Samson
Encyclopedia
Samson, Shimshon; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges
of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh
(the Hebrew Bible
) (Book of Judges
chapters 13 to 16).
Samson was granted supernatural
strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats such as wrestling a lion, slaying an entire army with only the jawbone
of an ass
, and destroying a pagan temple
.
Samson is believed to have been buried in Tel Tzora
in Israel
overlooking the Sorek valley
. There reside two large gravestones of Samson and his father Manoah
. Nearby stands Manoah’s altar (Judges 13:19-24). It is located between the cities of Zorah
and Eshtaol
.
appears to Manoah
, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan
, in the city of Zorah
, and to his wife, who had been unable to conceive. This angel proclaims that the couple will soon have a son who will begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. The wife believed the angel, but her husband wasn't present, at first, and wanted the heavenly messenger to return, asking that he himself could also receive instruction about the child that was going to be born.
Requirements were set up by the angel that Manoah's wife (as well as the child) were to abstain from all alcoholic beverage
s, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a "Nazirite
" from birth. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a while could take a nazarite vow, which included things like the aforementioned as well as other stipulations. After the angel returned, Manoah soon prepared a sacrifice, but the Messenger would only allow it to be for God, touching his staff to it, miraculously engulfing it in flames. The angel then ascended up into the sky in the fire. This was such dramatic evidence as to the nature of the messenger, that Manoah feared for his life, as it has been said that no-one can live after seeing God; however, his wife soon convinced him that if God planned to slay them, he would never have revealed such things to them to begin with. In due time the son, Samson, is born; he is reared according to these provisions.
When he becomes a young adult, Samson leaves the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. While there, Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah
whom he decides to marry, overcoming the objections of his parents who do not know that "it is of the Lord". The intended marriage is actually part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines. On the way to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by an Asiatic Lion
and simply grabs it and rips it apart, as the spirit of God moves upon him, divinely empowering him. This so profoundly affects Samson that he just keeps it to himself as a secret. He continues on to the Philistine's house, winning her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey
. He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents. At the wedding-feast, Samson proposes that he tell a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines); if they can solve it, he will give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments. The riddle ("Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet") is a veiled account of his second encounter with the lion (at which only he was present). The Philistines are infuriated by the riddle. The thirty groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they will burn her and her father's household if she does not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them. At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson tells her the solution, and she tells it to the thirty groomsmen.
Before sunset on the seventh day they said to him,
Samson said to them,
He flies into a rage and kills thirty Philistines of Ashkelon
for their garments, which he gives his thirty groomsmen. Still in a rage, he returns to his father's house and his bride is given to the best man as his wife.
Her father refuses to allow him to see her and wishes to give Samson the younger sister. Samson attaches torches to the tails of three hundred foxes, leaving the panicked beasts to run through the fields of the Philistines, burning all in their wake. The Philistines find out why Samson burned their crops and they burn Samson's wife and father-in-law
to death. In revenge, Samson slaughters many more Philistines, smiting them "hip and thigh".
Samson then takes refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam
. An army of Philistines went up and demanded from 3000 men of Judah
to deliver them Samson. With Samson's consent, they tie him with two new ropes and are about to hand him over to the Philistines when he breaks free. Using the jawbone of an ass, he slays one thousand Philistines. At the conclusion of Judges 15 it is said that "Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines".
Later, Samson goes to Gaza
, where he stays at a harlot's house. His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he rips the gate up and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron
".
He then falls in love with a woman, Delilah
, at the Brook of Sorek
. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1100 silver coins each) to try to find the secret of Samson's strength. Samson, not wanting to reveal the secret, teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength should he be bound with fresh bowstrings. She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings. She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too. She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together. She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes. Eventually Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair
. Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson's seven locks. Since that breaks the Nazirite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines, who stab out his eyes with their swords. After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain.
