Irony as Archetype

The Enemy Is Within: A Jungian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Book of Judith by Helen Efthimiadis-Keith (Biblical Interpretation Series: Brill Academic) Book of Judith, entitled after its heroine, is regarded by Jews and Protestants as apocryphal, and by Roman Catholics since the decrees of the Council of Trent in 1546 as deutero-canonical or apocrypha and the antilegomena. Judith is daughter of Merari and widow of Manasseh. Her gene­alogy, extending back 16 generations, is one of the longest in the OT and by far the longest for any woman in the Bible so it indicates her importance.

The Hebrew original of Judith is lost but evident in the Greek translation. It is unlikely that it was rep­resented in any of the Hebrew texts in circulation during the Middle Ages. The Greek texts take three widely divergent forms. The Vulgate presents yet another, very different, text; apparently Jerome merely revised an exist­ing Latin translation with the help of an Aramaic paraphrase.

Scholars have long been inclined either to read the Book of Judith as an historical narrative which gives rise to a number of problems or a folktale with a political foreword. The work provides plenty of problems when read as history and fits rather nicely into the folktale genre.

The Book of Judith in particular shows a bland indifference to history and geography. The scene is set in the time of 'Nebuchadnezzar who reigned over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh', but Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia and Nineveh had been destroyed by Nabopolassar, his father. Despite this, the return from exile under Cyrus is regarded as having taken place already. And whereas Holofernes and Bagoas have Persian names, there are also obvious allusions to Greek cus­toms. We may add that the itinerary of the army of Holofernes, is a geographical impossibility. Even when Holofernes reaches Sa­maria where we are on more familiar ground, the place-names, though increasing in number, are largely unknown and have an unusual ring. Be­thulia itself, the town round which the drama revolves, defies identification despite the apparent concern for details that should help us to locate it.

The only explanation of this surprising indifference is that the authors are not trying to write history. No doubt they build on actual events but we have no means of knowing what these were, since the superstructure conceals them. But it is precisely this superstructure that is the real work of the author and conveys his message. The important thing is to discover the exact purpose of each book and to extract the teaching contained in it. The Book was most probably written in Palestine towards the middle of the second century BC, in the atmosphere of nationalistic and religious fervor generated by the Maccabaean Revolt.

If Judith is not history, then what is it? Over the past century three general types of answers have been given, each having a number of variations. Many students have agreed that it is a novel, with variation on the particular type. Is it a Jewish novel, "a Jewish-Hellenistic novel," "a religious novel," "a short historical novel which carries a strong reli­gious message." or "a quasi-histor­ical novel"? Others have maintained that Judith is some type of folktale: "an epic rescue story" combining the themes of the Faithful Wife and the Female Warrior, or a tale exemplifying "the perennial battle of the sexes", or "an example narrative," with suprahistorical or metahistorical dimensions in which Nebuchadnezzar is a type of Anti-Yahweh.

Still other scholars have characterized the book as an apocalypse: one with eschatological aspects or "an apocalyptic parable", or an expression of Heilsgeschichte , "Salvation History" por­traying a battle essentially between Yahweh and Anti-Yah­weh, or a synthesis of two genres, the haggadic and the apocalyptic.

Some caution against reading Ju­dith "in too allegorical a manner." All things considered, the book of Judith may best re­garded as a folktale which offers an example story of a pious widow who, strengthened by her religious faith, courageously took matters into her own hands to de­feat the enemy.

Efthimiadis-Keith manages a competent survey of the scholarly literature about Judith coming to the conclusion that the work is more folktale than history.  But that the historical frame has mythical consequences for her frankly Jungian allegorization of the central actors and story.  Her survey of the literature is organized by five methodological orientations; these are historical criticism, literary analysis, advocacy, rhetorical criticism, comparative intertextual analysis, and iconographic studies.

