JUDITA – PROTOTYP ODVÁŽNEJ VDOVY

This article focuses on the progress of the widow‘s position in ancient Israel – from a weak, defenseless woman to a strong, brave heroine. Being a widow in patriarchal societies like ancient Israel was not easy. Widows, along with orphans and foreigners, were a social class on the edge of society in need of strong economical and legal protection. This article will focus on Judith, the main character in an OT book of the same name. First, we shall outline the position of women and widows in ancient Israel in general. Second, we shall take a closer look at the position of widows in the Book of Psalms as the largest corpus in the OT. And third, we will examine the figure of Judith as a prototype of courageous widow. According to some scholars, a possibility exists that the rehabilitation of widows and their acceptance by society was the chief motif for the composition of this book.