One day the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon
, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands. They summon Samson so that people can gather on the roof to watch. Once inside the temple, Samson, his hair having grown long again, asks the servant who is leading him to the temple's central pillars if he may lean against them (referring to the pillars).
After his death, Samson's family recovers his body from the rubble and buries him near the tomb of his father Manoah.
The fate of Delilah is never mentioned.
Rabbinical literature identifies Samson with Bedan
; Bedan was a Judge mentioned by Samuel in his farewell address (1 Samuel
12:11) among the Judges that delivered Israel from their enemies. However, the name "Bedan" is not found in the Book of Judges. The name "Samson" is derived from the Hebrew word "shemesh", which means the sun, so that Samson bore the name of God, who is called "a sun and shield" in ; and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived (Talmud, Tractate Sotah 10a).
Jewish legend records that Samson's shoulders were sixty cubits broad. (Although many talmudic commentaries explain that this is not to be taken literally, for a person that size could not live normally in society. Rather it means he had the ability to carry a burden 60 cubits wide (approximately 30 meters) on his shoulders). He was lame in both feet, but when the spirit of God came upon him he could step with one stride from Zorah
to Eshtaol
, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance. Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth, yet his superhuman strength, like Goliath's, brought woe upon its possessor.
In licentiousness he is compared with Amnon
and Zimri
, both of whom were punished for their sins. Samson's eyes were put out because he had "followed them" too often. It is said that in the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel he never required the least service from an Israelite, and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain. Therefore, as soon as he told Delilah that he was a Nazarite of God she immediately knew that he had spoken the truth
. When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines the structure fell backward, so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father.
In the Talmudic period, some seemed to have denied that Samson was a historic figure and was regarded by such individuals as a purely mythological personage. This was viewed as heretical by the rabbis of the Talmud, and they attempted to refute this. They named Hazelelponi
as his mother in Numbers Rabbah
Naso
10 and in Bava Batra
91a and stated that he had a sister named "Nishyan" or "Nashyan".
or Enkidu
) enfolded into Jewish religious lore, or as an archetypical
folklore
hero, among others. These views sometimes interpreted him as a solar deity, popularized by "solar hero" theorists and Biblical scholars alike. The name Delilah may also involve a wordplay with the Hebrew word for night, 'layla', which of course consumes the day. Samson bears many similar traits to the Greek Herakles (and the Roman Hercules adaptation), inspired himself partially from the mesopotamian Enkidu tale: Herakles and Samson both battled a Lion bare handed (Lion of Nemea feat), Herakles and Samson both had a favorite primitive blunt weapon (a club for the first, an ass's jaw for the latter), they were both betrayed by a woman which led them to their ultimate fate (Herakles by Dejanira
, while Samson by Delilah
). Both heroes, champion of their respective people, die by their own hand: Herakles ends his life on a pyre while Samson makes the Philistine temple collapse upon himself and his enemies. There are many more similitudes which point towards the Herculean myth and anecdotes (and moreover Indo-European heroes) as well as local semitic deities.
These views are much disputed by traditionalist and conservative biblical scholars who consider Samson to be a literal historical figure and thus absolutely refute any connections whatsoever to similar mythological heroes; that Samson was a "solar hero" has been described as "an artificial ingenuity".
Some biblical scholars suggest that Samson's home tribe of Dan might have been related to the Philistines themselves. "Dan" might be another name for the tribe of Sea Peoples
otherwise known as the Denyen
, Danuna, or Danaans. If so, then Samson's origin might be entirely Aegean. These speculations are in stark contrast to the historical depictions expressed in the Bible and are therefore mutually exclusive.
Joan Comay, co-author of Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament, believes that the biblical story of Samson is so specific concerning time and place that Samson was undoubtedly a real person who pitted his great strength against the oppressors of Israel.
In contrast, James King West finds that the hostilities between the Philistines and Hebrews appear to be of a "purely personal and local sort". He also finds that Samson stories have, in contrast to much of Judges, an "almost total lack of a religious or moral tone".
