Jennifer L. KOOSED and Robert Paul SEESENGOOD.  Judith.  Wisdom Commentary, Volume 16. Collegeville, Minnesota:  Liturgical Press, 2022. Pp. 202.  $49.95 Hb. ISBN 9780814681152.  Reviewed by Eloise M. ROSENBLATT, R.S.M., St. Paul University, Ottawa.

This commentary on the Book of Judith deservedly won First Place for Scripture, Academic Studies, from the Catholic Press Association for books published in 2022.  The volume is part of a major feminist series, the Wisdom Commentary, treating every book of the Bible.  General editor is Barbara Reid, O.P. President of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois, and editor for this volume was Amy-Jill Levine, noted emeritus professor of Vanderbilt University.

Written in Greek, Judith is not part of the Hebrew canon, but it's a very good Jewish story, a David and Goliath theme. The artistic representations of Judith hacking the head off Holofernes dominate any association with the book. But fully half of it is a war-story, and I who hate war movies, was entranced by the narrative of the crisis leading up to the appearance of Judith in the second half of the book.

The story in my memory blotted out this first half.  My association with Judith focused on the heroic act of a beautiful Jewish widow, who pretended to defect to the camp of the invading army.  She tricked Holofernes, the enemy general, into a drunken stupor while she attended the banquet he laid out in the middle of the military camp.  He had expected to seduce her.  Instead, as he lay blacked out on the dais inside the tent, she raised up his own sword and cleanly—or by hacking it-- severed his head. She and her maid packed the head in a food bag and hied back to the Israelite camp.  Holofernes’ attendants, shortly later, discovered his headless, torso. His army, demoralized, in disarray, abandoned the field and their siege.  Holofernes’ execution by a woman, his severed head, her triumphant trophy, held aloft by its blood-soaked hair, was the Book of Judith.

But I started reading the commentary at the beginning that introduces the first 9 chapters before Judith appears. It’s a long lead-up, a kind of Jewish Iliad, with Nebuchadnezzar’s war-making, Holofernes’ siege of Bethulia, and the food and water shortages, sickness and death of women and children, about to force the Israelites into surrender.   Finally in Chapter 10, Judith appears. There is her long consultation with the elders, her prayer to God, and her preparation to take matters into her own hands.  

I found myself entranced by the writing itself.  It didn’t read like typical biblical exegesis, which sometimes sounds like an auto mechanic’s report on the list of services he performed on a car in the shop. Why was I so engaged by the analysis of the first half of the Book of Judith about Nebuchadnezzar’s war-mongering?   I tried to account for the phrasing—a literarily sophisticated style, long and short sentences, a flowing tone, references to cross-texts in Hebrew scripture neatly woven into the forward-moving discussion, an analysis of the Judith narrative which had an explanatory life of its own.  I noticed that scholarly references were comfortably smoothed into the commentary, as agreements which advanced the discussion, rather than noisy academic arguments heavily footnoted to prove the author has covered the field.  I interrupted my immersion in the commentary, curious, to consult the bibliography, and noted how imaginative and stimulating the sources are.

Distracted, I started making a note of the articles I’d like to consult for my own work in feminist reading of the New Testament. Which is to say, the bibliography for K’s and S’s commentary on Judith offers scholars in feminist biblical criticism some general themes to explore, not only on women in the Hebrew Scripture and orientation to standard feminist authorities, but also leads to literary criticism, gender reversals, meals, mistaken identities, masculinities, warriors, violence, and Artemisia Gentileschi.

One compositional feature of the Wisdom Commentary series involves invitations to additional scholars, contributors who write 700-2000 words on particular themes, methods or characters, from their own expertise. In this volume, they include several informative queer readings by Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, a transwoman’s reflection on Judith’s assumption of a male role by Barbara K. Peronteau, an analysis of Judith’s maidservant in paintings of Caravaggio and Gentileschi by Jessica Jernigan, a horror-heroine Jael-Judith analysis by Rhiannon Graybill, a character study of Bagoas the attendant to Holofernes by Robin Gallagher Branch, and Judith as a Feminist Activist by Melissa Stewart and Linda Learman. 

The lay-out of this volume is easy to read, with text and commentary flowing on the same page.  Altogether a fine investment to purchase this particular volume in the Wisdom Commentary Series.