In the Steps of Jael and Deborah: Judith as Heroine

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5-15-1992

In the Steps of Jael and Deborah: Judith as Heroine
Sidnie White Crawford
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, scrawford1@unl.edu


Crawford, Sidnie White, "In the Steps of Jael and Deborah: Judith as Heroine" (1992). Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious
Studies Department. Paper 24. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub/24


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In the Steps of Jael and Deborah: Judith as Heroine 

Sidnie Ann White

Albright College 

   Judith is one of the most memorable characters in Hebrew litera- ture. In a remarkable story of courage and resourcefulness, she saves her people by one single action that is both compelling and repugnant. Leading female characters are rare enough in Israelite literature to be constantly compared with one another, and Judith has often been lik- ened to Miriam, Deborah, Jael, the wise women of Tekoa and Abel- beth-Maacah, and Esther.¹ And this is not an exhaustive list! I would like to argue that the comparison to Jael and Deborah is neither superfi- cial nor coincidental, but that the author of Judith had the story of Jael and Deborah in the front of his mind as he wrote his story.² In fact, in my judgment the author of Judith used the story of Jael and Deborah as the model for the story of Judith.

   The first parallel to draw between the stories is the obvious one: a heroine slays an enemy of Israel singlehandedly, by attacking his head. This is, in fact, the correspondence that drew me to the two stories in the first place. However, as I began to investigate the stories, I noticed that many other exact similarities were present, in plot, character and actions. Many of these parallels have been noted by other commentators before me.³ However, no one, as far as I have been able to verify, has brought them all together in one place. When they are drawn together, I think that it will be plain that the author of Judith used the story of Jael and Debo- rah in Judges 4 and 5 as a model, and that the actions of the heroine, Ju- dith, parallel the actions of the two heroines in Judges 4 and 5, Jael and Deborah. In this paper I will demonstrate exact similarities in the struc- ture and plot of the stories, the characters of the stories, and certain ele- ments common to both, particularly the song of victory.

   At this point I should make it clear that I am assuming that the au- thor of the book of Judith knew Judges 4 and 5 as single unit. Source criticism isolates Judges 5, the Song of Deborah, as a very ancient poetic piece, while placing the prose narrative of Judges 4 at a later date.⁴ This is no doubt correct; however, the author of Judith did not use source criti- cism, and therefore did not separate the chapters. The author read them as one story, and this reading is reflected in the story of Judith.

   First, a summary of the story of Judges 4 and 5. The plot is typical of the book of Judges: Yahweh, on account of the people’s sin, allows Jabin

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the king of Canaan to oppress the Israelites. The people cry out for deliverance, so Yahweh stirs up a judge to save them. Now, however, comes an interesting twist: the judge is a woman, Deborah. Deborah sends for her general, Barak, to rouse him for battle against Sisera. Barak and Deborah lead some of the tribes to battle against Sisera, and manage to defeat him. Sisera then flees on foot and comes upon the tent of Jael, identified as the wife of Heber the Kenite, an ally or friend of Jabin. Jael invites Sisera into the tent, covers him with some sort of covering, gives him milk to drink, and, when he has fall- en asleep from exhaustion, drives a tent-peg into his skull and shat- ters it. Afterwards, when Barak arrives, she takes him into the tent and shows him Sisera’s dead body. Finally, Deborah and Barak sing a great victory hymn, in which Jael’s deed is lauded. This is the story as the author of the book of Judith knew it.

   I would like to start my comparison by looking at the structure of the two stories. The story of Jael begins with a political struggle (which has religious implications) between the Israelites and a foreign power, moves to a climax in a private scene between the heroine Jael and Isra- el’s enemy Sisera, which ends in his death, and concludes with a trium- phant victory song. The book of Judith uses precisely the same struc- ture. The story begins with a political and religious struggle between the Israelites and a foreign power (chaps. 1–7), moves to a climax in a private scene between the heroine Judith and Israel’s enemy Holofernes (chaps. 8–15), and ends in a triumphant victory song (chap. 16). So the overall structure of the two stories is precisely the same.⁵

   Now I will move to an investigation of the details of plot and character, beginning with the major characters of Judith and Ho- lofernes, then filling in the details with the other characters. In that way I hope that the detail of the parallels between Judith and Jael and Deborah will be clear.

   Judith enters the story at a late point in the plot, as has been not- ed many times.⁶ Craven states that this is not because of lack of skill on the part of the author, but because he has prepared for Judith’s en- trance by creating an almost unbearable state of suspense through an account of the enemy’s seeming invincibility.⁷ I would also suggest that the author’s artistic decision was influenced by the fact that Jael enters the scene quite late in her story, after the battle and defeat of Sisera’s army.⁸ Once the heroines appear, the stories move fairly quickly to their 

climaxes, given the relative length of each. Of course, the story of Ju- dith is much longer and richer in detail than the story of Jael, as befits a free-standing novella.

   Once the heroines enter, they are identified. Judith is identified as the widow of Manasseh, while Jael is described as the wife of Heber

the Kenite. I will not enter here into the discussion of whether ’e^–šet

^h_.^{eber means wife of an individual or female member of a certain clan.9}

I would suggest that, whatever the original meaning, the author of Ju-

dith would have understood the phrase to mean “wife of Heber.” The important thing to notice is that both Judith and Jael are identified as married, but their husbands are, for one reason or another, absent. The same is also true of Deborah, who, in Judg 4:4, is identified as the wife of Lappidoth,¹⁰ an absent spouse. Women, in patriarchal Israelity soci- ety, received their identity first from their fathers and then from their husbands, but these women receive their identity from their actions, and, in fact, give identity to their husbands, thus turning the stereotype on its head. In addition, Judith, Jael and Deborah are all, as far as we know, childless, again an unusual state in their societies. Finally, Judith and Jael, by the former’s status as a widow, and the latter’s member- ship in a non-Israelite clan, are marginal members of Israelite society. This fact emphasizes the theme in both stories of the weak (symbolized by the female) triumphing over the strong (symbolized by the male) with the help of Yahweh.¹¹

   After describing Judith, the author tells of her reaction to the bar- gain struck between Uzziah and the people of Bethulia (7:23–32). She is appalled, and berates the elders for their lack of faith in God. There is no parallel to this speech in the actions of Jael. In fact, one of the major differences between the two stories is that everything is known about Judith’s motivation for her action, and nothing is known about Jael’s. Here, however, the character of Deborah becomes the model. Deborah and Judith are both firm in their conviction that their actions accord with Yahweh’s will. In Judges 4, Deborah makes a speech to Barak, giving him his marching orders and assuring him that Yahweh will be with him. However, she notes in 4:9 that Yahweh will triumph by “the hand of a woman,” a motif used throughout both stories.¹²  In Judg 4:21, Jael takes the hammer in her hand. and in the victory song in Judges 5 we are told that “she put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to workmen’s mallet” (v 26). In her speech to the elders, Judith

   

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says, “The Lord will deliver Israel by my hand” (Jdt 8:33), an unmis- takable parallel to Deborah’s statement about the hand of a woman. She repeats the statement in her prayer, in chap. 9. Then, at the end of the climactic scene, she tells the people of Bethulia to praise God, who “has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night” (Jdt 13:14). The motif of a woman’s hand creates another similarity between the two stories.

