
from whence came Arphaxad’s allies, specifically the Elamite troops. In
other words, this was the very same region as that which Arioch had
ruled ….
But commentators express puzzlement
about him. Who was this Arioch? And if he were
such an unknown, then what was the
value of this gloss for the early readers?
Arioch, I believe, was the
very Achior who figures so prominently in the story of Judith.
He was also the legendary Ahikar,
a most famous character as we read in Chapter 7. Therefore he was
entirely familiar to the Jews, who would have known that he had eventually
governed the Assyrian province of Elam. I shall tell about this in a moment.
Some later editor/translator
presumably, apparently failing to realise that the person named in this gloss
was the very same as the Achior who figures so prominently throughout
the main story of [the Book of Judith], has confused matters by calling him by
the different name of Arioch. He should have written: “Achior ruled
the Elymeans”.
[The Book of Tobit] tells us more. ….
he who had been Sennacherib’s Rabshakeh was appointed governor (or
‘king’) of Elymaïs (Elam) (cf. 1:18, 21: 2:10). This was Tobit’s very nephew, Ahikar/Achior.
…. From there it is
an easy matter to make this comparison:
“Achior ... Elymeans”
[Book of Judith]; “Ahikar (var. Achior) ... Elymaïs” [Book of Tobit].
[End of quote]
Though
I had not appreciated it when writing my thesis, Achior’s governorship over the
Elamites may help to solve a crucial
problem affecting the canonicity of the Book of Judith, which presents Achior
as an “Ammonite”.
Thesis,
p. 22:
… Judith may have been excluded
from the Hebrew canon because the Rabbis, who were responsible for fixing the
canon in the last stages of the canonizing process, disapproved of the book’s
universalism, i.e., its accepting attitude toward the towns of Samaria and its
approval of an Ammonite’s admittance into the Jewish faith (so Steinmann ….).
On p.
58, I had provided a big part of the solution, for if Achior were indeed Ahikar,
I argued, then he would actually have been an Israelite:
Now Achior provides Holofernes
with a basic run-down of Israelite history from Abraham to their present
day (vv. 6-19). Again I must ask: Would a pagan Ammonite have been likely to
have known the history of Israel in such detail, going back to deep antiquity? Anyway
Holofernes will soon afterwards contemptuously call Achior an “Ephraïmite
hireling [or mercenary]” (6:2). And this is a correct designation for him, Ephraïm
being a common appellation for northern Israel. Though some versions of [Book
of Judith] maintain their consistency by continuing to read ‘Ammon’. ….
The whole exegetical problem of Achior’s
supposedly being an Ammonite leader is solved, I think, when one recognises
who Achior really was. He was, not a pagan Ammonite, but a Naphtalian
Israelite; though at this stage an uncircumcised one.
Whilst
this is perfectly true, I think that some further clarification now needs to be
added to it.
Achior
was ethnically an Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali, and so Holofernes was
entirely correct in designating him an “Ephraïmite”.
But Achior
was now also, under the authority of the Assyrians, a ruler (or governor) of a
pagan people - but not the Ammonites. Problematical verses such as Judith 5:5,
according to which: “Then Achior, the leader of all the
Ammonites …”, most certainly need to be amended to read: “Then Achior, the leader of all the
Elamites …”.
Such indeed Achior
also was.
