The Original Language of the Book of Judith: a Comparison with the Vulgate

This paper is part of the long-standing debate on the original language of the book of Judith. Unlike previous studies that have mostly involved linguistic and philological analysis of the Greek text of the LXX, it offers a comparison between the LXX and the version of the Vulgate, which presents many modifications, missing parts, and additions. In the preface of the book of Judith, Jerome declares to have used for his translation a Chaldean manuscript very different from the Greek text. After investigating the method of translation adopted by Jerome and proving the real existence of his Chaldean manuscript, the paper focuses on some passages that allow supposing that the Chaldean manuscript depends, directly or indirectly, on a lost original Hebrew. In particular, these are cases in which the discrepancy between Latin—and therefore the Chaldean—and Greek can be traced back to an error in transmission from Hebrew. If this hypothesis is correct, the original language of the book of Judith might be Hebrew.