   After her speech to the elders, Judith goes to prepare herself for her mission. This too is without parallel in the story of Deborah and Jael (although Zeitlin, among others, has compared this to the story of Es- ther¹³). Once prepared, Judith summons her maid and they set out for the “Assyrian” camp. Face-to-face with Holofernes, she begins a dia- logue that is laced with double-talk and irony. Immediately the parallel with Jael comes to mind. Jael welcomes Sisera into her tent and prom- ises to protect him, all the while intending to kill him. “Turn in, my lord, turn in; fear not” (Judg 4:18). Jael has been taken to task many times for violation of the law of hospitality, while Judith has been con- demned for lying.¹⁴ While Jael does violate the law of hospitality, the act should be seen, as Soggin puts it, “in the context of a complex con- flict of loyalties.”¹⁵  Where does one’s loyalty lie? Jael clearly places herself on the side of the Israelites (her name means “Yah is God,” thus identifying her with the Yahweh worshipers), and the text celebrates her for that action. As for Judith, her language is deliberately ambigu- ous. For example, in 11:6, Judith says to Holofernes, “And if you fol- low the words of your maidservant, God will accomplish something through you, and my lord will not fail to achieve his purposes.” “My lord” in Greek is ho kyrios mou. Holofernes assumes she is addressing him, but every Greek-speaking Jew of the period would have heard the Greek translation of “Yahweh” in her words. This use of irony is meant to bring a chuckle of recognition from the reader.¹⁶

   The correspondences now come thick and fast in the climax of the story. In the Assyrian camp Judith is invited to a banquet in the tent of Holofernes. Likewise, Jael invites Sisera into her tent. Holofernes drinks too much wine at the banquet, and passes out drunk. Jael gives Sisera goat’s milk to drink, which, as has been widely pointed out, has a soporific effect.¹⁷

The sexual theme in the book of Judith, recognized by many,¹⁸ is 

powerful in this scene. Holofernes declares his intention of having sex- ual intercourse with Judith (12:12). Judith responds to his invitation to the banquet by saying “Who am I, to refuse my lord?”, clearly a double entendre! Holofernes, at the sight of Judith, is described as “ravished.” Wine is served, and then, at the end of the banquet, the other guests tactfully withdraw, leaving Judith and Holofernes alone. If this were a movie, the screen would be fading to black. However, this is not a movie, and Holofernes soon meets his gory end.

   Mieke Bal has argued that the scene between Jael and Sisera is implicitly sexual.¹⁹    Sisera enters Jael’s tent. She covers him with a śĕmîkāh (for a discussion of this term, see below). She offers him a special drink, and then covers him again. As he drifts off to sleep (all passion spent?), she murders him. A tie between sex and death is well- known in ancient literature, including the biblical literature.²⁰   For ex- ample, the story of Samson and Delilah presents an instance in which sexual intercourse is closely linked with the death of the man. Even though Judges 4 does not specifically state that sexual intercourse took place between Jael and Sisera, the inference is plausible. I would sug- gest that the author of Judith makes explicit what is implied in the story of Jael and Sisera. Sensing the sexual innuendos behind the actions of both Jael and Sisera, he chooses to make those innuendos overt in the actions of Judith and Holofernes.

   After the men are asleep, the women murder them by attacking their heads, Jael by shattering Sisera’s skull, Judith by beheading Ho- lofernes. Boling suggests that the word in Judg 4:21, normally translat- ed as “temple,” raqqâh. should be translated as “neck.”²¹ I am not con- vinced that there is enough evidence to support the translation “neck”; clearly, though, some vulnerable portion of the skull, not necessarily the temples, is meant. In any case, both Sisera and Holofernes meet their death by means of a head injury. Finally, Judith pulls down Ho- lofernes’ bed-canopy (kônôpion) and takes it with her. The mention of the canopy or curtain here recalls the action of Jael when she covers Sisera with a śĕmîkāh. The śĕmîkāh is a hapax legomenon in Hebrew, and has been variously translated. LXX^A has derrei (skin), while LXX^{B has epibolaio}, ^{(covering, wrapper). In English it has been translated as} a “rug” or a “wooly covering,” or it has been identified as the curtain of goatskin which separates the inner portion of the tent from the outer

   

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portion.²² If this latter translation is correct (and there is no conclusive proof one way or the other), then we have a close parallel to the kônô- pion of the Judith story. In any case, we do have a covering motif (a symbol of deceptive security?) in both scenes.

   After making her way out of the camp, with the head of Holofern- es stored in her food bag, Judith returns to Bethulia, where she trium- phantly displays the head to the people of the city. Achior is shown the head of Holofernes and is so astonished and awe-struck that he promptly converts to Judaism. The character of Achior is loosely modeled on the character of Barak in Judges 4 and 5. He is a secondary male character who acts as a foil for the leading female character, Judith, as Barak acts as a foil for Deborah, and later Jael. In the first part of the book of Ju- dith, Achior informs Holofernes that the Jews cannot be defeated because their God protects them, thus enraging Holofernes and setting in motion the central plot of the story. Similarly, Barak’s response to Deborah’s call sets the action of the story in motion in two ways: when he states that he will not go forth to battle without Deborah, he gives her the opportunity to predict that Sisera will fall by the hand of a woman, thus foreshadow- ing the action of Jael,²³ and, by leading the Israelites to the confronta- tion with Sisera, he begins the chain of events that allows Jael’s deed to take place. After their initial appearances, both characters leave the stage, only to return after the heroine has completed her action. The parallel is quite clear here. Judith displays the head of Holofernes to Achior, just as Jael displays the body of Sisera to Barak. These events confirm Yahweh’s use of a weak, marginalized member of the society in order to save it. Achior is a more fully drawn character, as we would expect in the book of Judith, and he is also a foreigner, which adds an interesting twist to the story. The conversion of Achior, without parallel in Judges 4 and 5, re- flects the later date of the book of Judith. In the post-exilic period, mem- bership in the Jewish community was determined by ethnic group and re- ligious affiliation, while in the book of Judges membership in the people of Israel was determined by tribal affiliation. So Achior’s conversion is one more symbol of the triumph of Yahweh in the book of Judith, a sym- bol not possible in the milieu of the book of Judges. Notice that in Daniel

1–6 (which is also post-exilic) the triumph of Daniel is always followed by the conversion of the king. In any case, Achior’s function in the story is the same as that of Barak. 

   Finally, at the end of her story, Judith leads the victorious Israelites in a triumphant hymn to Yahweh. Many commentators have suggested that this hymn is modeled on victory hymns found in the pre-exilic lit- erature, most notably Exodus 15 (the Song of Miriam) and, of course, Judges 5.²⁴ It seems to me that the parallel is clearest with Judges 5, es- pecially if it is realized that the author of Judith used not only Jael as a model for his leading female character, but also Deborah. The struc- ture of the hymns is similar; as Dancy writes: “One notable feature in common between Judith’s and Deborah’s songs is the way that in both of them the heroine sometimes speaks in the first person, sometimes is spoken of in the third.’¹²⁵ Again, I would argue that this feature is not accidental. A close investigation of the structure of the hymn is called for.

