Holofernes

Life

Holofernes is not a historically attested figure but a character in the Book of Judith. His birth, family, and age are not recorded. His name is generally regarded as Persian in origin. The Book of Judith portrays Nebuchadnezzar as a king ruling Assyria from Nineveh and introduces Holofernes as the commander in chief of his army, second only to the king (Judith 2).

Role in the Narrative

• Western campaign: Ordered to punish the western nations that had refused to support the king's war, he sets out on campaign. He destroys the sanctuaries of the regions that surrender and seeks to make them worship Nebuchadnezzar alone as god (Judith 2–3).
• Conflict with Achior: When Israel prepares to resist, Achior, leader of the Ammonites, warns that Israel's God will protect them as long as they do not sin. Holofernes angrily retorts, "Who is god except Nebuchadnezzar?" and has Achior handed over to Bethulia (spelled Baetulia in the Korean Catholic Bible) (Judith 5–6).
• Siege of Bethulia: By seizing the town's water sources, he brings it to the brink of surrender (Judith 7).
• Death: When the widow Judith enters his camp under the pretense of defecting, he trusts her and allows her to stay. After a banquet, while he lies in a drunken sleep, Judith takes his sword from the bedpost and cuts off his head. His head is hung on the city wall, and his army, deprived of its commander, scatters in flight (Judith 12–15).

In the narrative, Holofernes symbolizes worldly power that seeks to exalt itself to the place of God. The story highlights the theme that God overthrows such power "by the hand of a woman" (Judith 16).

Influence on the Korean Church

The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church accept the Book of Judith as deuterocanonical, but Protestantism regards it as apocryphal and excludes it from the canon. Consequently, Holofernes does not appear in the New Korean Revised Version, and he is rarely discussed in Protestant sermons or Sunday school materials. In Korean, the story can be read in the Common Translation Bible, which includes the Apocrypha, and in the Korean Catholic Bible (2005). Korean churchgoers know him better through works of Western Christian art, such as the paintings Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio (c. 1598–1599) and by Artemisia Gentileschi (c. 1620).

Assessment

• Canonical authority: The Catholic Church reads the Book of Judith as divinely inspired Scripture. Presbyterians who follow the Westminster Confession of Faith regard the Apocrypha as no different from other human writings. The Anglican tradition, to which the Anglican Church of Korea belongs, reads the Apocrypha "for example of life and instruction of manners" but does not use it to establish doctrine.
• Historicity: The book contains many passages at odds with the historical record, such as its description of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as king of Assyria. For this reason, many scholars view it as a didactic story intended to strengthen faith rather than as actual history. Some interpret it as reflecting the circumstances of the Jewish people in the second century BC.