Book of Judith in the context of "Judith (homily)"

Judith is an Old English narrative poem describing the beheading of Assyrian general Holofernes by Israelite Judith of Bethulia. Found in the same manuscript as the heroic poem Beowulf, it is one of many retellings of the Holofernes–Judith tale as it was found in the Book of Judith, a story still present in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian bibles but considered apocryphal by Protestants. There is one other extant version in Old English; Ælfric of Eynsham, the late 10th-century Anglo-Saxon abbot and writer, wrote a homily (in prose) of the tale.

Judith Beheading Holofernes c. 1620, now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, is the renowned painting by Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi depicting the assassination of Holofernes from the deuterocanonical Book of Judith. When compared to her earlier interpretation from Naples c. 1612, there are subtle but marked improvements to the composition and detailed elements of the work. These differences display the skill of a cultivated Baroque painter, with the adept use of chiaroscuro and realism to express the violent tension between Judith, Abra, and the dying Holofernes.

The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be canonical books of the Old Testament by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Church of the East. In contrast, modern Rabbinic Judaism and Protestantism regard the DC as Apocrypha.

Seven books are accepted as deuterocanonical by all the ancient churches: Tobit, Judith, Baruch with the Letter of Jeremiah, Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, First and Second Maccabees and also the Greek additions to Esther and Daniel. In addition to these, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church include other books in their canons.

Holofernes (Ancient Greek: Ὀλοφέρνης; Hebrew: הולופרנס) was an invading Assyrian general in the Book of Judith, who was beheaded by Judith, who entered his camp and decapitated him while he was intoxicated.

Bethulia (Greek: Βαιτυλούᾳ, Baituloua; Hebrew: בתוליה) is a biblical "city whose deliverance by Judith, when besieged by Holofernes, forms the subject of the Book of Judith."

Salome, or possibly Judith with the Head of Holofernes, is an oil painting which is an early work by the Venetian painter of the late Renaissance, Titian. It is usually thought to represent Salome with the head of John the Baptist. It is usually dated to around 1515 and is now in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome. Like other paintings of this subject, it has sometimes been considered to represent Judith with the head of Holofernes, the other biblical incident found in art showing a female and a severed male head. Historically, the main figure has also been called Herodias, the mother of Salome.

Sometimes attributed to Giorgione, the painting is now usually seen as one where Titian's personal style can be seen in development, with a "sense of physical proximity and involvement of the viewer", in which "expert handling of the malleable oil medium enabled the artist to evoke the sensation of softly spun hair upon creamy flesh".