   Both hymns begin in the first person, with a call to bless Yahweh. The language of the Song of Deborah is notoriously difficult and I do not wish to enter into the translation debate here. Unless otherwise stat- ed, I will be using the translation of the RSV. After the initial call to praise, each song continues with a poetic description of the events re- counted in the prose narrative.²⁶ In v 6 of the song of Judith the person of the verb changes from first to third, to describe the action of Judith. In Judg 5:12 the person changes from the first to the second (referring to Deborah), leading eventually to a description of the actions of Jael in the third person.²⁷ Finally, each hymn ends with the destruction of the enemies of Israel: “So perish all thine enemies, O LORD!” (Judg 5:31), and “Woe to the nations that rise up against my people!” (Jdt 16:17).

   Moving from structure to theme, John Craghan has noted the theme of the disruption of nature which appears in both songs: in the Song of Deborah the mountains quake when Yahweh marches from Seir (vv 4–

5), and in Jdt 16:15 the mountains shake and the rocks melt at the pres- ence of Yahweh.²⁸ Patrick Skehan has also noted that vv 13–17, an an- thology of praise, contain material found in Judges 5.²⁹  For example, in v 13 Judith, having switched back to the first person, sings “I will sing to my God a new song.” This is similar to Deborah’s “I, to Yahweh even I will sing, I will sing to Yahweh the God of Israel” in Judg 5:3.³⁰

So the hymns contain structural and thematic similarities. The most im- portant parallel to note, however, is the position of each hymn, coming at the end of the prose narrative, followed by a brief epilogue.

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   The epilogue in Judges 5 is indeed brief: “And the land had rest for forty years,” a typical ending from the book of Judges.³¹ The end- ing of the book of Judith, though longer, has a similar message: “And no one ever again spread terror among the people of Israel in the days of Judith, or for a long time after her death.” (16:25) So Judith, like Jael and Deborah, brings peace to the land for a generation (forty years indicating a generation in the book of Judges). In fact, the book of Judith seems to embrace the theology of the book of Judges (which is the theology of the Deuteronomist).³² In his speech to Holofernes, Achior states: “As long as they [the Israelites] did not sin against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. But when they departed from the way which he had appointed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a foreign country; the temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were captured by their enemies.” (5:17–18) The the- ology of the book of Judges, of course, is clear from its structure: the people sin, which brings on punishment; the people repent, caus- ing God to raise up a judge to save them; during the lifetime of the judge the people obey Yahweh, and the land is at peace. This “obedi- ence brings reward, disobedience brings punishment” covenant theol- ogy is exactly the theology of Achior’s speech. A second commonal- ity between the book of Judith and the book of Judges is the imper- manence of the role of Judith. She comes forward for a specific task, and, when that task is completed, retires from the stage. This model is drawn from that of the judges, e.g., Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar, and of course, Deborah. Finally, and this is a very minor point, neither the book of Judges nor the book of Judith is placed in a time of king- ship. Judges, of course, is part of the pre-monarchical history of Isra- el, while in Judith the people seem to be under the authority of a high priest in Jerusalem.³³

   Now I would like to point out some parallels not mentioned in the synopsis of the plot. First is the entire absence of miracle in the prose narratives of both stories.³⁴ Judith and Jael perform their deeds in com- pletely realistic ways; they seize the chance given to them by the mo- ment. At no point in the narrative, up until the climactic scene, is the audience assured that “everything will be all right.” Only the awesome assurance of Deborah and Judith, made clear in their speeches, gives that comfort, and that is a matter of faith, not empirical proof. Second, 

the deeds of Jael and Judith are not explicitly commissioned by Yah- weh. They act on their own; salvation is achieved by human initiative, although Yahweh is credited with the victory. Especially in the book of Judith the heroine’s reliance on the guidance of Yahweh is made clear in her speeches and prayers; yet nowhere is it stated that Yahweh told Judith to do precisely what she did. This is even more so the case with Jael, about whose thoughts and motivations we know nothing. This mo- tif of “salvation by human initiative” is often present in the Hebrew Bi- ble in stories about women: for example, both Ruth and Esther achieve their goals through their own initiative.

   Finally, I would like to mention two correspondences which did not figure directly into the comparison of the character of Judith with those of Jael and Deborah. The first concerns the male characters Ne- buchadnezzar and Holofernes. Nebuchadnezzar is a king, who appears at the beginning of the story of Judith (1:1–2:13), leaves the action, and never reappears. Holofernes, the leading male character, is Nebuchad- nezzar’s general but wields considerable power on his own, and it is his defeat which frees the Israelites from the threat of Nebuchadnezzar. The male characters in the story of Jael have similar roles and func- tions. In the final form of the story, Jabin, the king of Canaan, is men- tioned at the beginning of the story but plays no role in the story itself. The leading male character, Sisera, is described as Jabin’s general, but he acts as his own agent, and it is his defeat which frees the Israelites from the oppression of Jabin.³⁵ The fact that this obvious parallel oc- curs outside of the main plot is further support for the argument that the author of Judith had the story of Jael in mind when he wrote his story. Second, the battle in both stories is followed by a rout of the respective enemies. These routs occur at different points in the narrative: the rout of the Assyrians takes place after the death of Holofernes, while that of the Canaanites happens before the death of Sisera. It is true, of course, that these scenes are common to battle stories. However, a minor simi- larity like this one points to an overall scheme of parallels that show the author of Judith adhering very closely to his model.

   To conclude, in this paper I have argued, by citing the correspond- ing elements of two stories, that the author of the book of Judith used the specific story of Jael and Deborah as the model for his story. The comparison begins with the fact that both stories have heroines who save the Israelites by murdering the commander of the enemy forces,

   

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and this murder is accomplished by destroying the head of the victim. But the parallels go beyond this central fact to correspondence in struc- ture, plot and character. The sheer number of both large and small par- allels makes the theory of the Jael model highly plausible. Nor would this model have passed unnoticed by the readers of the book of Judith. This modeling technique is a good example of the use of earlier biblical literature in the literature of the second-temple period,³⁶   and demon- strates the high esteem in which it was held at this time.

   ¹ For example, see George W.E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981) 106.
   ² The author of the book of Judith is anonymous, and may have been either male or female. Unfortunately, the English language does not have a graceful way to express a neuter human subject; therefore, when it is unavoidable I will use the masculine pronoun to describe the author. This is in no way to be taken as indicat- ing the (proven) gender of the author.

³ For example, Carey A. Moore, Judith (AB 40; Garden City, NY: Doubleday,

1985);

   Morton A. Enslin and Solomon Zeitlin, The Book of Judith (Jewish Apocry- phal Literature 8, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972); John Craghan, Esther. Judith. Tobit. Jo- nah. Ruth (Old Testament Message 16; Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1982),

et al.

   ⁴ See, for example, Robert G. Boling, Judges (AB 6A; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975) and J. Albert Soggin, Judges (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster,

1981).

