Samson

In Judg 14–15, the source of Samson’s strength is not his uncut hair, but the רוח־יהוה. A Leitmotif of the biblical warrior tradition, the רוח־יהוה is a corporealized metaphor of fiery anger that envelops Samson and grants him great power. This motif was adapted from early biblical poetry, in which Yhwh’s wrath erupted as a fiery breath (רוח) against his cosmic foes. This study explores how the historical context of Judg 14–15 informs the use of this motif, comparing the רוח־יהוה with similar concepts of martial anger in Near Eastern and Greek warrior traditions. Like Mesopotamian melammu and Greek μηνις, the  רוח־יהוהwas part of a corporeal code that enabled ancient minds to think about the relations between mortals and divine beings in the context of battle.

Summary:  Elsewhere, I’ve sought to apply Robert Alter’s notion of a betrothal type-scene to a NT narrative, viz. John’s ‘woman at the well’.  In what follows, I define an ‘extraordinary birth type-scene’, and analyse five Biblical narratives in light of it:  three from the OT (the births of Isaac, Samson, and Samuel) and two from the NT (the births of John the Baptist and Jesus).  The results strike me as significant.  Each instance of our type-scene can be shown to have its own specific twist(s), and each twist can be shown to fit its particular context in the Biblical narrative.  Two conclusions follow.  First, the author of Luke’s birth narratives is a subtle and sophisticated writer, well-versed in the warp and woof of the Hebrew Bible.  Second, contra the implicit premise of many scholars, if we want to understand what the authors of Scripture want to tell us, the key is not to decompose texts into their individual sources, but to analyse them as part of a composite whole.

Keywords:  Biblical narrative, Robert Alter, type-scene, birth narrative, John, Jesus, Isaac, Samson, Samuel, Luke.  Date:  October 2020.  Credits:  Robert Alter’s Art of Biblical Narrative.

Samson is one of the last of Israel’s judges. Because of his immense strength he is the Hebrew Hercules, a hero whose exploits related in Judges 13-16 and embroidered in the Midrash have been told, re-told and embellished in many other forms of culture, not only because the narrative is exciting but because of its place in ancient international history and the inner thinking and dilemmas of the protagonists.
There is a version of the Samson story in Milton’s dramatic poem 'Samson Agonistes' published in 1671 together with his 'Paradise Regained'. While based on and led by the somewhat unembroidered biblical text, the poem is important for two reasons. It provides more depth to Samson’s psychology and personality, and it applies the Biblical story to the Puritan and Restoration struggles in which Milton was involved. However, the poem is not limited to the Biblical narrative. It moves the story on, introduces new characters and provides a sequel to Samson’s capture, blinding and imprisonment. Much of 'Samson Agonistes' (the name, from Greek, denotes struggle) takes place in Samson’s mind, oscillating between hope and despair, between self-pride and self-judgment. The Bible story and the poem end in the same way, Samson literally bringing the house down – but the poem makes Samson’s heart, mind and soul thrash about before this happens, supplying an extra dimension to the narrative.

Aceast studiu vă invită la o mică incursiune în lumea povestirilor biblice atât de bogată în informaţii, simboluri, învaţaturi si atât de fascinantă.
Samson este unul dintre cele mai enigmatice personaje ale Bibliei. Speranţa şi admiraţia generată la începutul povestirii, se transformă în decepţie şi neînţelegere pe masură ce povestirea se derulează, încăt fără să vrei începi să te detaşezi de personajul pe care nu poţi să-l înţelegi şi să-l urmezi. Samson însă nu este decât o mică rotită într-un angrenaj extrem de complex al învăţăturii Bibliei, a cărui funcţionare nu poate fi  înţeleasă decât dacă fiecare piesă este pusă în locul potrivit. Cum funcţionează această rotiţă, ce se numeşte „Samson” în angrenajul Bibliei, exprimat de Isus prin fraza: "Să iubeşti pe Domnul Dumnezeul tău cu toată inima ta, cu tot sufletul tău, cu toată puterea ta şi cu tot cugetul tău; şi pe aproapele tău ca pe tine însuţi." ? (Luca 10 ;27) Care este locul acestei „rotiţe” în ideologia şi morala Bibliei aşa cum a fost înţeleasă şi exprimată de Isus?