Samson parades are annual parades of a Samson figure in different villages in Lungau
, Salzburg
and two villages in the north-west Styria (Austria). Samson is one of the giant figures at the "Ducasse" festivities, which take place at Ath
, Belgium
.
A regional version of Samson (spelled Sanson) plays a major role in many accounts of Basque mythology
, where he is represented as a mighty giant capable of hurling heavy stones, often providing an explanation for the origin of mountains and megalithic monuments. In some places this role is played by a development of the character Roland
(Errolan).
Biblical judges
A biblical judge is "a ruler or a military leader, as well as someone who presided over legal hearings."...
of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
(the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
) (Book of Judges
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
chapters 13 to 16).
Samson was granted supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats such as wrestling a lion, slaying an entire army with only the jawbone
Mandible
The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...
of an ass
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
, and destroying a pagan temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
.
Samson is believed to have been buried in Tel Tzora
Tel Tzora
Tel Tzora, , is a tell and Israeli archaeological site near the modern day kibbutz of the same name. It is a well-known tourist attraction regarded by many as the location of Samson's tomb....
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
overlooking the Sorek valley
Brook of Sorek
Nahal Sorek , also Soreq, is one of the largest, most important drainage basins in the Judean Hills. It is mentioned in the Book of Judges 16:4 of the Bible as the border between the ancient Philistines and the Tribe of Dan of the ancient Israelites...
. There reside two large gravestones of Samson and his father Manoah
Manoah
Manoah is the father of Samson. Manoah means rest or quiet in Judges 13:1-23 and 14:2-4 of the Hebrew Bible.Manoah was of the tribe of Dan, and lived in the city of Zorah. He and his wife were childless, but an angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and told her that she would give birth to a...
. Nearby stands Manoah’s altar (Judges 13:19-24). It is located between the cities of Zorah
Zorah
Zorah or Tzorah, perhaps "place of wasps," was a biblical town in the low country of Judah.-Location:Zorah was situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the valley of Sorek, and was fortified by Rehoboam...
and Eshtaol
Eshtaol
Eshtaol is a moshav in central Israel. Located north of Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2006, Eshtaol had a population of 876.-History:...
.
Biblical narrative
Samson's activity takes place during a time when God was punishing the Israelites, by giving them "into the hand of the Philistines". An angelAngel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
appears to Manoah
Manoah
Manoah is the father of Samson. Manoah means rest or quiet in Judges 13:1-23 and 14:2-4 of the Hebrew Bible.Manoah was of the tribe of Dan, and lived in the city of Zorah. He and his wife were childless, but an angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and told her that she would give birth to a...
, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan
Tribe of Dan
The Tribe of Dan, also sometimes spelled as "Dann", was one of the Tribes of Israel. Though known mostly from biblical sources, they were possibly descendants of the Denyen Sea Peoples who joined with Hebrews...
, in the city of Zorah
Zorah
Zorah or Tzorah, perhaps "place of wasps," was a biblical town in the low country of Judah.-Location:Zorah was situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the valley of Sorek, and was fortified by Rehoboam...
, and to his wife, who had been unable to conceive. This angel proclaims that the couple will soon have a son who will begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. The wife believed the angel, but her husband wasn't present, at first, and wanted the heavenly messenger to return, asking that he himself could also receive instruction about the child that was going to be born.
Requirements were set up by the angel that Manoah's wife (as well as the child) were to abstain from all alcoholic beverage
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
s, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a "Nazirite
Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or nazarite, , refers to one who voluntarily took a vow described in . The term "nazirite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated"...