Efthimiadis-Keith surveys the traditions of a Jungian dream analysis, especially characterizations of symbols and archetypes as they play out on the stage of consciousness emerging from the backstage of the unconscious.  She emphasizes that there are two main classes of our types.  Those they can be personified include the shadow, the anima and animus, the wise old man, the mother, the made, the trickster, and the child.  While the archetypes of transformation represent situation, place or means by which a rite of passage or some type of change is effected such as journeys, death, rebirth etc. Both classes of archetype may be characterized as compelling and eternal and nature, arising effortlessly into the psyche to rehearse maternal themes of unity, repression, and projection.  After providing summaries of the essential characteristics of both types of archetype, Efthimiadis-Keith considers the methodological relationship between Jung’s psychology and the interpretation of literature.  Besides reviewing the rather substantial Jungian corpus itself, she also deals with some of the better Jungian students of literature innovations. Next Efthimiadis-Keith diagrams the central actions and actors in the Book of Judith showing their relationship to psychological archetypes.  In summary she sees the first seven chapters of Judith as a battle between the conscious in the unconscious.  The first seven chapters of the book act as prelude rehearsing Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, plans to reconquer the West by having Holofernes, his greatest general marshal an enormous army conquering and razing the walls through Put and Lud, invading this seacoast towns such as Sidon, Tyre, among others, sacking cities, violating sanctuaries, insisting that Nebuchadnezzar be worshiped as the sole God by the surviving populations. 

The Israelites had only recently returned to Jerusalem from their exile and they were poor and afraid of this new hazard of the Assyrian army. The Israelites in Judea, who only a short time before had recently rededicated their Temple at Jerusalem, were frightened. The territory of Samaria and cities like Kona, Beth-horon, Belmain, and Jericho secured their hilltops and prepared for war. Joakim, the high priest in Jerusalem at the time, specifically ordered Bethulia and Bethomesthaim, near Dothan, to secure the passes (since access to Judea and Jerusalem was through a narrow pass wide enough for only two men at a time to pass).

Israelites throughout Judea—priests, men, women, chil­dren, even animals—wore sackcloth, and were fasting and praying for themselves and especially for their Temple at Jerusalem.

When Holofernes learned of this resistance, he was both surprised and angered. Demanding information on the Israelites, he got a full report from one Achior, leader of the Ammonites. Achior told how the Israelites had lived first in Chaldea, next in Mesopotamia, and then in Canaan. There they grew rich until a terrible famine forced them to Egypt, where they were ultimately enslaved by Pharaoh. Through the intervention of their god, they left Egypt, their god even drying up the Red Sea for them. They lived in the Sinai for a while, but then invaded the land of the Amorites, driving out its inhabitants. "And as long as they did not sin against their god," Achior said, "they pros­pered." But the Israelites sinned so much that finally their god allowed them to be conquered and exiled to a foreign land, from which they had just recently returned. If these people were sinning now, Achior was certain, their god would let the Assyrians conquer them. But if not, then the Assyrians could not defeat them.

Holofernes and his staff scoffed at Achior's counsel. He "rewarded" Achior by setting him in a place where the Israelites might find him and adopt him as a friend. Thus, Achior would share their fate, death at the hands of the Assyrians.

Once the Bethulians found Achior and heard his story, they renewed their prayers while Uzziah, their chief mag­istrate, took Achior into his own home.

Given that this part of the novel introduces the conflict, it also sets the stage for Judith to triumph. Efthimiadis-Keith correlation between the five circles of consciousness in Judith, the various cities invaded by Holofernes with Jung’s five stages of conscious awareness definitely offers a persuasive moral evaluation of the conflict in the text. 

Holofernes, on the advice of the leaders of Esau and Moab, seized the water sources of Bethulia, thereby assur­ing that the town would die either of starvation or thirst. And indeed after thirty-four days of siege, the cisterns of Bethulia were going dry and its people were collapsing in the streets. The situation was so desperate that its citizens demanded that their magistrates surrender the city, argu­ing that it was better to be living Assyrian slaves than "free" Israelite corpses. Uzziah offered them a compromise: if there was no relief from God within the next five days, then they would surrender the city.

