Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1598—1599.
I am pleased to report that I have completed the draft of chapter 5 of Rabanus Maurus’ commentary on the book of Judith.
In chapter 5 we meet Achior, a heathen who seems to know the story of Israel quite well and warns Holofernes and his leaders that they won’t likely be able to defeat Israel. Holofernes and his leaders don’t take kindly to this warning and threaten to kill Achior for suggesting that anyone is greater than Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar).
Early in the chapter, Rabanus likens Achior to a heretic who, while he speaks words of truth, also mixes error in with that truth. Later Achior is likened to the ten lepers cleansed by Christ. The white spots intermingled with the healthy skin represent error intermixed with truth, yet Christ cleanses the lepers. By the end of the chapter Achior is related to the man born blind from birth to whom Jesus granted sight. Even further, Rabanus connects the Jews who ejected the blind man from the temple with Holofernes’ phalanxes. But Achior, choosing the discipleship of Christ, and more literally being circumcised in the flesh and joined to the people of Israel, has chosen the correct side, being converted from his heathen ways.
Rabanus compares Holofernes and his men to those who “take pride in worldly arrogance” and who on the one hand:
look down from outside upon “men unarmed and without force,” being unable to look inwardly at the force of spirit and virtue of faith by which they fight invisibly against spiritual enemies; on the other hand these, who with false hope in their own power do not see that they themselves are deluded, give the order to consign the proclaimers of truth to the multitude that is to be destroyed.
Achior and all those like him have joined themselves to those who have a force of spirit and virtue of faith to fight invisibly against spiritual enemies. Perhaps in today’s secular world, Achior is those who, discovering Christ, become marginalized because they take hold of the discipleship of Christ.
For further information about this translation project, please see my series of posts on Judith.
parochianus 
Great to hear! I have always wanted to see Rabanus translated into English. His commentary on Esther has been translated. Rabanus is important because he is the first to commentate on certain books of the Bible. I have been a part of translation projects such as Alcuin of York’s commentary on Revelation and his Questions and answers manual, Glossa Ordinaria on Revelation and the epistles of John. Feel free to contact me if you want to share some ideas and such. Jlitteral29@gmail.com
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Thanks for your offer jlitteral29. I will likely take you up on that.
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