I recall a paper arguing that Samson is being envisioned as a giant when he is depicted as pushing down the pillars of the philistine temple. The argument being that pillars of that sort in antiquity would have been too far apart for a normal sized man to grab with outstretched arms.
Excellent video! (As always!) I'm continuously flabbergasted by how your video design can match the depth of your commentary! Regarding tall tales in the Bible. One thought that struck me as interesting is that by the time you come to something like the Book of Ester, you're more dealing with what one might call "historical fiction" rather than the tall tales of Judges. As if there has been a genre shift over time.
Thanks for the kind comment. Yeah, I think books like Esther and Judith are a separate category, the Persian/Hellenistic court tales novella. They were probably not originally intended as religious scripture, and the book of Esther doesn't even mention God.
If Samson's shoulders were 90 feet as described at 7:02 in the video, the his height would have been around 300 to 450 feet tall, and at that height no one would have to warn the guards that he is in the city.
Yes... that part is a much later embellishment of Jewish commentators. They were struggling to make sense of a story that just seemed like fantasy... so they pushed the fantasy paradigm all the way. I argue this sort of thing is not helpful in interpreting the story. I have a very different approach: I've put it in the comments.
I'm endlessly fascinated by the story of Jacob fighting Yahweh in Genesis 32. It comes out of nowhere, is never mentioned again expect a brief mention in Hosea(who says it was an angel, not Yahweh) and is smack dab in the middle of a much more grounded plot arc....and it's one of two times Yahweh names Jacob Isreal. The fact Yahweh seems eager to flee at dawn smacks Jacob hard in the lower regions and then rewards Jacob but only after losing the fight is also interesting. Like....WTF did i just read?
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, that story and the whole Jacob-Esau feud in general is quite interesting. I need to dig more deeply into it at some point.
We need more "Dr Evil"s in religious works 🤣 Ideas for other videos, as requested: Something on King David's authenticity; The staff of Aaron that was in the ark; Sacrificing the firstborn to the lord and child sacrifice in general within Judah/Israel; The names Judah (Yahwist) and Israel (Elohist); The son's of Israel attacking a town after they'd been circumcised; Daniel (take your pick there, though I know you've got one on this already there's many stories in it); Elijah and the prophets of Ba'al. I'll think of more once I hit ENTER no doubt. Edit: The "twelve" sons/tribes of Israel.
@@InquisitiveBible Another thought; Solomon's Temple structure is interesting, and contains a lot of things I don't understand, but that are likely quite important. Such as the two pillars. The coverings inside. How did it compare to other temples in the region? (I've seen a picture from Dr Francesca Stavrokopoulou on anotehr that had a H of H, was that common? And how did the first temple compare to the rebuilt version later? I bet there's a lot of meaty info in there. (No pun on sacrifices intended).
@@ADEpoch That's a great idea for a deep dive. I think I'll add it to the list. One tidbit I came across while researching Samson is that the temple to Melqart/Heracles in Tyre had two special ornamental pillars (described by Herodotus), and they might have been the model for the Jerusalem Temple's two special pillars.
Great analysis! It's fascinating to think that stories like Samson's might be intentionally exaggerated to highlight traits or convey deeper lessons. The idea that biblical authors used humor and over-the-top details to signal a non-literal reading is eye-opening. Thanks for shedding light on this perspective-it adds so much depth to how we understand these narratives!
Judean story teller: Then at midnight Samson rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. Random person listening: Well, hearing that has broken my suspension of disbelief.
Something I've been wondering about is if the Nazerite vow in Numbers was written after, and in response to, the story of Samson since most of the limitations imposed by the vow never applied to Samson, but to his mother
Yeah, it’s a good question. I avoided that topic because covering it adequately would have taken a lot of time. Whatever kind of Nazirite Samson is, it’s not the same thing described in Numbers 6 or practiced by Jews in rabbinical times. In the Samson cycle, his behavior violates Nazirite rules, and as you note, some of the obligations are imposed on his mother rather than him, which is weird. Also, a Nazirite vow is not something that can be imposed on a baby (much less an unborn one). One must declare oneself a Nazirite, typically as an adult, which Samson is not depicted as doing. Furthermore, the story in chapters 14 and 15 makes no reference to his hair or his supposed Nazirite status. The general view is that the practice varied over time, and that Numbers describes a later stage in the development of the Nazir practice. Whether the author was familiar with the Samson story is hard to say.
