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Before the Church · c. 150–100 BC
Judith
Anonymous
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What it is
A widow rebukes the elders of her town for setting God a deadline, then dresses to be looked at, walks into the Assyrian camp, flatters the general for four days, and cuts off his head with his own sword while he lies drunk.
Why it lasted
Deliberately unhistorical in every detail — Nebuchadnezzar reigns over Assyria from Nineveh — which is the signal that it is a parable about deliverance rather than a chronicle. One of the most painted subjects in Western art.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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