   ⁵ Toni Craven, in her article “Artistry and Faith in the Book of Judith” (Se- meia 8 [1977] 75), makes the following statement about the structure of the book: “The form and content of Part I sketch a religious/political struggle over true sov- ereignty and true deity;
   the form and content of Part II detail the resolution of this struggle by the hand of the widow Judith.” This is true enough; however, as stated above, I would argue that the structure is actually tripartite, with the concluding victory celebra- tions separate from the Judith/Holofernes section.
   ⁶ J.C. Dancey, for example, says “Now at last with the introduction of the heroine the narrative gets into full stride....” (The Shorter Books of the Apocrypha [CBC; Cambridge:

Unversity Press, 1972] 95).

   ⁷ Toni Craven, Artistry and Faith in the Book of Judith. (SBLDS 70; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983) 58.

   ⁸ This has also been noticed by Alonso-Schökel: “The delayed appearance of Judith may be compared to the later appearance of Jael....” (Luis Alonso-Schökel, “Narrative Structures in the Book of Judith.” Protocol Series of the Colloquies of  

the Center for Hermeneutical Studies in Hellenistic and Modern Culture 11 [1975]
4). Of course, when Jael enters the scene the Israelite army has already won the battle; when Judith appears the Israelites are on the verge of being utterly defeated.
   ⁹ For a complete discussion and further bibliography, see Mieke Bal, Death and Dissymmetry: The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges(Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1988) 211–212.
   ¹⁰ The question of whether Lappidoth is meant as a proper masculine name has been raised by some. If it is not the name of Deborah’s otherwise unknown husband, what is it? Judah J. Slotki lists four midrashic interpretations: 1. It is a nickname for Barak (“lightning”). 2. It indicates her inflammatory speeches and war-like spirit. 3. It symbolizes the divine inspiration which created sparks and flames. 4. She prepared wicks for the lamps in the sanctuary (Judah J. Slotki, “Judges” in Joshua and Judges [ed. A. Cohen; London: Soncino, 1950] 186). The first two interpretations are the ones most often suggested by commentators today.
   ¹¹ Mieke Bal, Murder and Difference: Gender. Genre and Scholarship on Sisera’s Death (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988) 20–21; Craghan, Es- ther. Judith. Tobit. Jonah. Ruth. 89. The notion underlying both stories is that these are unusual roles for women. As P.R. Sanday notes, in most cultures “women give birth and grow children; men kill and make weapons” (Sanday, Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981] 5). The violation of these cultural norms by these women may be perceived as dangerous; this is particularly true in the case of Deborah,
who has the charisma of Yahweh (this was suggested to me by Dr. William Poehl- mann of St. Olaf College in a private conversation).
   ¹²  Patrick W. Skehan, “The Hand of Judith,” CBQ 25 (1963) 94–110. The fol- lowing comments are heavily dependent on Skehan’s article.

¹³  Solomon Zeitlin, “Introduction: The Book of Esther and Judith: A Parallel”

in Enslin and Zeitlin, The Book of Judith. 1–37.
   ¹⁴  For example, Wayne Shumaker, in Alonso-Schokel, Colloquies, 50, says: “I have compunctions about her [Judith’s] methodology.” For the question of Jael’s violation of the law of hospitality, see Boling, Judges, Soggin, Judges, et al.

¹⁵  Soggin, Judges. 78.

¹⁶ For more on the use of irony in the book of Judith, see Moore, Judith. 78–85.

¹⁷ As Boling puts it, “she duped him and doped him” (Judges, 98).

¹⁸  For a discussion, see Bal, Murder and Difference, 105.

¹⁹  Bal, Murder and Difference, 105.

   ²⁰  Stith Thompson titles this folklore motif “Death from intercourse,” motif T182 (Stith Thompson, Motif Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narra- tive Elements in Folktales. Ballads. Myths. Fables. Mediaeval Romances. Exempla Fabliaux. Jest-Books. and Local Legends[vol 5; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955–58] 362). It has been noticed before that the influence of folklore mo- tifs is prominent in Judith. For example, Mary P. Coote notes “In its basic pattern and motifs the story of Judith strongly resembles a type of traditional rescue story

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in which a female figure assumes the role of the hero and saves a male figure (or
a social group) from captivity” (in Alonso-Schökel, Colloquies, 21). For a further discussion of the folklore influence, see Moore, Judith, 78.

²¹  Boling, Judges, 93, 98. 22 22 Soggin, Judges, 62.

   ²³  It is not germane to our purpose to determine whether or not Barak’s re- fusal to go without Deborah is the result of fear. For a discussion of this question, see Bal, Murder and Difference, 45ff., 115.

²⁴  Craven, Artistry and Faith, Moore, Judith, et al.

²⁵  Dancy, The Shorter Books of the Apocrypha, 124.

   ²⁶  I would reiterate my earlier statement that the author of Judith knew the story of Jael and Deborah in its final form, as it now appears in the book of Judges; he did not separate it into sources.

²⁷ The song of Judith shifts back to the first person in v 11.

²⁸  Craghan, Esther. Judith. Tobit. Jonah, Ruth. 124.

²⁹  Skehan, “The Hand of Judith,” 95.

   ³⁰ Translation by F.M. Cross and D.N. Freedman in Studies in Ancient Yah- wistic Poetry (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975) 13.

³¹  Cf., for example, 8:28. The book of Judges is given its structure by the

Deuteronomistic Historian (Dtr).

³² That is, the theology of the conditional covenant.

³³  Moore, Judith, 50.

³⁴  Enslin and Zeitlin, The Book of Judith, 42.

³⁵  James D. Martin, The Book of Judges (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1975) 54.

³⁶  For other examples of the use of earlier biblical literature in the literature

of the second-temple period, see the category “Expansions of the ‘Old Testament’“ in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (vol. 2; ed. J.H. Charlesworth; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985). Many of the books in this category are in a different liter- ary genre than the book of Judith (e.g., Jubilees); however, they do demonstrate the reuse of the biblical text in the second-temple period. The elements in the book of Judith which are not found in the story of Jael and Deborah, such as the conversion of Achior, are motifs which appear in other post-exilic books such as Esther and Daniel. 

From “No One Spoke Ill of Her”: Essays on Judith, edited by James C. VanderKam (Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1992), pages 5–16. In EARLY JUDAISM AND ITS LITERATURE series, Wil- liam Adler, Series Editor; Number 02. Copyright © 1992 by The Society of Biblical Literature. Used by permission.

600th Anniversary of Joan of Arc, Known as the 'Second Judith'

Joan of Arc still firing up the French 600 years on


Joan of Arc has been claimed at different times by the French left and right as their own ....

 

SHE DIED six centuries ago, lived for just 19 years and has a life story shrouded by accreted layers of myth and mystery, but Joan of Arc’s hold on the French imagination doesn’t seem to slacken.

Yesterday, on the 600th anniversary of her birth, President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the saint’s birthplace in the eastern town of Domrémy and hailed her as a symbol of national unity and resistance.

The Catholic martyr, credited with driving the English out of the city of Orléans in 1429, during the Hundred Years War, and later elevated to the role of national heroine, is the only medieval figure known to all Frenchmen.