" from birth. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a while could take a nazarite vow, which included things like the aforementioned as well as other stipulations. After the angel returned, Manoah soon prepared a sacrifice, but the Messenger would only allow it to be for God, touching his staff to it, miraculously engulfing it in flames. The angel then ascended up into the sky in the fire. This was such dramatic evidence as to the nature of the messenger, that Manoah feared for his life, as it has been said that no-one can live after seeing God; however, his wife soon convinced him that if God planned to slay them, he would never have revealed such things to them to begin with. In due time the son, Samson, is born; he is reared according to these provisions.
Timnah
Timnath or Timnah was a Philistine city in Canaan that is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in . It has been identified with Tel Batash , a tel located in the Sorek Valley, near moshav Tal Shahar, Israel....
whom he decides to marry, overcoming the objections of his parents who do not know that "it is of the Lord". The intended marriage is actually part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines. On the way to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by an Asiatic Lion
Asiatic Lion
The Asiatic lion also known as the Indian lion, Persian lion and Eurasian Lion is a subspecies of lion. The only place in the wild where the lion is found is in the Gir Forest of Gujarat, India...
and simply grabs it and rips it apart, as the spirit of God moves upon him, divinely empowering him. This so profoundly affects Samson that he just keeps it to himself as a secret. He continues on to the Philistine's house, winning her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
. He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents. At the wedding-feast, Samson proposes that he tell a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines); if they can solve it, he will give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments. The riddle ("Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet") is a veiled account of his second encounter with the lion (at which only he was present). The Philistines are infuriated by the riddle. The thirty groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they will burn her and her father's household if she does not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them. At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson tells her the solution, and she tells it to the thirty groomsmen.
- "What is sweeter than honey?
- and what is stronger than a lion?"
Samson said to them,
- "If you had not plowed with my heifer,
- you would not have solved my riddle."
He flies into a rage and kills thirty Philistines of Ashkelon
Ashkelon
Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...
for their garments, which he gives his thirty groomsmen. Still in a rage, he returns to his father's house and his bride is given to the best man as his wife.
Her father refuses to allow him to see her and wishes to give Samson the younger sister. Samson attaches torches to the tails of three hundred foxes, leaving the panicked beasts to run through the fields of the Philistines, burning all in their wake. The Philistines find out why Samson burned their crops and they burn Samson's wife and father-in-law
Father-in-law
A parent-in-law is a person who has a legal affinity with another by being the parent of the other's spouse. Many cultures and legal systems impose duties and responsibilities on persons connected by this relationship...
to death. In revenge, Samson slaughters many more Philistines, smiting them "hip and thigh".
Samson then takes refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam
Rock of Etam
Rock of Etam is mentioned as a rock with the cave where Samson hid after smiting the Philistines "hip and thigh with a great slaughter" . It was in Judah but apparently in the low hill country...
. An army of Philistines went up and demanded from 3000 men of Judah
Tribe of Judah
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
to deliver them Samson. With Samson's consent, they tie him with two new ropes and are about to hand him over to the Philistines when he breaks free. Using the jawbone of an ass, he slays one thousand Philistines. At the conclusion of Judges 15 it is said that "Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines".
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
, where he stays at a harlot's house. His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he rips the gate up and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
".
He then falls in love with a woman, Delilah
Delilah
Delilah appears only in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges 16, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall...
, at the Brook of Sorek
Brook of Sorek
Nahal Sorek , also Soreq, is one of the largest, most important drainage basins in the Judean Hills. It is mentioned in the Book of Judges 16:4 of the Bible as the border between the ancient Philistines and the Tribe of Dan of the ancient Israelites...
. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1100 silver coins each) to try to find the secret of Samson's strength. Samson, not wanting to reveal the secret, teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength should he be bound with fresh bowstrings. She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings. She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too. She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together. She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes. Eventually Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair
Hair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
. Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson's seven locks. Since that breaks the Nazirite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines, who stab out his eyes with their swords. After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain.
One day the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon
Dagon
Dagon was originally an Assyro-Babylonian fertility god who evolved into a major northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain and fish and/or fishing...
, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands. They summon Samson so that people can gather on the roof to watch. Once inside the temple, Samson, his hair having grown long again, asks the servant who is leading him to the temple's central pillars if he may lean against them (referring to the pillars).
- "Then Samson prayed to God, "remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes" (Judges 16:28)". "Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' (Judges 16:30) He pulled the two pillars together, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more as he died than while he lived." (Judges 16:30).
After his death, Samson's family recovers his body from the rubble and buries him near the tomb of his father Manoah.
The fate of Delilah is never mentioned.
Rabbinic literature
Rabbinical literature identifies Samson with Bedan
Bedan
Bedan is named as the deliverer of Israelites in 1 Samuel 12:11. He is not mentioned elsewhere as a judge of Israel. Bp. Patrick and others hypothesis the name to be a contraction of ben Dan by which they suppose Samson is meant, as the Targum reads...
; Bedan was a Judge mentioned by Samuel in his farewell address (1 Samuel
Books of Samuel
The Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...
12:11) among the Judges that delivered Israel from their enemies. However, the name "Bedan" is not found in the Book of Judges. The name "Samson" is derived from the Hebrew word "shemesh", which means the sun, so that Samson bore the name of God, who is called "a sun and shield" in ; and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived (Talmud, Tractate Sotah 10a).
Jewish legend records that Samson's shoulders were sixty cubits broad. (Although many talmudic commentaries explain that this is not to be taken literally, for a person that size could not live normally in society. Rather it means he had the ability to carry a burden 60 cubits wide (approximately 30 meters) on his shoulders). He was lame in both feet, but when the spirit of God came upon him he could step with one stride from Zorah
Zorah
Zorah or Tzorah, perhaps "place of wasps," was a biblical town in the low country of Judah.-Location:Zorah was situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the valley of Sorek, and was fortified by Rehoboam...
to Eshtaol
Eshtaol
Eshtaol is a moshav in central Israel. Located north of Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2006, Eshtaol had a population of 876.-History:...
, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance. Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth, yet his superhuman strength, like Goliath's, brought woe upon its possessor.
In licentiousness he is compared with Amnon
Amnon
According to the Bible, Amnon was the oldest son of David, King of Israel, with his wife, Ahinoam, who is described as "the Jezreelitess". -Rape of Tamar:...
and Zimri
Zimri (prince)
Zimri was the Prince of the Tribe of Simeon during the time of the Israelites in the desert. At Shittim he took part in the Heresy of Peor, taking as a paramour a Midianite woman, Cozbi...
, both of whom were punished for their sins. Samson's eyes were put out because he had "followed them" too often. It is said that in the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel he never required the least service from an Israelite, and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain. Therefore, as soon as he told Delilah that he was a Nazarite of God she immediately knew that he had spoken the truth
Truth
Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...
. When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines the structure fell backward, so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father.
In the Talmudic period, some seemed to have denied that Samson was a historic figure and was regarded by such individuals as a purely mythological personage. This was viewed as heretical by the rabbis of the Talmud, and they attempted to refute this. They named Hazelelponi
Hazelelponi
Hazelelponi, also spelled Hazzelelponi is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:3. She was the daughter of Etam, sister of Jezreel, Ishma and Idbash, of the tribe of Judah....
as his mother in Numbers Rabbah
Numbers Rabbah
Numbers Rabbah is a religious text holy to classical Judaism. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletic interpretations of the book of Numbers ....
Naso
Naso (parsha)
Naso or Nasso is the 35th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the book of Numbers. It constitutes Naso is the longest of the 54 weekly Torah portions, with 176 verses...
10 and in Bava Batra
Bava Batra
Bava Batra is the third of the three tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law...
91a and stated that he had a sister named "Nishyan" or "Nashyan".
Interpretations
Academics have interpreted Samson as a demi-god (such as HerculesHercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
or Enkidu
Enkidu
Enkidu is a central figure in the Ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. Enkidu was first created by Anu, the sky god, to rid Gilgamesh of his arrogance. In the story he is a wild-man raised by animals and ignorant of human society until he is bedded by Shamhat...