The composer uses two different verbs to describe the activities taking place in Judges 16:25, though they are often considered simply variant spellings of the same verb. But is his choice of spelling arbitrary, or are there reasons motivating his distinction? These two verbs are related by a sibilant phoneme variation (ש/ׂצ), but their meanings are rarely, if ever, distinguished. In fact, most contemporary English translations assign the same (or similar) meaning to both verbs. But is the difference between them merely orthographic, or is it also semantic? Careful
discussion on this question is scant in the literature. For this reason, it is incumbent on interpreters to engage in careful lexical study. I will demonstrate through synchronic analysis that there is semantic differentiation between these two related roots. I will then explore how a phoneme shift took place (from צ to ש), and how certain archaic
usages are preserved in the צ-form. Such analysis requires cataloguing all occurrences of these roots and identifying their nuances. Once these nuances are synchronically established, one is better prepared to explain and translate Judges 16:25.

The biblical Samson & Delilah narrative can be interpreted from a modern feminist and queer perspective by looking at the portrayal of women as betrayer, the portrayal of women as holders of power, and questions of masculinity present in the narrative.

Using the texts of the Bible to defend or attack ideas or practices usually takes place at the price of a unilateral or simplistic reading. A more attentive reading shows that the text has a subtlety and wealth of meaning that forbid simple ideas; the text requires from the reader forceful and discriminating reflection which respects the text and the reality it evokes. On the basis of a narrative reading of the death of Samson (Judg 16:21-31), the authors of this article show how the story, far from justifying suicide attacks, in fact provides a profound reflection on violence and on what it implies both for man and for God.

The instance of Matthew's formula citation in Matt. 2:23 is one of the most perplexing textual puzzles in the New Testament. There is no clear scriptural text that Matthew is quoting. The present study suggests that analyzing Jesus' birth narrative in Matthew 1-2 as an instance of a biblical type-scene gives further support for the view that Judg. 13:5, 7 is the primary text behind this cryptic reference. It further suggests that attention to the connection between the birth narratives of Jesus and Samson shows how Jesus will accomplish the salvation that Samson was meant to begin.

In 1097, the Papal Legate, Bernard of Sedirac, presided over a Council in Girona (Catalonia) intended to promote the pact between the new Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer III, whose domains, according to contemporary sources, were in partibus Hesperiae, and the Count of Pallars, Artaud II, to further the conquest of Tortosa and Tarragona. The Council reflected a new dynamic that was developing in the relationships between Rome, Norman southern Italy and the Catalan Counties. In this respect, I wish to highlight the implications of the exceptional depictions of Hercules, Samson and Constantine in the Creation Tapestry (ca. 1097) – a work that might have been commissioned to mark the coming of age of Ramon Berenguer III - and their possible relationship with the iconography of the Throne of St. Peter (Cathedra Petri) and the political theories of the Gregorian Reform that were developed in this council.

Samson is well known for his long hair and exceptional strength. Most commentators, however, have overlooked the fact that it is Samson himself who constructs a connection between his hair and his strength. He had considered his hairstyle a sign of his hypermasculine identity instead of a demarcation of his Naziriteship. Reading the Samson narrative from a queer perspective, this article shows how Samson’s ‘heterosexuality’ is produced, appears, and dissolves back into queerness. Samson’s hypermasculinity is a covering for his queer identity and results in his construction of several interrelated dualisms (Israel/Philistines, male/female, strong/weak, etc.) and in his excessive use of violence (physical, sexual, rhetorical, symbolic) against both women and men. When he meets a woman (Delilah) who doesn’t fit in his phallogocentric ideology, he reveals his secret through a non-genital erotic play (BDSM) with her and loses his strength when she symbolically castrates him by cutting his hair.

In this paper, we discuss the treatment and teaching of Milton's Samson Agonistes as prison literature. We do so based on the practical work of teaching this text in an Arizona state prison. The paper's first section describes prison literature as a genre, locates Samson Agonistes within it, and reports how prisoners understood it as related to their experiences. A second section considers the rare critical addresses made to Samson Agonistes as a carceral text and a previously-reported experience teaching Paradise Lost in a Georgia prison. We dispute optimistic or gradualist readings of Milton as advocating 'repair,' instead identifying an ethos that uncompromisingly rejects incarceration. In the third and final section, we address issues of Stoicism, prison culture, control, and suicide that arose in our reading, teaching, and prisoner discussions of Samson Agonistes. We conclude with a call to humanities scholars to do similar work by bringing their knowledge to bear in engaging with prison literature and teaching in prisons.

Si può parlare di un modello biblico del terrorista suicida, che si sopprime per infliggere una morte improvvisa e punitiva a una moltitudine di nemici al di fuori del campo di battaglia? E che rapporto esiste tra l'Antico Testamento e le radici ideologiche di un certo di tipo di violenza che prevede il sacrificio dello stesso attentatore? Il paper affronta il tema della genealogia del terrorismo religioso attraverso la fortuna e le riscritture della storia di Sansone (Libro dei Giudici, capitoli 13-16) nella prima età moderna. Esso parte dalla guerre di religione nelle Fiandre e in Francia per arrivare fino al Samson Agonistes di John Milton (1671). Le fonti prese in considerazione sono libri, commenti biblici e pamphlets, ma anche incisioni e immagine pittoriche.

