The Bible in the News: Judith and Holofernes

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Some Biblical names—i.e., David or Sarah—have retained their popularity for millennia. Others, like Delilah and Abner, periodically produce namesakes but never in massive numbers. For a variety of reasons, a third group of Biblical names, like those who bore them, seem to have died in their Biblical incarnations.

Such, we might think, would be the fate of the hapless general Holofernes, beheaded by the bewitching Judith in the 13th chapter of her book. Surely, this is not a name that enjoyed much of an afterlife!

As it turns out, numerous artists have depicted the climactic scene wherein Judith kills Holofernes. One of the two best-known paintings on this theme is by that Renaissance rake Caravaggio; in his work, “the vexed-looking heroine is captured halfway through the job … Holofernes is caught in the moment between life and death, a silent scream on his lips” (Sydney Morning Herald).

The other is by Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the rare female artists of the period whose work has been preserved. Her painting “shows the beautiful murderess and her servant going about their bloody business with the calm rigour of practised butchers subduing a frisky pig” (so London’s Guardian). This graphic imagery is not entirely appropriate since Judith, renowned for her strict adherence to the dietary laws of her day, was unlikely to have come into contact with a pig, frisky or otherwise.

But these are far from the only representations of Holofernes in the last minutes of his lamented life. Far closer to our own day is the Queen of Swords card created by contemporary artist Francesco Vezzoli, who “emulated Vincenzo Catena’s 16th century painting of Judith with the head of Holofernes. In his version, Judith is Lana Turner” (Tampa Bay Times). Be still my heart—even if Lana’s career peaked sometime before I became a watcher of movies!

For something a bit more aural than visual, how about music? In particular, “fado, Portugal’s soulful, guitar-based national song style.” Who better to listen to than the band Judith and Holofernes, who play “a style that has been dubbed fadocore, a mixture of fado … with punk and indie-rock elements” (The New York Times)? It’s difficult, at least for me, to imagine the Biblical Judith and Holofernes putting down weapons and picking up instruments to harmonize in such a way—but who knows!

So we can see the name Holofernes is far from blotted out in the world of art, classical and otherwise. Is there anyone else we might know of with the same name? As all those Shakespearean sharpies out there know, Holofernes appears as a relatively minor, but nonetheless memorable, character in the bard’s comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost. This Holofernes is variously described as a schoolmaster who is “never happier than when pompously debating etymology or parsing Latin” (The New York Times). In addition, he is “besotted with the ladies, whose bottoms he’s apt to fondle” (The Times of London). In the absence of evidence to the contrary, these words seem equally appropriate for Judith’s amorous opponent!

As always, column-writing makes me hungry, so I’ll end on a prandial note. Even though the Book of Judith is not part of the Hebrew Bible (or the Protestant Old Testament), some of it has found a place—at the table—in Judaism. Eating dairy foods on Hanukkah is a custom that, according to tradition, goes back to Judith, who served Holofernes “salty cheese to make him thirsty, and when he fell into a drunken stupor, she beheaded him with a sword” (Montreal’s Gazette).

In this instance, Holofernes could have saved himself a lot of trouble by being more like me: As a rule, the cheese I eat is low salt and low fat—not, I’ll admit, as tasty as the salty, fatty cheese Holofernes consumed. But that diet, as we saw, was extremely harmful, actually fatal, to his health!

Some Biblical names—i.e., David or Sarah—have retained their popularity for millennia. Others, like Delilah and Abner, periodically produce namesakes but never in massive numbers. For a variety of reasons, a third group of Biblical names, like those who bore them, seem to have died in their Biblical incarnations. Such, we might think, would be the fate of the hapless general Holofernes, beheaded by the bewitching Judith in the 13th chapter of her book. Surely, this is not a name that enjoyed much of an afterlife! As it turns out, numerous artists have depicted the climactic scene wherein Judith kills […]