@@InquisitiveBible thanks for the response! Do we have any reference outside of the Hebrew Bible to the vow (or similar) that would be contemporary or something?
Not really, which is part of the problem. Even the Septuagint translators apparently didn't know what a Nazirite vow was, so they translated it as "special purity vow" in Numbers 6. Our best near-contemporary evidence might be references to Nazirites in 1 Maccabees 3, so we can be fairly sure a practice similar to the one in Numbers was in place in the second century BC. I'm mainly going by the book *Nazirites in Late Second Temple Judaism* by Stuart Chepey, which goes over every single known document that mentions the Nazirite vow or Nazirites.
Good video. John mchugh has a paper in European journal of science titled “ how Samson used jawbone of donkey to slay 1000 men”. Seems the miracles are cuneiform polysemy. Homer (means hostage) brought this knowledge from Mesopotamia. Mchugh seems to have cracked the code. And made the stories more accessible and understandable.
Great video, Paul! I have a lot of thoughts on this one. First, I'm totally with you that various elements of the Bible likely contain mythologized or exaggerated details. Exaggeration was a very commonly used literary device in the ancient near east, even necessarily describing events which were reported to have occurred historically. Hence the unrealistically large number of Israelites leaving Egypt. One story that likely I would consider to be a tall tale would be that of Daniel 3 with the worshiping of the image of Nebuchadnezzar which I think even an ancient audience would have considered to be absurd. In regards to Samson, I do think there is a connection between him and solar deities for the reasons that you mentioned in the video. I'm especially intrigued by the idea that his journey from east to west is meant to signify the course of the Sun. However, I do disagree with you in regards to the story of Hercules serving as an influence upon the legend of Samson. My reason for saying this is that I believe it is more plausible that the story of Samson was inspired by Near Eastern motifs (which I also believe influenced the story of Hercules). For example, the idea of Samson killing a lion or being associated with a lion would fit the ancient near Eastern archetype of a king or hero fighting a lion. Curiously there was a stone seal found at Beth Shemesh from repeatedly the 12th century BCE of a man battling a lion, which while I hesitate to say proves that the story of Samson is historical it would show that at least some kind of lion battling legend was known in the local area and likely influenced the development of the Samson story. Gilgamesh for example was associated with the lion as well, and is stated to have worn a lion's skin as part of a mourning ritual for his friend Enkidu. While to my knowledge we don't know of any story of Gilgamesh killing a lion, Hercules most certainly did. So here we have three heroes associated with leonine imagery. We also have the association between Hercules and Gilgamesh and the underworld, which would imply some degree of influence. While there is nothing to my knowledge in the Samson story that reflects a connection with the underworld, I do find it rather interesting that the 6th century Christian theologian Jacob of Serugh in his Homily on Samson typologically connects the story of Samson and the gates of Gaza with the descent of Christ into Sheol who is described as having broken the bars of iron and bronze and freed the righteous who were awaiting his resurrection. Not sure if there is any deeper knowledge that Jacob knew of here or not, but I did find this connection between Samson, Jesus and the underworld very similar to the connection between Gilgamesh and Hercules and the Netherworld. Now of course I won't rule out the possibility that perhaps some elements of the Hercules stories may have been placed upon the story of Samson in a later reaction, I do think that the motifs which underlie the stories of Samson, Gilgamesh and Hercules reflect the mutual influence of Near Eastern sources, and as I mentioned earlier the idea of somebody fighting a lion in Samson's neck of the woods was apparently known in the late bronze age and probably served as some kind of influence upon the eventual formulation of the legend. But with that aside, I enjoyed the video and I look forward to the next one! Also, this video has made me interested in Reading Jack Sasson's paper on Samson. I enjoyed his commentary on Judges 1 - 12 earlier this year along with Mark Smith and Elizabeth Bloch-Smith's Hermeneia commentary on the first half of Judges. I hope that both parties will bring forward the second halves of their commentaries in the years to come because the story of Judges is absolutely fascinating to me.