) enfolded into Jewish religious lore, or as an archetypical
Archetype
An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
hero, among others. These views sometimes interpreted him as a solar deity, popularized by "solar hero" theorists and Biblical scholars alike. The name Delilah may also involve a wordplay with the Hebrew word for night, 'layla', which of course consumes the day. Samson bears many similar traits to the Greek Herakles (and the Roman Hercules adaptation), inspired himself partially from the mesopotamian Enkidu tale: Herakles and Samson both battled a Lion bare handed (Lion of Nemea feat), Herakles and Samson both had a favorite primitive blunt weapon (a club for the first, an ass's jaw for the latter), they were both betrayed by a woman which led them to their ultimate fate (Herakles by Dejanira
Deianira
Deïanira or Dejanira is a figure in Greek mythology, best-known for being Heracles' third wife and, in the late Classical story, unwittingly killing him with the Shirt of Nessus...
, while Samson by Delilah
Delilah
Delilah appears only in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges 16, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall...
). Both heroes, champion of their respective people, die by their own hand: Herakles ends his life on a pyre while Samson makes the Philistine temple collapse upon himself and his enemies. There are many more similitudes which point towards the Herculean myth and anecdotes (and moreover Indo-European heroes) as well as local semitic deities.
These views are much disputed by traditionalist and conservative biblical scholars who consider Samson to be a literal historical figure and thus absolutely refute any connections whatsoever to similar mythological heroes; that Samson was a "solar hero" has been described as "an artificial ingenuity".
Some biblical scholars suggest that Samson's home tribe of Dan might have been related to the Philistines themselves. "Dan" might be another name for the tribe of Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
otherwise known as the Denyen
Denyen
The Denyen are one of the groups constituting the Sea Peoples, who were of Indo-European origin.-Origin:Archeologists have described them as being of Indo-European origin....
, Danuna, or Danaans. If so, then Samson's origin might be entirely Aegean. These speculations are in stark contrast to the historical depictions expressed in the Bible and are therefore mutually exclusive.
Joan Comay, co-author of Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament, believes that the biblical story of Samson is so specific concerning time and place that Samson was undoubtedly a real person who pitted his great strength against the oppressors of Israel.
In contrast, James King West finds that the hostilities between the Philistines and Hebrews appear to be of a "purely personal and local sort". He also finds that Samson stories have, in contrast to much of Judges, an "almost total lack of a religious or moral tone".
Folk culture
Lungau
The Bezirk Tamsweg is an administrative district in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, and congruent with the Lungau region.-Geography:...
, Salzburg
Salzburg (state)
Salzburg is a state or Land of Austria with an area of 7,156 km2, located adjacent to the German border. It is also known as Salzburgerland, to distinguish it from its capital city, also named Salzburg...
and two villages in the north-west Styria (Austria). Samson is one of the giant figures at the "Ducasse" festivities, which take place at Ath
Ath
Ath is a Belgian municipality located in the Walloon province of Hainaut. The Ath municipality includes the old communes of Lanquesaint, Irchonwelz, Ormeignies, Bouvignies, Ostiches, Rebaix, Maffle, Arbre, Houtaing, Ligne, Mainvault, Moulbaix, Villers-Notre-Dame, Villers-Saint-Amand, Ghislenghien...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
A regional version of Samson (spelled Sanson) plays a major role in many accounts of Basque mythology
Basque mythology
The mythology of the ancient Basques largely did not survive the, albeit late, arrival of Christianity in the Basque Country between the 4th and 12th century AD...
, where he is represented as a mighty giant capable of hurling heavy stones, often providing an explanation for the origin of mountains and megalithic monuments. In some places this role is played by a development of the character Roland
Roland
Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...
(Errolan).
External links
- 'Samson' by Solomon Solomon