Who/What was Samson of the Bible?

Samson was born to aged parents. He was a Nazirite set apart for God's service and therefore did not cut his hair or drink alcohol. His exploits included tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, killing a company of the men of Ashdod, setting fire to their fields and orchards, and slaughtering a thousand men with the jawbone of an a$$.

Samson was a man of superhuman strength.



Samson battled Israel's enemies

battle scene


Birth of Samson

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."


Samson was born of a women with a barren womb that could not have child. Something that seems to resemble some stories of Alien abductions.

Samson was picked by God to free Israel from the Philistines. The Philistines were the enemies of the Israelites. Samson, just as the angel had said, was a Nazarite. There are three rules which a Nazarite must follow:
1. No Strong drink or wine.
2. Not allowed to ever cut the hair.
3. No contact with the dead.


Three thousand men of Judah came to the cave and convinced Samson to let himself be tied up with ropes and be delivered to the Philistines. As they approached the enemy, Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. (Judges 15: 14) He picked up the jawbone of a donkey and used it to kill 1,000 Philistines.

He took on a army of 3000 men killing 1000 of them with the Jawbone of a donkey. Was Samson invincible as long as his hair was not cut?

He did other amazing things. God opened up a hollow place at Lehi and water came out of it to quench Samsons thirst. While in Gaza, visiting a prostitute, the people of the town surrounded her house in order to kill him in the morning when he left. But Samson left early and pulled up the city gates doors, posts, lock and all (Judges 16: 3) and escaped.

Hercules and Samson the same person??
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The most well known Greek God-hero was the one known as Hercules seems to share many things with Samson. Both had superhuman strength. Both killed a lion with their bare hands.

One important event in Hercules' life involved his escaping from the clutches of a symbolic woman, who is called "Pleasure." This corresponds directly to the troubles Samson got himself involved in with the harlots of Canaan.

"Heracles threw down his bow and arrows and leapt upon the lion's back ... while he put his hands round the lion's neck ... gripped the lion's throat with his two hands, and bending him backwards, throttled him. There lay the lion dead on the ground. " (p. 59). In our Bible, Judges 13:6 says that Samson actually tore the lion in two, but the ancient historian Flavius Josephus in his "Antiquities of the Jews " also tells us that Samson first strangled the lion, which is exactly as Hercules is said to have done.

Another of Hercules' labours involved his live capture of a wild animal, which he brought home and threw at the feet of Eurystheus. In Judges 15:4, Samson is said also to capture live wild animals, which he released in the cornfields of the Philistines.

A fascinating bit of additional information regarding Hercules is his connection with the Biblical tribe of Dan. The Bible Samson was born of the tribe of Dan. (Judges l3:2-25) Greek history tells us that a people called 'Danioi' came to trade and colonise Greece in ancient times, settling in a region called 'Argos.' The word Hercules in Greek is, 'Heracles,' which is virtually identical with the Hebrew plural word for traders,'Heraclim,' and Heracles is said to have come from 'Argos,' himself.

Were these two man one in the same?
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Of more interest what exactly was Samson was he some type of Superhuman mutant, a alien Hybrid, Nephlim, divine power in human form?



[edit on 11-8-2004 by ShadowXIX]

That as far as myth/fables go, there are ALOT of connections to other legends.

As you mentioned, Hercules, for one... but let's not forget Gilgamesh.

Perhaps, long ago, there was an annoited one, beloved of the god(s), or born of the god(s). His life, his legacy, had been passed down throughout the generations, eventually being altered to suit the particular religion.

It would explain the similatrities between the three religious strong men, and how, geographically speaking, they all originated from the same locale.

I forgot all about Gilgamesh yet another strong man lends even more evidence that there was indeed one man like this.

Everyone seems to fit this person into their religon like you said.

Didnt Gilgamesh fight the gods themselves in his EPIC? Im dont really know that much besides the how much the Gilgamesh and Noah story are alike. This would also seem to be the oldest account out of all three of them if I am correct.

If these stories are indeed based on a true person what in the world was this person?

[edit on 11-8-2004 by ShadowXIX]

Call Gilgamesh the "Forgotten One" for nothing!

As far as I know about the Gil Epic (which isn't much)... he had journeyed to where the gods dwelt to challenge and become a god himself. He knew he had divine blood within himself, but he wanted more...

Now that I think about it, I should dig a couple of my books up and read more about him... I seem to recall that the gods lived on the mortal plane, and that there was to be wide spread death to the mortals... or I could be thinking of something else.