Thanks for the comments. Those are some great thoughts. I tend to think there is a bit of both Gilgamesh and Hercules lurking in the literary background of the Samson stories. I didn't get too far into the weeds because I wanted to focus on this one overlooked story instead of the more popular aspects of the Samson legend (his fight with the jawbone, the Delilah story, etc.).
@@InquisitiveBible Fair enough. I would like it if you did return to the story of Samson in a future video because there is a ton of stuff in there that needs discussion and exploring
Direct assistance from God is clearly indicated when his strength is lost upon his hair being cut. Attributing these deeds to Samson apart from God's empowering him leaves just fairy tales. Once God's power is invoked nothing is impossible. Was it the old prophet Elijah??? who ran before horses for 40 kilometers. No young person today could do this! Miracles are just that. People without faith naturally cannot accept miracles, nor what heppened during the Exodus. If one accepts our reality as artificial, a simulation, nothing becomes impossible for its Creator.
I'm just not satisfied with "it was a miracle" or "God did it" as an explanation every time we encounter a story with incongruous or improbable elements. It's like being the curious kid in Sunday school who is told to be quiet whenever he asks awkward questions. The system is designed to stifle discussion, not encourage it. There is so much more to these stories and to the complicated history of Bible if you're willing to pull back the curtain. You have to decide for yourself if the simple answer is satisfying or if you are driven to investigate more deeply (as I am).
@InquisitiveBible If you want something to chew on, to satisfy an itch, try Genesis chapter one. I'll even help you. Hint, the earth is not only 6000 years old and the days are not 24 hours. I'll give you a little test! What happened when it said that "God divided the light from the darkness." It's fairly simple and the rest may be ciphered out too. So far I've seen nobody else get it.
We are showing our hubris as a people thinking we can determine whether Biblical events actually physically "happened" or were meant to be taken some other cryptic way... I think it is a mistake to assume that because some stories about the creator of the universe, we cannot simply wrap our head around or begin to imagine/ believe... But God counts righteousness towards faith and faith alone... Jesus many times had to prove to his disciples... Even after his resurrection; showing them the scars of where his hands were pierced to the cross.... So just because we cant begin to imgaone Gods glory, and yes i do believe there are clear as day parables in the bible too.... But that being said i also truly believe that it is factual that Jesus performed REAL LIFE MIRACLES and truly brought the dead back to the living at the absolute disbelief and astonishment of those witness.... I believe a child names David slayed a literal 9ft tool Giant and it literally happened the way the Bible says, not that he threw a metaphorical rock and played a guitar so good he literally "blew Goliaths mind" , it was all a metaphor... Absolutely not, God means what he says and his miracles are not meant to be interpreted by our inexperienced minds and discounted as this or that because out faith is too little to believe God's glory is really that great and out of this world with his amazing and astonishing miracles.... They still happen and people have stories to this day they may not even share because they are so unbelievable and amazing because our GOD is out of this world and above our understanding!!
Thanks for the comment. I will have to strongly disagree with the viewpoint that it is more virtuous to trust church leaders and traditions instead of exploring the text for ourselves. Allowing religious leaders to dictate what these texts mean promotes a dangerous mix of hubris and apathy. Humility is recognizing how little we know about these texts and their origins, and faith is having the courage to read them on their own terms in tandem with the best historical and archaeological evidence we can muster.
The moment you assume something in the Bible is fanciful anecdote, hyperbole, exaggeration, fantasy, fiction. The same Bible in which the beginning is made possible by a God of supernatural wonders and speaks things into existence. The moment you attribute or try to explain these and anything else but, then you are a stone's throw away from disbelief.☠
@@InquisitiveBible Criticism and counter-arguments of your opinion are not thought policing. If you post stuff on Public Fora, expect you have to expect feedback. Surely you can hold your own in supporting your claims? Unless you want to create a cosy little echo chamber...