She embodies the nation, standing for both Catholic France and the secular republic, and has been claimed at different times by the left and the right as their own. Hers is one of the most popular street names in the country; her representation looks down from village squares and churches and her name is immortalised in thousands of monuments, paintings, films and toys.

Fights over Joan of Arc’s legacy are nothing new, but the 600th anniversary was as much about one of contemporary France’s most bitter political rivalries as it was about history.

Speaking in Domrémy – an obligatory pilgrimage stop for modern presidents – Mr Sarkozy described Joan as the embodiment of French unity, an ecumenical presence who stood alongside the writer Victor Hugo, the statesman Charles de Gaulle and the resistance hero Jean Moulin in the national pantheon. “Joan is part of our national identity. She forged it. She strengthened it,” the president said. He reproached those who “would use her to divide”, adding: “Joan does not belong to any political party or clan.”

His target was unspoken but understood. In recent years, the far-right National Front has adopted “the maid of Orléans” as its symbol. Her statue stands outside the party’s headquarters in Paris and her life is celebrated in an annual event organised by its supporters. Party leader Marine Le Pen even named her daughter after her.

Mr Sarkozy referred to Joan of Arc in his 2007 election campaign – “Joan is France”, he said – but unlike many of his predecessors, he has not been a regular visitor to Domrémy. With an election in four months, however, his UMP party is concerned about the rise in support for the National Front (FN). Mr Sarkozy managed to win over many “soft” FN voters in 2007, but recent polls suggest the far-right party is again eating into his support and say its candidate, Ms Le Pen, could win up to 20 per cent of the first-round vote. Some even showed the incumbent could be knocked out by Ms Le Pen in round one.

Mr Sarkozy visited the house where Joan of Arc was born on January 6th, 1412, and then travelled to Vaucouleurs, where she began her mission to lead the Charles VII to victory. “It’s the 600th anniversary – this doesn’t happen every day,” he told journalists. “What would people say if I hadn’t come?” The National Front plans to hold its own Joan of Arc ceremony in Paris today. “I see that Nicolas Sarkozy is running after me,” Ms Le Pen taunted him.

It is not the first time Joan of Arc has been adopted for political purposes. Before becoming a far-right symbol, she was celebrated at different times by communists, femininsts, revolutionaries and monarchists.

The Socialist Party, whose candidate François Hollande is leading in the polls, dismissed Mr Sarkozy’s speech as a stunt, but was careful not to disparage Joan.

Harlem Désir, a senior party figure, said Mr Sarkozy and Ms Le Pen were “the worst-placed” people to celebrate the saint, as “they spend their time dividing the French people and playing on their fears”.

Isaiah's Miracle of the Sun for King Hezekiah of Judah

Taken from: http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/D/DIAL+OF+AHAZ/

DIAL OF AHAZ
di'-al, a'-haz:

1. Hezekiah's Sickness and the Sign
2. The Sign a Real Miracle
3. The "Dial" a Staircase
4. Time of Day of the Miracle
5. Hezekiah's Choice of the Sign
6. Meaning of the Sign
7. The Fifteen "Songs of Degrees"

1. Hezekiah's Sickness and the Sign:

One of the most striking instances recorded in Holy Scripture of the interruption, or rather reversal, of the working of a natural law is the going back of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz at the time of Hezekiah's recovery from his illness. The record of the incident is as follows. Isaiah was sent to Hezekiah in his sickness, to say:

"Thus saith Yahweh, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of Yahweh. .... And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up unto the house of Yahweh the third day? And Isaiah said, This shall be the sign unto thee from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten steps: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto Yahweh; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz" (2 Ki 20:5-11). And in Isa 38:8, it is said, "Behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the dial whereon it was gone down."

2. The Sign a Real Miracle:

The first and essential point to be noted is that this was no ordinary astronomical phenomenon, nor was it the result of ordinary astronomical laws then unknown. It was peculiar to that particular place, and to that particular time; otherwise we should not read of "the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent .... to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Ch 32:31). It is impossible, therefore, to accept the suggestion that the dial of Ahaz may have been improperly constructed, so as to produce a reversal of the motion of the shadow at certain times. For such a maladjustment would have occasioned the repetition of the phenomenon every time the sun returned to the same position with respect to the dial. The narrative, in fact, informs us that the occurrence was not due to any natural law, known or unknown, since Hezekiah was given the choice and exercised it of his own free will, as to whether a shadow should move in a particular direction or in the opposite. But there are no alternative results in the working of a natural law. "If a state of things is repeated in every detail, it must lead to exactly the same consequences." The same natural law cannot indifferently produce one result, or its opposite. The movement of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz was, therefore, a miracle in the strict sense of the term. It cannot be explained by the working of any astronomical law, known or unknown. We have no information as to the astronomical conditions at the time; we can only inquire into the setting of the miracle.

3. The "Dial" a Staircase:

It is unfortunate that one important word in the narrative has been rendered in both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) by a term which describes a recognized astronomical instrument. The word "dial" (ma'aloth) is usually translated "degrees," "steps," or "stairs," and indeed is thus rendered in the same verse. There is no evidence that the structure referred to had been designed to serve as a dial or was anything other than a staircase, "the staircase of Ahaz." It was probably connected with that "covered way for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without," which Ahaz turned "round the house of Yahweh, because of the king of Assyria" (2 Ki 16:18 the Revised Version, margin). This staircase, called after Ahaz because the alteration was due to him, may have been substituted for David's "causeway that goeth up," which was "westward, by the gate of Shallecheth" (1 Ch 26:16), or more probably for Solomon's "ascent by which he went up unto the house of Yahweh" which so impressed the queen of Sheba (2 Ch 9:4).

4. Time of Day of the Miracle:

At certain times of the day the shadow of some object fell upon this staircase, and we learn from both 2 Ki and Isa that this shadow had already gone down ten steps, while from Isa we learn in addition that the sun also was going down. The miracle therefore took place in the afternoon, when the sun moves on its downward course, and when all shadows are thrown in an easterly direction. We are not told what was the object that cast the shadow, but it must have stood to the west of the staircase, and the top of the staircase must have passed into the shadow first, and the foot of the staircase have remained longest in the light. The royal palace is understood to have been placed southeast of the Temple, and it is therefore probable that it was some part of the Temple buildings that had cast its shadow down the stairway in full view of the dying king, as he lay in his chamber. If the afternoon were well advanced the sun would be moving rapidly in altitude, and but little in azimuth; or, in other words, the shadow would be advancing down the steps at its quickest rate, but be moving only slowly toward the left of those who were mounting them. It may well have been the case, therefore, that the time had come when the priests from Ophel, and the officials and courtiers from the palace, were going up the ascent into the house of the Lord to be present at the evening sacrifice; passing from the bright sunshine at the foot of the stairs into the shadow that had already fallen upon the upper steps. The sun would be going straight down behind the buildings and the steps already in shadow would sink into deeper shadow, not to emerge again into the light until a new day's sun had arisen upon the earth.