Als populäres Sujet innerhalb der Künste markiert Blindheit keinen Gegensatz, sondern eine spezifische Ausprägung visueller Wahrnehmung. Vor dem Hintergrund der von den Visual Culture Studies, der Kunst-, Theater-und Kulturwissenschaft vorangetriebenen Beschäftigung mit Formen und Praktiken visueller Wahrnehmung, Sichtbarkeit und Repräsentation widmet sich Paradox Blindheit der grundsätzlichen Verschränkung von Konzepten des Sehens und der Blindheit. Der Band rückt mit dem Ziel, Bedeutungen und Funktionen von Blindheit in den Künsten näher zu bestimmen, eine Auswahl neuerer Arbeiten aus der Literatur, der Fotografie, dem Theater und der szenischen Installationskunst in den Fokus. Nachgewiesen wird, dass diese neueren, im Kontext des westlichen Denkens zu verortenden Auseinandersetzungen mit Blindheit keine Absage an das Paradigma der Visualität darstellen, sondern sich als produktiv für das Aushebeln und Aufbrechen verkürzter, ausgrenzender und normierender Praktiken visueller Wahrnehmung erweisen. Die Einbeziehung kulturhistorischer Deutungsmuster wie Blindheit als Strafe oder männliches Privileg ist dabei unabdingbar, dienen diese kulturellen Deutungsmuster doch bis in die Gegenwart als Matrix für vielschichtige und ambivalente Aushandlungen von Blindheit an der Schwelle zwischen konventionellen Kategorien des Sehens und Nichtsehens, des Wissens und Nichtwissens sowie des Materiellen und Immateriellen.

Samson as God’s Adulterous Wife reveals striking parallels between the depiction of Samson in the Book of Judges and the prophetic literature’s metaphorical representations of Israel as an adulterous woman. This book endeavors to understand why Judges dwells on Samson’s sexual and romantic relationships while the personal lives of the other six judges are not afforded the same narrative attention. M. Alroy Mascrenghe compares adulterous Samson with idolatrous Israel and argues that Samson’s life is marked by the same cycles of adultery, bondage, crying out, and deliverance that structure the Book of Judges as a whole. Mascrenghe continues to pursue the theme of God’s adulterous wife through a comparison of the Levite-concubine story of Judges 19 to that of Hosea and Gomer.

Samson as God’s Adulterous Wife demonstrates the author’s own method for recognizing intertextual narrative allusions. Drawing from a wide variety of disciplines―including narratology, sociology, and theological hermeneutics―Samson as God’s Adulterous Wife offers a fresh perspective on the role of the Samson story within the broader intertextual thematic space of the Hebrew Bible.

<b>Summary</b>:  Notes on Judges 16, the aim of which is not to cover/summarise the whole text, but simply to pick out particular (and sometimes overlooked) points of interest. \\ \\ <b>Date</b>:  Mar. 2019.  <b>Keywords</b>:  <i>Judges 16</i>, <i>The Book of Judges</i>, <i>Samson</i>, <i>Delilah</i>.

<b>Summary</b>:  Notes on Judges 14-15, the aim of which is not to cover/summarise the whole text, but simply to pick out particular (and sometimes overlooked) points of interest. \\ \\ <b>Date</b>:  Mar. 2019.  <b>Keywords</b>:  <i>Judges 14</i>, <i>Judges 15</i>, <i>The Book of Judges</i>, <i>Samson</i>, <i>Violence</i>, <i>Lex Talionis</i>.

Manoach and his wife about the forthcoming birth of Samson (Judges 13). Numbers Rabba (10, 5), however, deals with this story at great length. Also, by way of contrast to the few early homilies ó which are mostly critical of Samsonís parents ó Numbers Rabba depicts them as righteous. In ìThe Midrash about SamsonísBirth (Numbers Rabba 10, 5)î, Shimon Fogel shows that most of these positive homilies were reworked from earlier homilies, which were changed in order to them to the characters of the book of Judges. This process can teach us about the positive attitude towards the protagonists, and the importance of this story, in theyes of the Numbers Rabba redactor (or his sources). It is possible that the origins to this approach should be found in the redactorís place and time ó probably Provence during the 12th century