@thethruthchannel I welcome engagement with the arguments I present as long as it is based on facts, scholarship, and the text of the Bible itself. If I am wrong, I want to know why, and not simply be threatened with vague warnings about "disbelief". Your original comment simply asserts that interpreting the Bible non-literally in any way is wrong. I'm not sure what the use of a skull-and-crossbones emoji adds to the debate, but it doesn't come across as a symbol of open-minded discussion and critical thinking.
Anything's possible, but our oldest texts and inscriptions about Heracles are a lot older than our earliest references to Samson (i.e., manuscripts of the book of Judges).
Has anyone else noticed the underlying premises that dictate the interpretation of the Samson story here? 1. It isn't literally true. The story is metaphorical. The old ''take an old historical anecdote about some Israelite pre-monarchy-era hero and exaggerate it to make ourselves look better'' approach. 2. Suggest that the Jews ''borrowed'' / ''were influenced by'' (read: 'stole') the Samson story from ANYONE other than it being their own original story about their own hero. Jews aren't capable of having their own superheroes. They MUST have stolen the story from somewhere else. All similarities between Samson's heroic deeds and that of ANY other culture's heroes, becomes immediate proof that the Jews stole the story. 3. Here's what we believe the gates of Late Bronze Age citadels were like... so that means that the story is talking about gates that WE have decided... not ones that we actually know about. How about we try a very different approach? The narrative makes it clear from the start that the conception of Samson was something unusual. The time-period of the story (Late Bronze Age) is a time during which many other cultures speak of certain persons of extraordinary abilities. These 'super' humans all seem to have something peculiar about their conception; something that is often spoken of having involved some supernatural Beings or beings. Why shouldn't we take these records at their word? Why shouldn't we take it all literally? Because those who made record of the exploits of these ancient heroes weren't into making up literary metaphors for the spiritual development of later readers. They told what they observed about a person or persons whose abilities were way beyond those of normal men. Looking for metaphors and spiritual applications is a relatively modern approach; something that belongs to the Late Classical period, not that of ages earlier. From legends and anecdotes all around the world's cultures, we can deduce that these super humans seem to have occurred within three or four generations; around the time of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age kingdoms. It was a period of great upheavals, accompanied by strange phenomenon. The people who recorded what occurred were not stupid superstitious idiots who ran around terrified of anything that went 'boom!' or looked different. They were people who could build pyramids and temples with huge stones... they understood the complexities of running empires. They were NOT idiots who invented a god for everything that happened... all that came much later.... and the Jews were last of all people to want to have yet another 'god'. They recorded what they saw... not what they thought might make a good yarn for some later audience. Samson wasn't just some local big lad who ate all his veggies and grew up big and tough... and beat up a few Philistines. He was the offspring of an Israelite woman and something - or someone - totally out of the ordinary. I argue that the same situation was going on in cultures all over the world at that time. Those supermen... what the Greeks called 'heroes'... were a special breed. We're not using the word 'hero' to mean a sporting star of today. It is a term denoting a specific gene-set: they were not entirely human. We don't have such people today. But the records speak of such persons in Antiquity. They were totally out of the ordinary and their exploits were phenomenal. If the story has it that Samson could carry the gates of a Philistine city dozens and dozens of miles uphill, then that's what happened.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I agree with the general idea that there is a link between the Samson stories in Judges and Greek tales of the age of heroes, which featured characters with divine parentage. Shamgar, described as the son of the goddess Anat in Judges, is another example, and I think the Anakim and Rephaim probably count as well. However, all these stories - whether Greek or Hebrew - were written long after the events they purport to describe. This is a simple fact of linguistic development; classical Greek with its Phoenician-derived alphabet was not a written language in the Bronze Age, for example, and we have no evidence of complex narratives being written in, say, Linear A. Similarly, Hebrew did not emerge as a written language until the Iron Age. For a host of reasons, I think all such stories are the outcome of centuries of legendary development and embellishment, which is the natural course for folktales and ancestor legends to take. I think saying the Jews “stole” the story is uncharitable. All literature, then and now, was an adaptation of the story and genre patterns that came before, and writers in antiquity in particular were part of a very small scribal elite who learned to read and write by copying well-known texts like Gilgamesh, Homer, etc. All literature, without exception, is heavily indebted to the writings that preceded it, and making those connections is instructive in charting the development of myths and ideas in human civilization. For my part, I do not think positing that these “supermen” or demigods really existed in prehistoric times provides a parsimonious explanation for, well, anything. The evidential burden would be significant, and that entire approach hews way too closely to Von Däniken’s “ancient alien” books and similar pseudo-science for my liking.