I have wondered, though, if the strong religious guy is strictly a South West Asian concept, or do other cutlures also have him?

I been reading up on some of the Gilgamesh Epic and its very interesting.
Heres some of the stuff I have found out . Sorry for the length but its 11 tablets long and quite long. Plus Im I think there is a 12 missing tablet.

This most of story seems to take place on the River Euphrates in what is moderen day Iraq

The account begins: Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third human, is the greatest king on earth and the strongest super-human that ever existed. He seems to have been considered more God then Man.

However, he is young and oppresses his people harshly.

The people call out to the sky-god Anu, the chief god of the city, to help them. In response, Anu creates a wild man, Enkidu, out in the harsh and wild forests surrounding Gilgamesh's lands. This brute, Enkidu, has the strength of dozens of wild animals; he is to serve as the subhuman rival to the superhuman Gilgamesh.

Enkidu seems to mate with a human women thus losing his strength and wildness, but he gains understanding and knowledge.

Enkidu is gradually introduced to civilization by living for a time with a group of shepherds, who teach him how to tend flocks, how to eat, how to speak properly, and how to wear clothes.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu end up fighting furiously until Gilgamesh wins the upper hand; Enkidu concedes Gilgamesh's superiority and the two embrace and become devoted friends.

They seem to encounter a demon in the Cedar forest, Humbaba.Humbaba comes roaring up to them and warns them off. Enkidu shouts at Humbaba that the two of them are much stronger than the demon, but Humbaba, who knows Gilgamesh is a king, taunts the king for taking orders from a nobody like Enkidu. Turning his face into a hideous mask, Humbaba begins to threaten the pair, and Gilgamesh runs and hides. Enkidu shouts at Gilgamesh, inspiring him with courage, and Gilgamesh appears from hiding and the two begin their epic battle with Humbaba. Shamash intrudes on the battle, helping the pair, and Humbaba is defeated. Humbaba puts a curse on Enkidu before he dies.


After these events, Gilgamesh, his fame widespread and his frame resplendent in his wealthy clothes, attracts the sexual attention of the goddess Ishtar, who comes to Gilgamesh and offers to become his lover. Gilgamesh refuses with insults, listing all the mortal lovers that Ishtar has had and recounting the dire fates they all met with at her hands. Deeply insulted, Ishtar returns to heaven and begs her father, the sky-god Anu, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city:

Anu reluctantly gives in, and the Bull of Heaven is sent down into Uruk. Each time the bull breathes, its breath is so powerful that enormous abysses are opened up in the earth and hundreds of people fall through to their deaths. Working together again, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the mighty bull. Ishtar is enraged, but Enkidu begins to insult her, saying that she is next, that he and Gilgamesh will kill her next, and he rips one of the thighs off the bull and hurls it into her face.

Enkidu falls ill after having a set of ominous dreams; he finds out from the priests that he has been singled out for vengeance by the gods.

Enkidu commends himself to Gilgamesh, and after suffering terribly for twelve days, he finally dies.

Gilgamesh is torn apart by the death of his friend, and utters a long lament, ordering all of creation to never fall silent in mourning his dead friend.

Gilgamesh allows his life to fall apart; he does not bathe, does not shave, does not take care of himself, not so much out of grief for his friend, but because he now realizes that he too must die and the thought sends him into a panic. He decides that he can't live unless granted eternal life;

This is where he meets Utnapishtim(Noah) Who is immortal himself and knows the secret. Utnapishtim story is a dead ringer for that of Noahs the great flood, Building the ark,two of every animal,comming to rest on a mountain top.

At the end of his story, Utnapishtim offers Gilgamesh a chance at immortality. If Gilgamesh can stay awake for six days and seven nights, he, too, will become immortal. Whats Gilgamesh do he falls asleep dumba$$ and gets caught out.

Utnapishtim's wife convinces the old man to have mercy on him; he offers Gilgamesh in place of immortality a secret plant that will make Gilgamesh young again. The plant is at the bottom of the ocean surrounding the Far-Away; Gilgamesh ties stones to his feet, sinks to the bottom, and plucks the magic plant. But he doesn't use it because he doesn't trust it; rather he decides to take it back to Uruk and test it out on an old man first, to make sure it works.

Urshanabi takes him across the Waters of Death. Several leagues inland, Gilgamesh and Urshanabi stop to eat and sleep; while they're sleeping, a snake slithers up and eats the magic plant (which is why snakes shed their skin) and crawls away. Gilgamesh awakens to find the plant gone; he falls to his knees and weeps:

For whom have I labored? For whom have I journeyed?
For whom have I suffered?
I have gained absolutely nothing for myself,
I have only profited the snake, the ground lion!


