In this clip, Cy Kellett welcomes Jimmy Akin to discuss the Book of Judith and its classification as a parable. Jimmy explains how the Church’s authority and scholarly consensus view Judith not as straightforward history but as a theological narrative meant to convey deeper truths.
Transcript:
Caller: The various apparent errors in the Book of Judith. And I’ve heard Catholic apologists explain it as that the Book of Judith is a parable or other form of fiction. And as a way to explain those. And I was wondering, is that just based on the fact that it is in the Catholic canon and on the authority of the Church, or is there additional evidence for that that you could enlighten me on?
Jimmy Akin: So the fact that the Book of Judith is canonical, I mean, that’s based on church. The Church made an authoritative determination that it was one of the books that’s considered sacred and canonical in terms of its literary form. The fact that it’s sometimes called a theological novel, to make it a little more clear to people what that means, I tend to describe it as an extended parable. But that’s something that whatever term you want to call it, it’s clearly not straightforward history. And that is something that’s universally agreed upon by biblical scholars, at least the ones who’ve studied Judith. Because it’s obvious that the author of Judith is telegraphing to the audience, this is a parable or this is not straightforward regular history. And the what you’re referring to as errors in the book are not. Most scholars would not call them errors. I mean, I’m talking. Even liberal scholars would acknowledge this. They’re not errors. The book is written in this way to communicate to the audience that it is not regular history, that it’s performing a different function, which is why many people would call it a theological novel or why I would call it an extended parable. And the easiest way to illustrate that is by citing an example. So right at the beginning of the Book of Judith, we meet this woman, her name is Judith. And she ends up getting into a conflict with a general who is sent by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians. And this is all made clear right at the front of the book. So we’ve got a woman named Judith. She’s in a conflict with an emissary, a military emissary, a general sent by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians. Okay, well, it so happens that and every. All the ancient readers knew this, the name Judith means lady Jew. It’s the feminine form of the word for Jew. So her name means effectively lady Jew. And Nebuchadnezzar, all the ancient audience knew, was not actually the king of the Assyrians. He was the king of Israel’s greatest enemy, the Babylonians, who caused the Babylonian ex, and he was the one that conquered them. And so Everybody knew that Nebuchadnezzar was king of the Babylonians. The Assyrians were a different group. They were kind of the second greatest enemy of Israel. They didn’t conquer the southern kingdom of Judah. They conquered the northern kingdom, the ten northern tribes, and then a while later, the Babylonians. So the assyrians conquered the 10 Northern Trib tribes and take them into exile. Then Nebuchadnezzar uses the Babylonians to conquer the two southern tribes, the kingdom of Judah, and they go into exile. So what we have here is a cluster of a woman named after the nation, the king of the greatest enemy of the nation, who is depicted as the king of the second greatest enemy of the nation. Now, Sykelet, let’s think about some modern equivalents to those elements and see how this would come across if we read a book right at the beginning. Now, who would. So, Judith, her name means lady Jew. She’s a female. It’s like she’s a female personification of Judah. Who would a female personification of America be?
Jimmy Akin: America. I mean, how about.
Jimmy Akin: I’ll help you out. How about Miss America?
Jimmy Akin: Oh, yeah.
Jimmy Akin: Okay.
Jimmy Akin: Yeah. Miss America. There you go.
Jimmy Akin: Yeah, Miss America. In fact, there. There was even a golden age superhero named Miss America, you know, who, like, fought the Nazis. And speaking of Nazis, who was their leader?
Jimmy Akin: Adolf Hitler. He’d be the bad guy, definitely.
Jimmy Akin: Yeah. So I was. And to Illustra that I’m building with your assistance, a modern equivalent. Now, I mentioned Judith represents the nation of Israel. Her name means lady Jew. And so she’s kind of an equivalent of Miss America. And I even mentioned that there’s a superhero named Miss America from the golden age of comics. In fact, there’s two. The earlier Miss America is owned today by DC Comics, and the later Miss America is owned by Marvel Comics. This is a problem. So you can see how the idea of personifying a nation as a woman is common. It happened twice here alone. So during the world. During World War II. Now, speaking of World War II, you mentioned that Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazis.
Caller: Right.
Jimmy Akin: Of all the enemies that America, all the famous ones that America faced in the 20th century, which enemy has the biggest reputation for just being sheer evil?
Cy Kellett: It would either be the Nazis or the Communists. I don’t know, but I think probably the Nazis.
Jimmy Akin: Yeah, I would agree. Hitler is regarded as being more. And his Nazis are regarded as being more evil than Communists, at least by reputation. Sure, you can argue about who killed more people, but that’s what the reputation is. So if the Nazis are the actual greatest evil in terms of reputation that America faced, who would the second be?
Jimmy Akin: That would be the Communists.
Jimmy Akin: The Communists, specifically. Which Communists are we talking about here?
Jimmy Akin: Yeah, the Russian Soviets.
Jimmy Akin: Yeah, Russians. Okay. So imagine you pick up a book, maybe a comic book, and it’s about Miss America, who is in conflict with a general sent by Adolf Hitler, King of the Russians. Would you suppose for a moment that you’re reading a straightforward historical account or some kind of political allegory parable or something like that?
Jimmy Akin: Right, right. That’s the latter of those two. Yeah.
Jimmy Akin: So from the clues at the very beginning of the book, like Miss America, Adolf Hitler, King of the Russians. Okay, we’re not talking as normal history here. And that means you have to read it not as a normal history. And so that’s why scholars of all kinds of different persuasions have recognized that Judith is not a straightforward history. It’s written according to different conventions, and the author telegraphs the fact. This isn’t regular history to the reader. And thus it is taken as a parable, an allegory about God’s protection of his people against foreign adversaries that don’t believe in him. And so it’s sometimes called a theological novel or sometimes an extended parable. That’s what I’d have to say.
Caller: Thank you, Joseph. Thank you very much.