5. Hezekiah's Choice of the Sign:

We can therefore understand the nature of the choice of the sign that was offered by the prophet to the dying king. Would he choose that ten more steps should be straight-way engulfed in the shadow, or that ten steps already shadowed should be brought back into the light? Either might serve as a sign that he should arise on the third day and go up in renewed life to the house of the Lord; but the one sign would be in accordance with the natural progress of events, and the other would be directly opposed to it. It would be a light thing, as Hezekiah said, for the shadow to go forward ten steps; a bank of cloud rising behind the Temple would effect that change. But no disposition of cloud could bring the shadow back from that part of the staircase which had already passed into it, and restore it to the sunshine. The first change was, in human estimation, easily possible, "a light thing"; the second change seemed impossible. Hezekiah chose the seemingly impossible, and the Lord gave the sign and answered his prayer. We need not ask Whether the king showed more or less faith in choosing the "impossible" rather than the "possible" sign. His father Ahaz had shown his want of faith by refusing to put the Lord to the test, by refusing to ask a sign, whether in the heaven above or in the earth beneath. The faith of Hezekiah was shown in asking a sign, which was at once in the heaven above and in the earth beneath, in accepting the choice offered to him, and so putting the Lord to the test. And the sign chosen was most fitting, Hezekiah lay dying, whether of plague or of cancer we do not know, but his disease was mortal and beyond cure; he was already entering into the shadow of death. The word of the Lord was sure to him; on "the third day" he would rise and go up in new life to the house of God.

6. Meaning of the Sign:

But what of the sign? Should the shadow of death swallow him up; should his life be swiftly cut off in darkness, and be hidden until a new day should dawn, and the light of a new life, a life of resurrection, arise? (Compare Jn 11:24.) Or should the shadow be drawn back swiftly, and new years be added to his life before death could come upon him? Swift death was in the natural progress of events; restoration to health was of the impossible. He chose the restoration to health, and the Lord answered his faith and his prayer.

We are not able to go further into particulars. The first temple, the royal palace, and the staircase of Ahaz were all destroyed in the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and we have no means of ascertaining the exact position of the staircase with respect to Temple or palace, or the number of the steps that it contained, or the time of the day, or the season of the year when the sign was given. It is possible that if we knew any or all of these, a yet greater significance, both spiritual and astronomical, might attach to the narrative.

7. The Fifteen "Songs of Degrees":

Fifteen years were added to the life of Hezekiah. In the restoration of the second temple by Herod fifteen steps led from the Court of the Women to the Court of Israel, and on these steps the Levites during the Feast of Tabernacles were accustomed to stand in order to sing the fifteen "songs of degrees" (Pss 120 through 134). At the head of these same steps in the gateway, lepers who had been cleansed from their disease presented themselves to the priests. It has been suggested that Hezekiah himself was the compiler of these fifteen "songs of the steps," in thankfulness for his fifteen years of added life. Five of them are ascribed to David or as written for Solomon, but the remaining ten bear no author's name. Their subjects are, however, most appropriate to the great crises and desires of Hezekiah's life. His great Passover, to which all the tribes were invited, and so many Israelites came; the blasphemy of Rabshakeh and of Sennacherib's threatening letter; the danger of the Assyrian invasion and the deliverance from it; Hezekiah's sickness unto death and his miraculous restoration to health; and the fact that at that time he would seem to have had no son to follow him on the throne--all these subjects seem to find fitting expression in the fifteen Psalms of the Steps.

E. W. Maunder Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Definition for 'DIAL OF AHAZ'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". bible-history.com - ISBE; 1915.

Copyright Information

© International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)

Genealogy and Character of Heroine Judith

 

Judith - Chapter 8

1 Judith was informed at the time of what had happened. She was the daughter of Merari son of Ox, son of Joseph, son of Oziel, son of Elkiah, son of Ananias, son of Gideon, son of Raphaim, son of Ahitub, son of Elijah, son of Hilkiah, son of Eliab, son of Nathanael, son of Salamiel, son of Sarasadai, son of Israel.



2 Her husband Manasseh, of her own tribe and family, had died at the time of the barley harvest.



3 He was supervising the men as they bound up the sheaves in the field when he caught sunstroke and had to take to his bed. He died in Bethulia, his home town, and was buried with his ancestors in the field that lies between Dothan and Balamon.



4 As a widow, Judith stayed inside her home for three years and four months.



5 She had had an upper room built for herself on the roof. She wore sackcloth next to the skin and dressed in widow's weeds.



6 She fasted every day of her widowhood except for the Sabbath eve, the Sabbath itself, the eve of New Moon, the feast of New Moon and the joyful festivals of the House of Israel.



7 Now she was very beautiful, charming to see. Her husband Manasseh had left her gold and silver, menservants and maidservants, herds and land; and she lived among all her possessions



8 without anyone finding a word to say against her, so devoutly did she fear God.



9 Hearing how the water shortage had demoralised the people and how they had complained bitterly to the headman of the town, and being also told what Uzziah had said to them and how he had given them his oath to surrender the town to the Assyrians in five days' time,



10 Judith immediately sent the serving-woman who ran her household to summon Chabris and Charmis, two elders of the town.



11 When these came in she said: 'Listen to me, leaders of the people of Bethulia. You were wrong to speak to the people as you did today and to bind yourself by oath, in defiance of God, to surrender the town to our enemies if the Lord did not come to your help within a set number of days.



12 Who are you, to put God to the test today, you, of all people, to set yourselves above him?



13 You put the Lord Almighty to the test! You do not understand anything, and never will.



14 If you cannot sound the depths of the human heart or unravel the arguments of the human mind, how can you fathom the God who made all things, or sound his mind or unravel his purposes? No, brothers, do not provoke the anger of the Lord our God.



15 Although it may not be his will to help us within the next five days, he has the power to protect us for as many days as he pleases, just as he has the power to destroy us before our enemies.



16 But you have no right to demand guarantees where the designs of the Lord our God are concerned. For God is not to be threatened as a human being is, nor is he, like a mere human, to be cajoled.



17 Rather, as we wait patiently for him to save, let us plead with him to help us. He will hear our voice if such is his good pleasure.



18 'And indeed of recent times and still today there is not one tribe of ours, or family, or village, or town that has worshipped gods made by human hand, as once was done,



19 which was the reason why our ancestors were delivered over to sword and sack, and perished in misery at the hands of our enemies.



20 We for our part acknowledge no other God but him; and so we may hope he will not look on us disdainfully or desert our nation.



21 'If indeed they capture us, as you expect, then all Judaea will be captured too, and our holy places plundered, and we shall answer with our blood for their profanation.



22 The slaughter of our brothers, the captivity of our country, the unpeopling of our heritage, will recoil on our own heads among the nations whose slaves we shall become, and our new masters will look down on us as an outrage and a disgrace;



23 for our surrender will not reinstate us in their favour; no, the Lord our God will make it a thing to be ashamed of.



24 So now, brothers, let us set an example to our brothers, since their lives depend on us, and the sanctuary -- Temple and altar -- rests on us.



25 'All this being so, let us rather give thanks to the Lord our God who, as he tested our ancestors, is now testing us.