@@InquisitiveBible Thanks for the response. Good honest scholarship admits to ignorance, and so admission of any feasible theory ought to be entertained when trying to work out just what was happening 3 millennia or more ago. The Däniken theories are not his in origin; they owe much to previous scholars, but his popularisation (and admittedly poor in places presentation of them) have not done anything to lend them credence. Yet I am always astounded at how many people are more than prepared to admit ''Oh, there MUST be intelligent life out there in the Universe; how egocentric of us to think that there isn't!!'' And yet such people will be the very first to deny the possibility of alien interference with Human's genetic development. Increasingly, Darwinian evolutionary theory cannot account for the sudden development of so many irreducibly complex systems and capacities humans have that animals don't. There is no space here to discuss this, but Evolution alone is insufficient as an Occam's Razor to account for everything. On the other hand, Alien interference not only provides an clear explanation for our species' relatively rapid development, but also provides a thorough and satisfying answer to the many mysteries that exist in our ancient legends. As for the writing down of those legends, it is an error to 'late date' Hebrew writing to the Iron Age. There are examples of early texts, such as the Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription, which is dated to the 11th-10th century BC and is considered the earliest known precursor to Hebrew. As ancient Phoenician and Hebrew were dialects of an Aramean/Western Semitic language... and were mutually intelligible... it would not too much to argue that these regional early texts were known to the educated of the Levant who committed the legends to writing at a time not so very far from the occasions that the events occurred.
@@v1e1r1g1e1 were the ancients forbidden from crafting fictional tales? Should generations far in the future interpret our comic book stories of hulk and superman as real people and events?
@@a.jperez202 Note the nature of your protest: You are putting a conclusion (Ancient People did write fiction) and applying that to the Samson / Bible / Greek mythologies.... thereby dismissing them as historical accounts. That is pretty bad logic. The 'test' that should be applied is whether or not people back then were making a distinction between their own fictions, and what they regarded as their factual histories. In the case of the ancient Greeks, they built vast temples, made sacrifices, observed holy days, etc ... on a state-sanctioned level... for their historical accounts of gods, demi-gods, heroes and so forth. Our 21st century Western World is a complete shambles - with many confusing reality and fiction - but no state I know builds temples and makes sacrifices to Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Cat Woman... or so on. Individuals might be muddled, but not the broader society. Similarly, the ancient Israelites / Jews committed to manuscript those stories which they regarded as historical fact; not whether it made their kings, rulers or even themselves look good or amazing. Many times, the history of the Jews (as recorded in the Old Testament) stands as a stinging rebuke to their own culture and people. A strange thing to do!! Most cultures do the exact opposite. I hold that the accounts given of Samson, David and Goliath, the Nephilim, etc, were all held to be factually historically true accounts of reality. The situation in the past is not that of the present... it doesn't mean it didn't happen. In centuries to come, will people believe that in the middle of the 20th century ... a time when half the planet didn't even have electricity, there was a global war which ended with two bombs that each wiped out an entire city? I doubt it. But it did happen.
@@v1e1r1g1e1 " thereby dismissing them as historical accounts. That is pretty bad logic. " You're reading into the texts the will to present everything as historical, just because that's what you want to see
I recall a paper arguing that Samson is being envisioned as a giant when he is depicted as pushing down the pillars of the philistine temple. The argument being that pillars of that sort in antiquity would have been too far apart for a normal sized man to grab with outstretched arms.
Interesting. I'm very curious to read that paper.
