On the face of it, therefore, the book is not to be regarded as historical. Yet the writer is well acquainted with the Old Testament, and so far as the geography of Palestine is concerned he is thoroughly _au fait_. We must conclude that he simply chose the historical names and times as the framework in which to place his story in order that he might thereby render it more dramatic; he purposely commits gross historical blunders in order to make it clear to his readers at the outset that the historical period chosen is merely for literary effect; “they are to understand that this is fiction, not history; it did not take place in this or that definite period of Jewish history, but simply ‘once upon a time,’ the real vagueness of the date being transparently disguised in the manner which has become familiar in the folk-tales of other parts of the world.”[393] There is, of course, always the possibility that some historical basis may exist for the actual story of Judith as distinct from its framework, and this is held to be the case by some scholars; Zunz, for example, says: “It is quite possible that in some Palestinian town a popular festival might have been celebrated in memory of the heroic deed of some woman, and that when the real occasion of it had been forgotten and had given place to a legend with manifold embellishment, a story was composed in honour of Judith, presumably before the destruction of the Temple.”[394] The fact that several forms of the story exist supports this idea (see the next section). But the majority of scholars are disposed to regard the book as pure fiction (with a special object in view as we shall see presently), and without any basis of fact. As a piece of literary work the book must command sincere admiration; the author is a master in the art of story-telling, and the way in which he intertwines the purposes for which the book was written with the narrative itself is very skilfully done. Striking, too, is the dramatic power which the writer exhibits; the reader becomes fascinated as step by step he is drawn nearer and nearer to the climax, wondering what it is going to be; he is impelled to read on in order to see what is really going to happen, for the writer cleverly conceals this right up to the very moment that the climax is reached. Judith’s object in coming to Holofernes seems to be represented at first as the act of a traitress, and something worse; and yet her deep piety convinces the reader that this cannot be; so that he must read on; he cannot stop. Torrey is certainly right in saying that “what gained for the book its high esteem in early times, in both the Jewish and the Christian world, was its intrinsic merit as a story, rather than its religious teaching or its patriotism.”[395] II. VARIETY OF FORM OF THE JUDITH STORY