26 Remember how he treated Abraham, all the ordeals of Isaac, all that happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while he kept the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother.



27 For as these ordeals were intended by him to search their hearts, so now this is not vengeance that God is exacting on us, but a warning inflicted by the Lord on those who are near his heart.'



28 Uzziah replied, 'Everything you have just said comes from an honest heart and no one will contradict a word of it.



29 Not that today is the first time your wisdom has been displayed; from your earliest years all the people have known how shrewd you are and of how sound a heart.



30 But, parched with thirst, the people forced us to act as we had promised them and to bind ourselves by an inviolable oath.



31 You are a devout woman; pray to the Lord, then, to send us a downpour to fill our storage-wells, so that our faintness may pass.'



32 Judith replied, 'Listen to me, I intend to do something, the memory of which will be handed down to the children of our race from age to age.



33 Tonight you must be at the gate of the town. I shall make my way out with my attendant. Before the time fixed by you for surrendering the town to our enemies, the Lord will make use of me to rescue Israel.



34 You must not ask what I intend to do; I shall not tell you until I have done it.'



35 Uzziah and the chief men said, 'Go in peace. May the Lord show you a way to take revenge on our enemies.'



36 And leaving the upper room they went back to their posts.



...



Taken from: http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=18&bible_chapter=8




Judith a Type of Virgin Mary's Crushing of Serpent' s Head

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the one woman in the entire Bible who makes the claim, “All generations to come shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). And why is that? Well, Catholics believe it is because she was preserved from all time from sin by a special privilege of God. God got to create His own mother on earth.

....

The beautiful harp music rendition of Ave Maria you hear playing in the background comes from the beautiful Sally Fletcher, with her permission. If you would like to purchase a copy of it and other beautiful harp music by this wonderful person, click here.



Since original sin (The sin of Adam) is passed down through the womb from one generation to the next, God made Mary free from original sin so that Jesus would also be free from it. This Catholic dogma is called the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This doctrine does not mean that Mary doesn’t need a Savior; in fact, in her Magnificat speech, she says that “her soul rejoices in God my savior” (Luke 1:47). All this means is that she was prevented from falling into the snake pit of sin by the grace of God, rather than being saved from it after sinning, like the rest of us. Catholics believe that this was prefigured in Genesis 3:15, where God told Adam and Eve that He “Will put enmity” between the devil and “THE WOMAN”. Since Eve was in compliance with the devil, and not at enmity, THE WOMAN could not refer to her, but rather a future “WOMAN” who would have enmity (lifelong hatred) with Satan. The entire Genesis 3:15 verse reads as follows from the RSV:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."



Mary and Scripture

THE Woman Since women don’t have “seeds”, but eggs, this is very peculiar wording. Most biblical scholars believe that “the seed” is Jesus Christ”, and that He bruised satan’s head at the place of the skull, called Golgotha, at the crucifixion. If that is so, then Catholics believe that “THE WOMAN” could only refer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, her “seed”. This is why Jesus always referred to Mary as “Woman”, rather than Mom or Mother. Mary can be viewed as a parallel to the Tabernacle of the Lord, as constructed by Moses in Exodus 40 and Luke Chapter 1. In Exodus 40:34-35, when the Tabernacle was completed, we learn the following:





"Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud overshadowed it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.





" In Luke 1:35, the Bible says:



"And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;therefore the child to be born will be called holy,the Son of God."



In both cases, the word used to "overshadow" is "episkiasei".



Catholics also view Mary as the New Testament Ark of the Covenant. The Old Testament Ark of the Covenant contained three items – The Word of God in the form of stone tablets (the 10 Commandments), manna (bread) from Heaven, and the rod of Aaron that resprouted and came back to life (Hebrews 9:4). Just so, the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary contained Jesus Christ – The living Word of God (John 1:1), the bread of life (John 6:48), and the ruler with a rod of iron who also came back to life (Rev.12:5). At the Annunciation of Mary, Gabriel told her that the power of the most high would “overshadow” her (Luke 1:35). The term “overshadow” is significant, because it was also used to refer to the cherubim “overshadowing” the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Hebrews 9:5). The Ark was made with pure gold (Exodus 4ff), and was very holy, which parallels the Catholic teaching that Mary is also pure and holy. The Ark of the Covenant was so holy, that no ordinary person could even touch it. Uzzah reached out to steady it, and was instantly struck dead (2 Samuel 6:7). There are many parallels between the mention of the Ark in 2 Samuel 6 and Mary in Luke 1:



•David heads to the hills of Judah in 2 Samuel 6:2-3; Mary heads to the hills of Judah in Luke 1:39.

•David dances for joy in front of the Ark (2 Samuel 6:14); the unborn fetus John the Baptist leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice (1 Luke 44).

•David says “How can the Ark come to me”? (2 Samuel 6:9); Elizabeth says, “How is this that the Mother of my Lord has come to me”? (1 Luke 43).

•David and the Ark stayed for 3 months (2 Samuel 6:11); Mary stayed for 3 months (1 Luke 56).

So if Jesus is “The Word Made Flesh”, then Mary is “The Ark Made Flesh”. All of these parallels between the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament and the Blessed Virgin Mary in the New Testament is a branch of scripture study known as “typology”. In other words, events and people in the New Testament are prefigured by events and people in the Old Testament.





One such typology revolves around Revelation 12 and Genesis 37:9. In Genesis, Joseph says,



"Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."



In Revelation 12:1, the scripture reads,



“And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”



The obvious parallel is that the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars in Joseph’s dream represent his 11 brothers and all of Israel, while THE WOMAN in Revelation is adorned with these symbols of Israel. So who is the “WOMAN”? The first clue is the term “a great portent”. In Isaiah 7:14 in the Old Testament, it says,



“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.”



The great portent of Revelation and the sign of Isaiah are one and the same – A Virgin who will give birth to the leader of Israel, Jesus Christ. That woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary. The writer of the book of Revelation, St. John the Apostle, was given by Jesus on the cross to Mary as her son, and Mary was given to John as his Mother, in John 19:26-27. This means that John knew Mary better than anyone, except for Jesus, and he is trying to tell us all something about her status in heaven. In the preceding verse, Revelation 11:19, John tells us that he sees the Ark of the Covenant. In the next verse, Revelation 12:1, he describes the Ark for us as “A woman clothed with the sun”, a term that could only mean the immaculately conceived Virgin Mary. The rest of Revelation 12 talks about the enmity prefigured in Genesis 3:15 between the devil and THE WOMAN, and how satan can’t get to her. In Revelation 12:17, it says that we are her children if we follow the commandments and bear testimony to Jesus.



Mary is also seen as the new Eve. Whereas Eve listened to the devil Lucifer and obeyed him, bringing sin and damnation into the world, Mary listened to the angel Gabriel and obeyed him, thus bringing grace and salvation into the world in the form of Jesus Christ. Mary and Jesus are forever linked together, just as Adam and Eve are. Eve came forth from the side of Adam; Jesus came forth from the womb of Mary. Eve was created immaculately and sinned; Mary was created immaculately and stayed sinless. Thus Mary and her obedience to God overcame Eve’s disobedience to God.