@@InquisitiveBible Hi. I found the article, it is called, "Samson the Demigod?" by Dr.Naphtali Meshel.
Thanks!
Amazing!
Excellent video! (As always!) I'm continuously flabbergasted by how your video design can match the depth of your commentary!
Regarding tall tales in the Bible. One thought that struck me as interesting is that by the time you come to something like the Book of Ester, you're more dealing with what one might call "historical fiction" rather than the tall tales of Judges. As if there has been a genre shift over time.
Thanks for the kind comment.
Yeah, I think books like Esther and Judith are a separate category, the Persian/Hellenistic court tales novella. They were probably not originally intended as religious scripture, and the book of Esther doesn't even mention God.
@@InquisitiveBible
Well the Hebrew Masoretic version makes no mention of God at least, the LXX version is the opposite.
@@devinsmith4790 That's a good point. The Greek translator might have been trying to make Esther more useful as a scriptural text.
If Samson's shoulders were 90 feet as described at 7:02 in the video, the his height would have been around 300 to 450 feet tall, and at that height no one would have to warn the guards that he is in the city.
Yes... that part is a much later embellishment of Jewish commentators. They were struggling to make sense of a story that just seemed like fantasy... so they pushed the fantasy paradigm all the way. I argue this sort of thing is not helpful in interpreting the story. I have a very different approach: I've put it in the comments.
Yeah, they definitely went a bit overboard when they made Samson out to be a giant.
Huge improvent, kudos to you and we all look forward to newer videos. Hoping you cover Wisdom literature related topics 😊
Thanks. I'd like to cover Proverbs at some point.
I'm endlessly fascinated by the story of Jacob fighting Yahweh in Genesis 32. It comes out of nowhere, is never mentioned again expect a brief mention in Hosea(who says it was an angel, not Yahweh) and is smack dab in the middle of a much more grounded plot arc....and it's one of two times Yahweh names Jacob Isreal.
The fact Yahweh seems eager to flee at dawn smacks Jacob hard in the lower regions and then rewards Jacob but only after losing the fight is also interesting.
Like....WTF did i just read?
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, that story and the whole Jacob-Esau feud in general is quite interesting. I need to dig more deeply into it at some point.
We need more "Dr Evil"s in religious works 🤣 Ideas for other videos, as requested: Something on King David's authenticity; The staff of Aaron that was in the ark; Sacrificing the firstborn to the lord and child sacrifice in general within Judah/Israel; The names Judah (Yahwist) and Israel (Elohist); The son's of Israel attacking a town after they'd been circumcised; Daniel (take your pick there, though I know you've got one on this already there's many stories in it); Elijah and the prophets of Ba'al. I'll think of more once I hit ENTER no doubt. Edit: The "twelve" sons/tribes of Israel.
Thanks for the suggestions! I have ideas for a few more Daniel videos actually, but I'm worried that people will get bored of it. :)
@@InquisitiveBible Another thought; Solomon's Temple structure is interesting, and contains a lot of things I don't understand, but that are likely quite important. Such as the two pillars. The coverings inside. How did it compare to other temples in the region? (I've seen a picture from Dr Francesca Stavrokopoulou on anotehr that had a H of H, was that common? And how did the first temple compare to the rebuilt version later? I bet there's a lot of meaty info in there. (No pun on sacrifices intended).
@@ADEpoch That's a great idea for a deep dive. I think I'll add it to the list. One tidbit I came across while researching Samson is that the temple to Melqart/Heracles in Tyre had two special ornamental pillars (described by Herodotus), and they might have been the model for the Jerusalem Temple's two special pillars.
Great analysis! It's fascinating to think that stories like Samson's might be intentionally exaggerated to highlight traits or convey deeper lessons. The idea that biblical authors used humor and over-the-top details to signal a non-literal reading is eye-opening. Thanks for shedding light on this perspective-it adds so much depth to how we understand these narratives!
Judean story teller: Then at midnight Samson rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
Random person listening: Well, hearing that has broken my suspension of disbelief.
