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 (1st/2nd century), that of Melito of Sardis (2nd century) and Origen (3rd century), do not include it.
Jerome, when he produced his Latin translation, counted it among the apocrypha,(although he changed his mind and later quoted it as scripture, and said he merely expressed the views of the Jews), as did Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius of Salamis.
However, the influential Church Fathers 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 (382), Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) and eventually dogmatically defined as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church in 1546 in the Council of Trent.
The 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.
Amongst all Christian Churches who recognize this Book as canonical, only the Coptic Church celebrates the title character’s memory in its Calendar of Saints on September 17.
The canonicity of Judith is rejected by Protestants, who accept as the Old Testament only those books that are found in the Jewish canon. Martin Luther viewed the book as an allegory, but listed it as the first of the eight writings in his Apocrypha.