There are many biblical types of Mary in the Old Testament. Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1 is very similar to Hannah’s canticle in 1 Samuel 2. Judith cutting off the head of the Army General Holofernes in Judith 13:8 to save Israel reminds us that Mary will help to bruise the head of the serpent.



The Blessed Virgin Mary is also seen as the Queen Mother. In the Old Testament, the Kings' mother was the queen. The Kings in the Old Testament, like Solomon, had so many wives that it would have been hard to choose one over the other, so the mother of the King became the Queen. Bathsheeba, David's wife, was King Solomon's Queen Mother. In 1 Kings 2, Adonijah approaches the Queen Bathsheeba to ask her to intercede on his behalf with King Solomon. When she asks her son for Adonijah's favor, King Solomon says "Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you". This is a parallel to the New Testament, John 2, when Mary intercedes on behalf of the wedding couple to Jesus about the wine that has run out. Solomon didn't refuse his Queen Mother in the Old Testament, and Jesus didn't refuse his Queen Mother in the New Testament. Neither does he refuse her now.



To learn more about Old Testament "types" (foreshadowings) of Mary, click here



Catholics believe that saints in Heaven, and especially the Blessed Virgin Mary, are still active in their roles to assist mankind in spiritual warfare. We know from James 5:16 that the prayers of the righteous are powerful, and we know from Matthew 22:32 that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. In Revelation 5:8, it says that 24 elders in heaven present our petitions to God in the form of incense, which means that there are intermediaries in heaven who hear and present our prayers to God. If the dead rich man in hell can intercede for his brothers on earth with Abraham (Luke 16:27-28), how much more can Mary in heaven intercede for us here on earth with her son Jesus! Mary said in Luke 1:46 that her soul magnifies (To magnify means to enlarge, to make clearer, and to bring into focus) the Lord (her soul is still very much alive, as are all souls ever created by God). And since no one on earth was ever closer to Jesus in body, heart, and mind (Jesus got his flesh and blood from Mary), who better to intercede for us on our behalf than Mary? Giving honor and devotion to Mary (not worship) actually magnifies the Lord. To give honor to an artist's greatest creation (Mary) honors the creator (Jesus) !



The prayer, The Hail Mary, combines the words of Gabriel and Elizabeth with a petition at the end to pray for us. “Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee” are the words of Gabriel. These words indicate that Mary was full of grace BEFORE Jesus was in her womb. And no one can be full of grace and have any room left over for sin; otherwise she wouldn’t be “full” of grace. “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus” are the words of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. These words from scripture indicate that Mary is blessed more than any other woman, because Jesus is inside of her. Jesus said that you shall know a tree by its fruit, and since Jesus is the fruit of her womb and is sinless and holy, so must Mary be, since she is the tree which bore the fruit (Jesus), although she certainly is not God. The last part of the prayer is a petition to Mary to “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”.



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Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:1-



“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men.”



So asking for intercessory prayer is a very biblical thing to do, especially from a holy person like Mary (James 5:16).



So how can Mary hear thousands of prayers said to her daily from all over the world? Isn’t she just a human being and not God? Catholics believe we share in God’s divinity when we are in heaven. Why? Because of the words of Peter, in 2 Pet.1:3:



"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence 4: by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature."



We see from these verses of Peter that saints in heaven are partakers in the divine nature, which includes hearing prayers. Saints in heaven have no power of their own. All of their power comes from Christ Jesus, who shares it with them. We know that they witness for us, because of the words of St. Paul, in Hebrews 12:1: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” Witnesses testify to a judge on behalf of the accused, and Paul here is saying that the saints in heaven are our witnesses. Notice that Paul didn't say that they were mere spectators; he called them WITNESSES. Asking these witnesses, especially Mary, to help us with our problems is a very good thing to do. Some people make the mistake of thinking that praying to a saint equals worshipping that saint like he/she is a god, but “to pray” simply means “to ask”, not “to worship”. And since all of their power comes from the amazing grace of Jesus Christ, it is not like conjuring up the dead and seeking hidden knowledge, which is expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:10-11. After all, Jesus appeared with the very dead Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration (Luke 9:30). Since Jesus never sinned, and conjuring up the dead as an occult practice is a sin, we see here that there is a true distinction between praying to saints for their intercession and calling up the dead to seek arcane knowledge.





There have been many private revelations of Mary, including the two most famous ones at Lourdes France (1858), and at Fatima Portugal in 1917. While none of these private revelations are binding on the faithful as dogma, there have been many documented miracles at Lourdes. Here she proclaimed to St. Bernadette that she is “The Immaculate Conception”. The predictions of Mary to the three shepherd children at Fatima, made during the year of the atheistic Russian Revolution, have all come to pass. They include that another worse war (WWI was already in progress in 1917) would come to pass if men didn’t reform their lives; that Russia would spread her errors throughout the world, and that an attempt on the life of a future Pope would be made. Pope John Paul II was indeed shot on May 13, the exact date of the first apparition to the children in 1917. Here she proclaimed herself to be the “Our Lady of the Rosary”, and she specifically asked everyone to say the rosary for peace. Her main messages have been for people to repent, to do penance for sinners, to pray a lot, and to reform their lives. She also showed the three shepherd children a short vision of the damned in hell, which scared them very much. Mary asked us all to pray for the poor sinners, because without OUR prayers, many will go to hell instead of heaven. So start praying for the conversion of everyone trapped in pornography, adultery, love of money, fornication, greed, lust, the occult, etc. Pray today and everyday specifically for these people. Mary asked us all to do it, so begin today



In 1984, Pope John Paul II followed the instructions of Mary at Fatima and dedicated the entire world, including Russia, to her Immaculate Heart. Soon after, a Catholic workers’ union in Poland (Solidarity) rose up and defeated the Communist Party in Europe, which began as an atheistic workers’ party in Russia (Bolsheviks).



St. Louis de Montfort says that the fastest and quickest way to reach Jesus is to be dedicated to Mary, as her role is lead you to her Son. Jesus came into the world the first time through the womb of Mary. It seems like Jesus is coming into the world the second time through the Immaculate Heart of Mary! Pope John Paul II’s motto was “Totus tuus”, or “Totally yours”. John Paul II dedicated his entire papacy to Mary, knowing well that it would be the shortest and quickest route to Jesus.



Catholics view Mary as the person who will defeat satan on earth. But she will not do it alone. Everyone who is consecrated to Jesus through Mary will help her in her God given mission to defeat the enemy. As the Archangel Gabriel once said - "HAIL FULL OF GRACE !"



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Fatima Prayers Prayers taught to the children at Fatima



Pardon Prayer



O My God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love you! And I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love you.



Prayer of Reparation



O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore thee profoundly. I offer thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners.



Eucharistic Prayer



Most Holy Trinity, I adore you! My God, my god, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament!



Sacrifice Prayer



O my Jesus, it is for love of you, in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and for the conversion of poor sinners.



Rosary Decade Prayer



O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.





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Taken from: http://www.catholicbible101.com/theblessedvirginmary.htm