The book of Judith, a summary
Dec. 4th, 2021 07:37 pmWe actually READ the book of Judith for Hannukah. I will attempt to summarise.
Nebuchadnezzar is the autocratic emperor of Assyria and (realistically) rules a vast swathe of territory and (unrealistically) thinks that he is almost a god. This isn't THE Nebuchadnezzar, not any of the other Nebuchadnezzars either. Stories of the time apparently just slap the Nebuchadnezzar label on rulers who are going to be bad news, reflecting that the people who wrote the stories which we're reading were first, people in Jerusalem conquered by Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar and deported back to Babylon, then their descendants who later returned to Israel. Fictional Nebuchadnezzar has a massive beef with Some Ruler who doesn't really come into the story after the first chapter.
There is detail about Some Ruler's fortified cities (wall width, size of stones, gate size, number of towers), which having recently read https://acoup.blog/2021/10/29/collections-fortification-part-i-the-besiegers-playbook/ was pretty interesting from a historical-strategic perspective. A wall like that shuts off raids from any any army less professional and determined that what the emperor of Assyria can muster.
Narrator: This is what a walled city protects against, and this is what it doesn't.
( Read more... )
This all alludes to the more genuinely historical invasion by the Greek Seleucids repelled by the Maccabees, so it is celebrated in Hannukah, along with the later tradition that one of the things Judith specifically plied Holofernes with was good cheese.
Nebuchadnezzar is the autocratic emperor of Assyria and (realistically) rules a vast swathe of territory and (unrealistically) thinks that he is almost a god. This isn't THE Nebuchadnezzar, not any of the other Nebuchadnezzars either. Stories of the time apparently just slap the Nebuchadnezzar label on rulers who are going to be bad news, reflecting that the people who wrote the stories which we're reading were first, people in Jerusalem conquered by Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar and deported back to Babylon, then their descendants who later returned to Israel. Fictional Nebuchadnezzar has a massive beef with Some Ruler who doesn't really come into the story after the first chapter.
There is detail about Some Ruler's fortified cities (wall width, size of stones, gate size, number of towers), which having recently read https://acoup.blog/2021/10/29/collections-fortification-part-i-the-besiegers-playbook/ was pretty interesting from a historical-strategic perspective. A wall like that shuts off raids from any any army less professional and determined that what the emperor of Assyria can muster.
Narrator: This is what a walled city protects against, and this is what it doesn't.
( Read more... )
This all alludes to the more genuinely historical invasion by the Greek Seleucids repelled by the Maccabees, so it is celebrated in Hannukah, along with the later tradition that one of the things Judith specifically plied Holofernes with was good cheese.