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Hello, Judith was once one of the most famous women in the Old Testament.

She saved her people, Israel, by killing an enemy general, single-handed.

It was the manner of our killing that inspired countless artists including Caravaggio,

Gentileschi and Climpt.

The general was Holofernis and he fought for Nebuchadnezzar.

He was besieging Judith's village.

Yet Judith, a beautiful young widow, went to his tent, delighted him and when she had made

him drunk, she cut off his head with his own sword, his army fled.

For centuries, Judith symbolized the strong woman, or humility overcoming pride, or the

weak defeating tyrants, or the danger of the femme fatale.

She was sometimes virtuous, like Mary, sometimes deceitful, like Eve.

Yet always raised questions about where the power lay between men and women.

With me to discuss Judith and the paintings, Arsus and Foister, creator of Early Netherland

in German and British painting at the National Gallery, John Gash, senior lecturer in history

of art at the University of Aberdeen and Eleonautou Hall, research associate at the Sheppield

Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies at the University of Sheppield.

Susan Poister, what was the story of Judith in the Bible?

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