The tale ends with Gilgamesh, at the end of his journey standing before the gates of Uruk, inviting Urshanabi to look around and view the greatness of this city, its high walls, its masonwork, and here at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city walls, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's account of his exploits.


www.ancienttexts.org...

there is a rather serious correlation here that should be explored

Samson could also been a symbol of the Sun, his strength was in his hair..when cut he became weak,the hair symbolizing the suns rays as they are powerful at spring and summer,becoming weaker as the seasons goes..

posted by ShadowXIX

Samson was born to aged parents. He was a Nazirite in God's service and therefore did not cut his hair or drink alcohol. [Edited by Don W]

I wonder if the proscription against “strong drink” meant NO alcohol? It is my understanding that almost everyone in ancient times drank wine which is fermented grape juice. I was under the impression that plain water was always suspect. Dysentery, typhus and worse were transmitted in water but the alcohol in wine killed those germs. I really question this claim.

His exploits included tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, killing a company of the men of Ashdod, setting fire to their fields and orchards, and slaughtering a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. Samson was a man of superhuman strength. Samson battled Israel's enemies . .

I think we do the ancients an injustice. I believe the ancients loved a good story as much as we do. They had a lot more time to spend around a fire at night, telling and re-telling tall tales. After all, they had no street lights. Dark for them was dark! The best liked or most enjoyed stories were eventually put to writing. Without historical justification, we have endowed the stories with infallibility. Where the old timers knew a story when they heard one, we have created a problem we can’t solve. By declaring the story is true and literal, we are asked to believe the impossible. I do not think the ancients were so incredulous. But they knew real life from storied life. We have evolved whole religions around this sort of tall tale. Fantastic.

“ . . the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

I have read that the word “Palestine” is a corruption of the Latin word for Philistines. That the Philistines were seafarers who lived along the Mediterranean coast of what we call Canaan. That it is possible we have mixed Philistines and Phoenicians in our re-telling of history. It is the Phoenicians who we credit with inventing our alphabet. It is possible that achievement really belongs to the Philistines.

God opened up a hollow place at Lehi and water came out of it to quench Samsons thirst. While in Gaza, visiting a prostitute, the people of the town surrounded her house in order to kill him in the morning when he left. But Samson left early and pulled up the city gates doors, posts, lock and all and escaped.

A patriarchal society. Sex outside marriage is OK for men but a death penalty act for a woman.

Heracles [Hercules?] threw down his bow and leapt upon the lion . . he put his hands round the lion's neck . . gripped the lion's throat and bending him backwards, throttled him. There lay the lion dead on the ground. In our Bible, Judges 13:6 says Samson actually tore the lion in two . . but the ancient historian Flavius Josephus in his "Antiquities of the Jews" tells us that Samson first strangled the lion, which is exactly as Hercules is said to have done.

“Ancient historian Flavius Josephus” was not like a 21st century historian. Our search for facts and more facts is insatiable. A journalist must have at least 2 independent sources for important or consequential details. Our history books are replete with foot notes. Perhaps Flavius got it wrong. Perhaps there are 2 versions and Flavius heard the other one. I don’t call that a “significant” difference. I’ve never dispatched a lion but I’m pretty sure I’d want it dead before I began taking it apart.

A fascinating bit of additional information regarding Hercules is his connection with the Biblical tribe of Dan. The Bible Samson was born of the tribe of Dan. Greek history tells us that a people called 'Danioi' came to trade and colonize Greece in ancient times . .

Secular scholars say there never were 12 tribes of Israel; that was a legend from the old days. An origins story. And 12 is one of those special numbers, 1, 3, 7, 12, 70 and others. That does not make the Greek history wrong. Neither would It “prove” the Danioi were Jewish which I guess is the point.

The word Hercules in Greek is, 'Heracles,' which is virtually identical with the Hebrew plural word for traders,'Heraclim,' and Heracles is said to have come from 'Argos' himself.

I’m not sure how people move from English to Greek into Hebrew and look for similarities. This is like that anagram decoding the Hebrew scriptures. Over here we can't agree on what "is" is. Or if the "surge" is working or is not working. As in Nostradamus, all his predictions are past tense. No one has ever discovered a prediction for tomorrow that worked. Tell me which horse will win the Ky Derby this May 5, and you’ve got a convert! But if anyone finds last year’s winner in Nostradamus, I say, “so what?”