The Book of Judith is the story of a victory won by the chosen people over its enemies, thanks to the intervention of a woman. The tiny Jewish nation faces the mighty army of Holofernes whose ambition is to lay the whole world at the feet of Nebuchadnezzar and to destroy all other religions but that of the deified Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews are besieged in Bethulia; the water supply has failed and they are on the point of surrender. Everyone in Bethulia accepted the compromise except one person, Judith, daughter of Merari. This beautiful and wealthy young widow of Manasseh was best known for her piety (since the untimely death of her husband almost three and a half years earlier, she had devoted herself to prayer and to fasting on all days except when they were prohibited). No one ever spoke ill of her. She summoned the three magistrates to her place and upbraided them, scolding them for trying to put God to the test. She insisted that God will do as he pleases, unmoved by the ploys of men. God might very well be testing his people in the present crisis, for, unlike some earlier occasions, he was not punishing them now inasmuch as they had not sinned against him. To Uzziah's snide suggestion that she, being such a righteous woman, should intercede for the people, Judith offered a counterproposal: she and her maid would leave town that night, and within five days the Lord would deliver Israel by her hand. The magistrates promptly gave her their blessing.

But first Judith, covered with sackcloth and ashes, prayed to the Lord, begging him for the same support he had granted her ancestor Simeon when he avenged Ha­mor's rape of Dinah. She begged God to crush the Assyr­ian forces threatening Jerusalem and its Temple. She also prayed for a beguiling tongue and a strong hand to over­throw her enemy.

Her spiritual preparation completed, Judith bathed and put on her most fetching attire, so that every male who saw her, be he Israelite or Gentile, was struck by her beauty. Then, with the blessing of the town fathers, she and her maidservant left Bethulia, taking with them only enough kosher rations for a few days.

As the two made their way through the valley, they were arrested by an Assyrian patrol, who, captivated by Judith's beauty, ended up personally escorting them to Holofernes' tent.

Holofernes' efforts to reassure Judith were clearly un­necessary, for she immediately took charge. She shame­lessly flattered him on his accomplishments, assuring him, "I will say nothing false to 'my lord' this night" and "If you follow the advice of your maidservant, God will accomplish something through you, and 'my lord' will not fail to achieve his ends." She told Holofernes about what had transpired between Achior and the Bethulians. Moreover, Judith confirmed Achior's words to the Assyrians: Israel could not fall to the Assyrians unless it had sinned against God—and, Israel was about to do exactly that! The siege of Bethulia would shortly prompt its citizens to eat and drink things forbidden by their God. When they did that, they would deserve to die at Assyrian hands. Therefore she would remain in camp, leaving it only at night with her maid to pray. When God revealed to her that the impend­ing sacrilege had occurred, then she herself would guide Holofernes' army to Jerusalem without loss of life or limb. Delighted by her information and beauty, Holofernes believed her every word. To his invitation that she share his dinner, Judith declined, insisting that "Your servant will not exhaust her [kosher] supplies before the Lord God accomplishes by my hand what he has planned." Until late that night and for the next three days Judith stayed in her own tent, leaving the Assyrian camp only at night to bathe and then pray, after which she would eat her one meal of the day. But on the fourth day Holofernes, intent on seducing her, invited her to a small dinner party in his tent. "Dressed to kill," Judith accepted his invitation, saying, "I will do whatever 'my lord' desires right away, and it will be something to boast of until my dying day."

His lust welling up within him, Holofernes drank so much wine that by the time everyone but Judith had tactfully withdrawn for the evening, he was sprawled on his couch, dead drunk. Judith, taking his sword and praying for strength, struck Holofernes' neck twice, chop­ping his head off and then rolling his body onto the floor. Next she grabbed his canopy and had her maid drop the head into her sack. The two of them then, as usual, left the camp "to pray."

Arriving in Bethulia, Judith told everyone what God had done, how he had shattered the enemy by the hand of a mere female. As she offered Holofernes' head as evidence, she assured them that her "honor" was still intact.

Judith then mapped out the strategy for the next day. The Bethulians were to act as if they were coming down to fight, whereupon the Assyrians would alert their general, only to find him and themselves headless. Then the Israel­ites would attack.

