Author of the Book of Judith

by Damien F. Mackey “The sacred writer of this Book is generally believed to be the high priest Eliachim (called also Joachim)”. Introduction to Judith (Douay) The Douay testimony here, that the high priest of the Book of Judith, Joakim (var. Eliakim), has traditionally been regarded as being (substantially) the author of the book, is the view that I had accepted as being most plausible in my university thesis: A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah and its Background AMAIC_Final_Thesis_2009.pdf There I wrote (Volume Two, pp. 58-59): The Author of [Book of Judith] BOJ A tradition has Eliakim (Joakim), the high priest of the story, as the author of BOJ [the Book of Judith] 1283 We already saw that the high priest was ‘a man of letters’, writing to the northern towns, including Bethulia. This would support the view of commentators that this highly pious work (BOJ), extremely scrupulous about religious observance, appears to have been written by a priest who was most faithful to the Mosaïc Law, and who evinces a remarkable knowledge of the Old Testament, especially the Psalms. It would also accord with the view that BOJ was an ancient document, frequently copied. No doubt the story would have been written with an enormous amount of eyewitness input from the ubiquitous Achior, whom the high priest would presumably have met after Assyria’s defeat. Achior would then have been able to fill in Joakim on all relevant details pertaining to the Assyrian campaign and strategy, including information in regard to the secret council prior to the western invasion. Less certain is how the author would have learned that Holofernes’ consumption of wine, just prior to his death, was “much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was born” (12:29). It is just possible that Achior, presumably a young man like Holofernes, had grown up with the latter in the royal palace, and thus had been familiar with the prince’s habits. Sennacherib does refer to a “Bêl-ibni … who had grown up in Nineveh ‘like a young puppy’,” whom he made king of Babylon upon the demise of Merodach-baladan.1284 Comment: I have since learned that “Achior”/Ahikar (Ahiqar) had actually “reared” “Holofernes”/Nadin. Now, continuing with the thesis section: Judith herself could have told the high priest about her personal encounter with Holofernes in the Assyrian camp, when they met after the victory (15:8), just as she had recounted the entire story to Achior and the Bethulians (14:8). And Joakim himself could have added most of the rest; all the basic narrative of the Assyrian incursion into Palestine and its effect upon Jerusalem. Finally, a later scribe could have added notes and glosses, e.g. about Arioch as governor of Elam; how long Judith lived; the festival. I thus see no real obstacle in the way of the tradition that Eliakim was the author of BOJ, meaning that the original version of the book must therefore have been compiled in c. 700 BC. [C.] Moore has counterbalanced the view of some that BOJ consists of two very unequal parts (chapters 1-7 and 8-16) - that is, in regard “to their respective importance, interest, and literary quality”, not length - by his juxtaposing of this with mention of Craven’s excellent study, which makes it “clear that the book of Judith is made of a whole cloth and was intended as a balanced and proportional narrative”:1285 Craven’s study shows that the book has in each of its parts a threefold chiastic structure and a distinctive thematic repetition. More specifically, each part has as its major chiastic feature its own repeating theme: in chaps. 1-7, the theme is fear or its denial (cf. 1:11; 2:28 [twice]; 4:2; 5:23; 7:4), and men play all the leading roles; in chaps. 8-16 it is beauty, mentioned or implied, and a woman has center stage …. Thus, just as fear of the Assyrians had a “domino effect,” knocking down successive nations and peoples in chaps. 1-7, so Judith’s beauty bowled over one male after another …. Perhaps to be alternatively considered (especially if the author were the high priest), would be a contrast between (a servile) fear and its opposite, the virtue of courage (prompted by trust in Yahweh), rather than a contrast of the unrelated fear and beauty (the latter though, admittedly, being an important factor in chapters 8-16). Thus, the fear shown by men (and nations), in the first half of BOJ, is in contrast to the courage (trust) borne by the beautiful woman, in the second half. I shall focus more in the next chapter on such matters of literary interest. [End of quote] For more on the high priest Joakim of the Book of Judith, see e.g. my article: Hezekiah’s Chief Official Eliakim was High Priest https://www.academia.edu/31701765/Hezekiahs_Chief_Official_Eliakim_was_High_Priest