by
Damien F. Mackey
“Several commentators compare the exchange … between
Holophernes and Achior to a discussion between the Persian ruler
Xerxes and the exiled Spartan king Demaratus found in Herodotus …”.
Deborah Levine Gera
That the Jewish (Simeonite) heroine, Judith, and her deeds have been picked up in various pseudo-histories and mythologies, both BC and (supposedly) AD, I have shown in my series:
Another important character in the Book of Judith, Achior, has similarly been reproduced.
I gave an example of this in my university thesis:
A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
(Volume Two, p. 60, n. 1286):
This fiery confrontation between the commander-in-chief, his subordinates and Achior would be, I suggest - following on from my earlier comments about Greco-Persian appropriations - where Homer got his idea for the main theme of The Iliad: namely the argument at the siege of Troy between Agamemnon, supreme commander of the Greeks, and the renowned Achilles (Achior?). ….
Deborah Levine Gera has drawn a comparison between the Achior of the Book of Judith and the Spartan king Demaratus in Herodotus (Judith. Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature, 2013), which is rather interesting in light of the statement in I Maccabees 12:20-21 that the Spartans were, like the Jews, descendants of Abraham: “Arius, king of the Spartans, to Onias the high priest, greeting. It has been found in writing concerning the Spartans and the Jews that they are brethren and are of the family of Abraham”.
On p. 200, she writes:
Achior is also associated with two figures found outside biblical literature, the Assyrian sage Ahiqar ….
Mackey’s comment: In my university thesis, but also in articles such as:
"Arioch, King of the Elymeans" (Judith 1:6)
I have estabished this very connection between Achior and “the Assyrian sage Ahiqar”. But this Ahiqar was not, as Deborah Levine Gera describes next, a “pagan”, nor was he ethnically “Assyrian”. He was an Israelite (Naphtalian) captive in Assyrian Nineveh.
Deborah Levine Gera continues:
…. and the Herodotean wise adviser, the Spartan Demaratus. Ahiqar, the pagan wise man who had a checkered career at the court of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, and produced a series of of maxims and proverbs, may have been an actual historical Assyrian [sic] figure. Like Achior, Ahiqar is a good pagan [sic] who is persecuted by the powerful, but ultimately receives his due. The earliest surviving version of Ahiqar's story is in Aramaic, found in fragmentary bits of the fifth century B.C.E. Elephantine papyri, but there are Greek, Arabic, Armenian, and Syriac versions as well. The tale was probably Assyrian in origin and clearly was popular in the East, among Jews as well as gentiles; see the useful survey of Lindenberger (1985, 479–493). Thus we find a Jewish Ahiqar in the Book of Tobit (1:21–22; 2:10; 11:19; 14:10). There, Ahiqar is said to be Tobit's nephew, and he helps Tobit return to Nineveh, interceding on his behalf with Esarhaddon. He cares for the blind Tobit for two years and shares in the joy of the happy end of his story. We also hear of the bad behavior of Nadin, the adopted nephew of Ahiqar.
Mackey’s comment: This “Nadin” is, as I have explained:
"Nadin" (Nadab) of Tobit is the "Holofernes" of Judith
Deborah Levine Gera continues:
The Vulgate Tobit 11:20 has a reading “Achior” for the Greek Αξιαξαρο« or Αξικαρ (Tobit 11:19 short and long versions) …
Mackey’s comment: That is because Judith’s “Achior” is the Vulgate Tobit’s “Achior”,
and this may have influenced modern commentators who link the two figures; see Schmitz (2004b, 20–21 nn. 4-8).
There is a resemblance of sorts between the Ahiqar of Tobit (“converted” to Judaism by the author of Tobit, as it were) and Achior of Judith (a pagan who converts to Judaism in the course of the tale): both combine theoretical wisdom with actual deeds. Indeed Achior will later apply his theological speech to himself personally when he converts to Judaism (14:10); see further Cazelles (1951) and Schmitz (2004b).
Several commentators compare the exchange here between Holophernes [Holofernes] and Achior to a discussion between the Persian ruler Xerxes and the exiled Spartan king Demaratus found in Herodotus (Hdt. 7.101-104).
Mackey’s comment: This strengthens me in my view that the Herodotean “Xerxes” was a non-historical composite character. See e.g. my article:
Deborah Levine Gera continues:
Xerxes questions Demaratus about the Spartans' willingness to fight the much larger Persian army and Demaratus, speaking freely, contrasts Spartan courage, ability to wage war, and love of freedom with the Persian way of life. Both Achior and Demaratus describe the characteristics of a foreign people to an enemy leader about to go to war, but Demaratus concentrates on the Greek way of life, while Achior deals chiefly with the history of the Jews and their relationship with their God. Thus the chief parallel between the Xerxes-Demaratus scene and the encounter here between Holophernes and Achior is in the function of the speeches, rather than their content, as Schmitz (2004b) notes. ….
Mackey’s comment: As I also noted in my thesis, B. Childs (Isaiah and the Assyrian Crisis, Studies in Biblical Theology, Second Series 3-4, SCM Press, London, 1967) had discerned some degree of commonality between the speech of Achior to Holofernes, in the Book of Judith, and that of the Rabshakeh of Sennacherib’s army, with which high official I had further identified Achior/Ahiqar in my thesis.
Thus I wrote (Volume Two, p. 9):
Most interestingly, Childs - who has subjected the Rabshakeh’s speech to a searching form-critical analysis, also identifying its true Near Eastern genre - has considered it as well in relation to an aspect of the speech of [the Book of Judith’s Achior (who I shall actually be identifying with this Rabshakeh in Chapter 2, e.g. pp. 46-47) to Holofernes (Judith 5:20f.). ….