That settled, Judith had Achior brought to her. On seeing the severed head, Achior collapsed. After hearing her story, Achior firmly believed in Israel's God, to the extent of his being circumcised and becoming a Jew, as are his descendants to this day.

The next day it all happened exactly as Judith had planned. The Assyrians panicked when they learned about Holofernes. Not only did the Bethulians attack them, but so did Israelites from all their cities far and wide, pursuing the Assyrians as far as Damascus. Looting the Assyrian camp took an entire month, during which time the high priest Joakim and the Jewish Council came down from Jerusalem to visit the scene and congratulate Judith. Then she and the people gradually worked their way toward Jerusalem, the women dancing along the route and the warriors, armed and garlanded, marching behind them.

Along the way Judith sang a psalm that told of the murderous boasts of the Assyrians, how "the Omnipotent Lord had foiled them by the hand of a female," and how "Her sandal ravished his eyes; her beauty captivated his mind; and the sword slashed through his neck!" She also insisted that burnt offerings were of little significance to God; rather, he was impressed by a person's fear of him.

Once back home, Judith remained there for the rest of her life. Although many men wanted her, she remained a celibate. Before dying at the ripe old age of 105, she manumitted her faithful maidservant and distributed her property among her closest relatives on both sides of the family. For the rest of Judith's life—and for a long time afterward—no one dared to threaten her people

 

The second part of Judith deals with her strategy and eventual victory over the Assyrians.  She is definitely the hero. Efthimiadis-Keith carefully considers Judith's qualities of person and independence of action that characterize her victory over the invader. No biblical book is so quintessentially ironic as Judith. Failure to recognize this fact has been a primary reason for a number of misinterpretations of the book. At this stage Judith appears, a beautiful young widow, intelligent, devout, resolute; she overcomes first the cowardice of her own people and finally the Assyrian army itself. She rebukes the leading men of the city for their lack of faith in God; she then falls to prayer and, having duly adorned herself, leaves Be­thulia and is led into the presence of Holofernes, on whom she exercises all her charm and wit. Once left alone with this drunken braggart, she cuts off his head. The Assyrians, panic-stricken, take to their heels and the Jews sack their camp. The people sing the praises of Judith and go to Jerusalem for a solemn thanksgiving.

The author of Judith was an ironist extraordinaire who, because he often meant the opposite of what he said, was some­times misunderstood. A perfect case in point is the very first verse of Judith. Judith herself is certainly an ironic figure: a beautiful and desirable widow, she lived the life of a celibate after her husband's death; a childless widow, she gave spiritual and political rebirth to her people; a wealthy woman, she spent most of her life fasting; very feminine in appear­ance, she brutally murdered Holofernes with her own two hands.

Holofernes, too, is an ironic figure: able to conquer the entire west, he was unable to conquer Bethulia; intending to master Judith, he was mastered by her—by the very sword with which he himself had used to claim the lives of so many others.

Efthimiadis-Keith fleshes out her levels of consciousness in this story to show the Judith as a fully self realize human being, overcoming not only an external aggressor but also the internal inertia towards compromise within her own community. Efthimiadis-Keith in summary emphasizes Judith's dual nature in that she represents both the anima and the ego of the Jewish nation in this story.  Because she holds both there is some ambivalence about her.  She is both saintly and vampish.  As for religious values expressed by the actions of Judith, the storyteller obviously subscribed, without any reservations, to two very popular but highly debatable aphorisms, namely, "All's fair in love and war" and "The end justifies the means." He was also clearly suggesting that courage and cleverness, Pharasaic piety and ardent patriotism, undergirded by a strong faith in Yahweh, held not only Judith in fine stead but would do the same for other Jews in any time or place. Such a message helps to explain the story's popularity among Jews despite its omission from the Jewish canon.