Saga o Samsonie jest oryginalną częścią Biblii hebrajskiej, w której licznie występują niedopowiedzenia, zagadki i stwierdzenia nie do końca zgodne z prawdą. Kolejni bohaterowie zakrywają przed sobą istotne wiadomości, a główny bohater igra ze swoimi przeciwnikami opowiadając im zagadki. Celem przedkładanego artykułu jest wyszczególnić kolejne elementy, które składają się na narrację o Samsonie i stanowią o enigmatyczności całego opowiadania. Analiza wybranych elementów ma uzmysłowić czytelnikowi, że tajemniczość sagi o Samsonie nie zależy tylko od zagadek konstruowanych przez głównego bohatera, ale także od relacji pomiędzy jego rodzicami i aniołem Pańskim. Słowa kluczowe: Samson, Filistyni, księga sędziów, zagadka The Puzzling relations Between the heroes of the Samson saga. Analysis of Selected Elements Jud. 13-16 Abstract: The Samson saga is an original part of the Hebrew Bible in which numerous understatements, puzzles and statements far from the truth ...

Este artigo analisa um desenho representando episódios da vida de Sansão no livro De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines, de Francisco de Holanda. Considera, em particular, um medalhão na parte inferior direita do desenho no qual é figurada a fundação mítica de Lisboa por Ulisses. Palavras-chave: Francisco de Holanda; Sansão; Ulisses;, Renovatio Romae; Lisboa. Abstract This paper will analyze a drawing representing episodes from the life of Samson in the book De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines, by Francisco de Holanda. It will consider, in particular, a medallion in the drawing's inferior right figuring the mythical foundation of Lisbon by Ulysses.

The Samson narrative is notable for its cycles of violence and revenge. Sometimes this has been understood to be an expression of lex talionis (an eye for an eye); indeed, Samson appears to assert as much, though his actions do not match up to the ideal. This paper argues that while the narrator permits Samson to make this claim, he demonstrates that a far more sinister dynamic is at work, namely Girardian mimesis and scapegoating. At the centre of the rivalry between Israel and the Philistines is Samson, 'monsterised' by both sides, and represented in hulk-like terms. His sexual rivalry with his Philistine 'companions' embodies the rivalry between the two nations. Using a Girardian hermeneutic reveals how the cycles of violence are, in fact, an escalating form of mimesis, which twice approach crisis, but conclude with Samson escaping from the scapegoating role by taking matters into his own hands.

This paper is a case study on reading the Hebrew Bible in the Mediterranean context. In my earlier article, “Reading the Hebrew Bible in the Mediterranean Setting” (2019), I addressed the importance of the climatic and geological setting of the Hebrew Bible. As another case study from this perspective, this paper examines selected biblical passages regarding early Israel and Philistine conflicts in the broader context of the Eastern Mediterranean world. The specific time period is around the Late Bronze Age Collapse (roughly 1,250 - 1,000 B.C.E). I hypothesize that these ethnic/cultural conflicts and the Late Bronze Age Collapse were caused or spurred by climate change.
  To demonstrate my hypothesis, I will explore the Late Bronze Age Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean and the possible causes of the Philistine migration in the second and third parts of this research. Many theories attempt to explain the cause of the rapid and significant civilization collapse. Since Carpenter (1966) rejected a traditional argument that attributes the invasions of barbarian peoples; such as the Dorians, as an explanation for the Dark Age, alternative views have been suggested. For example, alternative views might include the Hekla III eruption (Yurco 1999), droughts (Weiss 1982), collapse of the social and trade system (Liverani 1987), wars (Drews 1993), earthquake storms (Nur, Cline 2000), and climate change (Finné et al. 2017; Kaniewski et al. 2013; Drake 2012; Stiebing, Jr. 1994; Weiss 1982). After reviewing research on the Late Bronze Age collapse in Greek-Mycenae, Hittite, and Egypt, respectively, this paper demonstrates how climate change became a trigger for the failure of the Bronze Age and for massive migrations of the Sea People, including the Philistines, who caused the early Israelites to suffer a national crisis and lament the deaths of their beloved heroes (Samson, and Saul).
  In conclusion, we can find two historical and biblical lessons by reading the Hebrew Bible in the background of the Late Bronze Age Collapse. First, the effect of the climate change, 3,200 years ago, was so severe that it not only caused a general collapse of civilization in the Mediterranean, but also caused the Sea People to leave their home. Eventually, the early Israelites suffered the butterfly effect from their migration. The second discovery reveals an historical irony. The descendants of ancient Greeks who migrated to North Africa and the Levant, including modern Syria, do not welcome descendants of ancient North African and Levantine people today. The Hebrew Bible (e.g., Lev. 19:33-34), written for/through the hands of ancient Israelites, who suffered under Philistine authority, provides surprising context and wisdom to solve today’s immigration/refugee issue.