Judith. The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible, but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the Apocrypha. The book contains numerous historical anachronisms, which is why some scholars now accept it as non-historical; it has been considered a parable or perhaps the first historical novel. The name Judith is the feminine form of Judah. It is not clear whether the Book of Judith was originally written in Hebrew or in Greek. The oldest existing version is the Septuagint and might either be a translation from Hebrew or composed in Greek. Details of vocabulary and phrasing point to a Greek text written in a language modeled on the Greek developed through translating the other books in the Septuagint. The extant Hebrew language versions, whether identical to the Greek, or in the shorter Hebrew version, date to the Middle Ages. The Hebrew versions name important figures directly such as the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, thus placing the events in the Hellenistic period when the Maccabees battled the Seleucid monarchs. The Greek version uses deliberately cryptic and anachronistic references such as Nebuchadnezzar, a King of Assyria, who reigns in Nineveh, for the same king. The adoption of that name, though unhistorical, has been sometimes explained either as a copyist's addition, or an arbitrary name assigned to the ruler of Babylon. Although it was likely written by a Jew during the Second Temple period, there is no evidence that the Book of Judith was ever considered authoritative or a candidate for canonicity by any Jewish group. The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible does not contain it, nor was it found among the Dead Sea Scrolls or referred to in any early Rabbinic literature. Reasons for its exclusion include the lateness of its composition, possible Greek origin, open support of the Hasmonean dynasty, and perhaps the brash and seductive character of Judith herself. However, after disappearing from circulation among Jews for over a millennium, references to the Book of Judith, and the figure of Judith herself, resurfaced in the religious literature of crypto-Jews who escaped capitulation by the Caliphate of Cordoba. The renewed interest took the form of tales of the heroine, liturgical poems, commentaries on the Talmud, and passages in Jewish legal codes. Although the text itself does not mention Hanukkah, it became customary for a Hebrew midrashic variant of the Judith story to be read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah. That midrash, whose heroine is portrayed as gorging the enemy on cheese before cutting off his head, may have formed the basis of the Jewish tradition to eat dairy products during Hanukkah. In that respect, Medieval Jewry appears to have viewed Judith as the Hasmonean counterpart to Queen Esther, the heroine of the holiday of Purim. The textual reliability of the Book of Judith was also taken for granted, to the extent that Biblical commentator Nachmanides quoted several passages from a Peshitta of Judith in support of his rendering of Deuteronomy 21:14. Although early Christians, such as Clement of Rome, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria, read and used the Book of Judith, some of the oldest Christian canons, including the Bryennios List, that of Melito of Sardis and Origen, do not include it. Jerome, when he produced his Latin translation, counted it among the apocrypha, as did Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius of Salamis. However, such influential fathers of the Church, including Augustine, Ambrose, and Hilary of Poitiers, considered Judith sacred scripture, and Pope Innocent I declared it part of the canon. In Jerome's Prologue to Judith he claims that the Book of Judith was found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures. It was also accepted by the councils of Rome, Hippo, Carthage, Florence and eventually dogmatically defined as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church in 1546 in the Council of Trent. The Eastern Orthodox Church also accepts Judith as inspired scripture, as was confirmed in the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672. The Episcopal Church calls for a reading of Judith 9:1,11-14 at Mass on the Feast of St Mary Magdalen, July 22. The canonicity of Judith is rejected by Protestants, who accept as the Old Testament only those books that are found in the Jewish canon.