[edit on 4/20/2007 by donwhite]

Samson could also been a symbol of the Sun, his strength was in his hair..when cut he became weak,the hair symbolizing the suns rays as they are powerful at spring and summer,becoming weaker as the seasons goes..

I agree 100%

Before I read your post I was going to mention
CUCHULAINN - THE HOUND OF ULSTER.
www.shee-eire.com...&mythology/Warriors&Heroes/Warriors/Males/Cuchulainn/Page1.htm

Cúchulainn was short in stature yet no one could look upon him in his splendor without blinking. The heat of his body could melt snow and ice for yards around, he glowed red and when he dipped his body in water to bathe the water hissed and turned to steam.
This description is taken from a translation in The Cúchullin Saga edited by Eleanor Hull in 1898:
' A handsome lad was he that stood there, Cúchulainn son of Sualtam. Three colours of hair had he; next to his skin the hair was brown, in the middle it was red; on the outside it was like a diadem of gold; comparable to yellow gold was each glittering long curling splendid beautiful thread of hair, falling freely down between his shoulders. About his neck were a hundred tiny links of red gold flashing, with pendants hung from them. His headgear was adorned with a hundred different jewels. On either cheek he had four moles, a yellow, a green, a blue and a red. In either eye he had seven pupils, sparkling like seven gems. Each of his feet had seven toes, each of his hands seven fingers; his hands and feet were endowed with the clutching power of hawk's talons and hedgehog's claws.
He wore his gorgeous raiment for great gatherings; a fair crimson tunic of five plies all
The champion carried a trusty special shield coloured dark crimson with a pure white silver rim all around its circumference; at his left side hung a long golden hilted sword. Beside him in his chariot was a lengthy spear, together with a keen aggressive javelin fitted with a hurling thong and rivets of white bronze. In one hand he carried nine heads, and nine more in the other; he held these heads as emblems of his valour and skill in arms, and at the sight of him the opposing army shook with terror.'

Read up more on him on the link I posted, it's very relevant.


The Battle Fury of Cúchulainn
' Then it was that he suffered his riastradh or paroxysm, whereby he became a fearsome and multiform and wondrous and hitherto unknown being. All over him, from his crown to the ground, his flesh and every limb and joint and point and articulation of him quivered as does a tree, yea a bulrush, in mid-current.
Within in his skin he put forth an unnatural effort of his body: his feet, his shins, and his knees shifted themselves and were behind him; his heels and calves and hams were displaced to the front of his leg-bones, in condition such that their knotted muscles stood up in lumps large as the clenched fist of fighting man. The frontal sinews of his head were dragged to the back of his neck, where they showed in lumps bigger than the head of a man-child aged one month. Then his face underwent extraordinary transformation: one eye became engulfed in his head so far that 'tis a question whether a wild heron could have got at it where it lay against his occiput, to drag it out upon the surface of his cheek; the other eye on the contrary protruded suddenly, and of itself so rested upon the cheek. His mouth was twisted awry till it met his ears. His lion's gnashings caused flakes of fire, each one larger than fleece of three-year-old wether, to stream from his throat into his mouth and so outwards. The sounding blows of the heart that panted within him were as the howl of a ban-dog doing his office, or of a lion in the act of charging bears.
Among the clouds over his head were visible the virulent pouring showers and sparks of ruddy fire which the seething of his savage wrath caused to mount up above him.

etc

reply to post by ShadowXIX


The Danite Samson and Dorian Herakles(aka Hercules) were the same person! The lost Tribe of Dan with its serpent emblem became the Dorians of Crete and later invaded the Greek mainland and became the Lacedaemonians (ancestors of the Spartans) as mentioned in 1 Maccabees 12:21 and in Josephus' "Antiquities" 12:4:10. Homer actually refers to these early Greeks as 'Danaans' 138 times in the Iliad. As for the lion story, Josephus also mentions that it was strangled first like in the Herakles account, but this is not mentioned in the Bible. Lions were well known in ancient Israel; yet in Greece, this is not the case.
Read:
Genesis 49:17
Judges 5:17
Amos 8:14
I Kings 12:28-30
Judges 18:18,30-31
Joshua 19:47
Deuteronomy 33:22
Notice that the Molech/Dagon/Ishtar(Ashtar/Ashtoreth/Astarte) worshipping tribe of Dan is NOT included in Revelation 7 with the other tribes:
www.youtube.com...
www.youtube.com...
www.youtube.com...
www.ccel.org...
(1 Maccabees 12:21)
books.google.com...
(Antiquities 12:4:10 - page 263)

[edit on 7-1-2009 by Spiritual Paradigm Shift]