The judge Samson, a Nazirite dedicated from birth whose superhuman strength is bound to his uncut hair, wages a one man campaign against the Philistines through feats of strength and a string of failed relationships; Delilah, bribed by Philistine lords to learn the secret of his strength, wears him down until he tells her the truth, has his hair cut while he sleeps, and hands him over blinded and enslaved. His hair regrows in captivity, and at a festival to the god Dagon he pulls down the temple's two central pillars, killing himself along with the assembled Philistine lords.
Facts
Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteThe formula he judged Israel twenty years, which closes most judges' accounts once, appears twice for Samson, once mid-cycle after the pillar-toppling account of chapter fifteen and again at his death notice in chapter sixteen; source critics read the doubled formula as a seam marking two once-separate blocks of Samson material later stitched into one narrative. 2 Scholarly NoteUnlike the other judges, Samson never leads an army or delivers a national victory; historians of the book read his story as a deliberately ironic close to the judges cycle, a deliverer whose personal weaknesses for Philistine women repeatedly undo his own strength. 2 Text
Source TextJudges, chapters 13 through 16 1 History
Historical NoteNineteenth century source critical scholarship reads Judges as a compiled cycle in which a recurring pattern, Israel's apostasy, foreign oppression and a raised up deliverer, is repeated and reworked across several originally separate hero traditions, of which the Samson cycle is the most personal and least military in shape. 2 Sources
Primary SourceThe Hebrew Bible, Judges 13 through 16, the sole surviving telling of the cycle. 1 Meaning
Central MotifA hero's superhuman strength tied to a vow bound physical sign, betrayed by a woman bribed by his enemies, and undone and redeemed together in one final act of self destructive vengeance. 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars are divided on whether Samson reflects a historical local strongman or bandit hero later absorbed into the judges cycle, or is a literary figure built from the outset to embody Israel's own recurring faithlessness toward its God. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
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Sources
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