No one doubts Judith's cleverness or courage. But many have questioned her character and conduct. To be sure, she prayed constantly and fasted frequently; she ate only kosher foods even in the crises of life; she honored the memory of her deceased husband by never remarrying; and she did all the proper things right before she died. But in her dealings with Hol­ofernes she was a shameless flatterer, a bold­faced liar, and a ruthless assassin; "a clever and resourceful assassin."

The character of Judith seems is objectionable from a  conventional moral standpoint. Her way is spread with deception from first to last. She would have been willing even to have yielded her body to this lascivious Assyrian for the sake of accomplishing her end is clearly the case. Nonetheless, by the standards of her day and her people, Judith was deeply religious, one who prayed to God even as she chopped off Holofernes' head. In fact, the author of Judith could very well have described her as "the saint who murdered for her people."

The importance of Achior to Judith has often been overlooked and analyses of the story. Efthimiadis-Keith shows him to be an unmistakable effect of protagonists within the entire Judith narrative.  The side linking the two parts of the book together Achior also inspires the heroic action of Judith herself. Even the minor characters are ironic. Achior, a seasoned warrior, fainted upon seeing the decapitated head. A man of action, Achior was also a wise man, a pagan Ammonite, Achior from the beginning showed more faith in Israel's God than did the Israelite magistrate of Bethu­lia, Uzziah ( = "God is my strength"), who in "womanly" fashion hid behind the safety of high walls while Judith, in "manly" fashion, went out to meet the enemy face-to-face. King Nebuchadnezzar, "Lord of the whole world" (2:5) could not conquer Israel. The Assyrian soldiers who ar­rested Judith ended up escorting her to Holofernes' quar­ters, a perfect example of the captive taking captive the captors.

All three types of irony abound in Judith. Of the numer­ous examples of punctual irony, one might note the follow­ing: "So who are you, Achior, . . . that you play the prophet, . . . advising us not to make war against the people of Israel because their god will protect them? Who is god except Nebuchadnezzar? He will send his forces and wipe them off the face of the earth! Their god won't save them." (6:2); "My servants will now 'deliver' you to the hill country . . . You will not die-until you are destroyed with them!" (6:6-7); "God did well to send you [said Holofernes to Judith] . . . to give strength to our hands and destruction to those who in­sulted my lord . . . If you do as you have promised, . . . you shall . . . be famous throughout the world" (11:22-23).

As for episodic irony, the punctual ironic statements taken together in the exchange between Holofernes and Achior or those in the exchanges between Holofernes and Judith constitute splendid examples. Moreover, when these two episodes are taken together, thematic irony is created, i.e., Achior spoke the truth and was not believed while Judith dissimulated, equivocated, and outright lied-and was believed!

The narrative is neatly put together and has a close affinity with apocalyptic writings. Holofernes, the henchman of Nebuchad­nezzar, is the incarnation of the powers of evil. Judith represents the cause of God, that is to say, of Jewry. This cause is apparently forlorn, but God makes use of the weak hands of a woman to procure his triumph, and his chosen people go in triumph to Jerusalem. This book has clear points of contact with Daniel, Ezekiel and Joel; the action takes place on the plain of Esdraelon near the plain of Armageddon, where the great eschatological battle of Revelation, Rv 16:16, also takes place. Judith's triumph is the reward of prayer and exact observance of the rules of legal purity; yet the horizon of the book is not narrowly nationalistic: the safety of Jerusalem is assured at Bethulia, in that very Samaria so hated by all right-minded Jews, and the religious significance of the struggle is expressed by Achior, who is an Ammonite, and is later converted to the true God..

The heroine's relationship with all the males in the story-the elders, the Assyrian soldiers, Achior-is ironic, but especially so with Holofernes, who on seeing Judith, loses his head before it has been cut off. For the brutal murder itself, the author uses most erotic terms: "Her sandal ravished his eyes; her beauty captivated his mind; and the sword slashed through his neck!". Given the patriar­chal character of Judith's day, one can scarcely imagine a more ironic theme than the book's central one: "The Omnipotent Lord has foiled them by the hand of a female"

This study offers some exciting insights into the often-neglected Book of Judith and demonstrates the continued vigor of Jungian literary analysis.

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