Something I've been wondering about is if the Nazerite vow in Numbers was written after, and in response to, the story of Samson since most of the limitations imposed by the vow never applied to Samson, but to his mother
Yeah, it’s a good question. I avoided that topic because covering it adequately would have taken a lot of time.
Whatever kind of Nazirite Samson is, it’s not the same thing described in Numbers 6 or practiced by Jews in rabbinical times. In the Samson cycle, his behavior violates Nazirite rules, and as you note, some of the obligations are imposed on his mother rather than him, which is weird. Also, a Nazirite vow is not something that can be imposed on a baby (much less an unborn one). One must declare oneself a Nazirite, typically as an adult, which Samson is not depicted as doing. Furthermore, the story in chapters 14 and 15 makes no reference to his hair or his supposed Nazirite status.
The general view is that the practice varied over time, and that Numbers describes a later stage in the development of the Nazir practice. Whether the author was familiar with the Samson story is hard to say.
@@InquisitiveBible thanks for the response! Do we have any reference outside of the Hebrew Bible to the vow (or similar) that would be contemporary or something?
Not really, which is part of the problem. Even the Septuagint translators apparently didn't know what a Nazirite vow was, so they translated it as "special purity vow" in Numbers 6. Our best near-contemporary evidence might be references to Nazirites in 1 Maccabees 3, so we can be fairly sure a practice similar to the one in Numbers was in place in the second century BC.
I'm mainly going by the book *Nazirites in Late Second Temple Judaism* by Stuart Chepey, which goes over every single known document that mentions the Nazirite vow or Nazirites.
Heyo, the 3d render looks sick!
Good video. John mchugh has a paper in European journal of science titled “ how Samson used jawbone of donkey to slay 1000 men”. Seems the miracles are cuneiform polysemy. Homer (means hostage) brought this knowledge from Mesopotamia. Mchugh seems to have cracked the code. And made the stories more accessible and understandable.
Thanks, I'll have to look that paper up.
Great video, Paul! I have a lot of thoughts on this one. First, I'm totally with you that various elements of the Bible likely contain mythologized or exaggerated details. Exaggeration was a very commonly used literary device in the ancient near east, even necessarily describing events which were reported to have occurred historically. Hence the unrealistically large number of Israelites leaving Egypt. One story that likely I would consider to be a tall tale would be that of Daniel 3 with the worshiping of the image of Nebuchadnezzar which I think even an ancient audience would have considered to be absurd.
In regards to Samson, I do think there is a connection between him and solar deities for the reasons that you mentioned in the video. I'm especially intrigued by the idea that his journey from east to west is meant to signify the course of the Sun. However, I do disagree with you in regards to the story of Hercules serving as an influence upon the legend of Samson. My reason for saying this is that I believe it is more plausible that the story of Samson was inspired by Near Eastern motifs (which I also believe influenced the story of Hercules). For example, the idea of Samson killing a lion or being associated with a lion would fit the ancient near Eastern archetype of a king or hero fighting a lion. Curiously there was a stone seal found at Beth Shemesh from repeatedly the 12th century BCE of a man battling a lion, which while I hesitate to say proves that the story of Samson is historical it would show that at least some kind of lion battling legend was known in the local area and likely influenced the development of the Samson story.
Gilgamesh for example was associated with the lion as well, and is stated to have worn a lion's skin as part of a mourning ritual for his friend Enkidu. While to my knowledge we don't know of any story of Gilgamesh killing a lion, Hercules most certainly did. So here we have three heroes associated with leonine imagery. We also have the association between Hercules and Gilgamesh and the underworld, which would imply some degree of influence. While there is nothing to my knowledge in the Samson story that reflects a connection with the underworld, I do find it rather interesting that the 6th century Christian theologian Jacob of Serugh in his Homily on Samson typologically connects the story of Samson and the gates of Gaza with the descent of Christ into Sheol who is described as having broken the bars of iron and bronze and freed the righteous who were awaiting his resurrection. Not sure if there is any deeper knowledge that Jacob knew of here or not, but I did find this connection between Samson, Jesus and the underworld very similar to the connection between Gilgamesh and Hercules and the Netherworld.
Now of course I won't rule out the possibility that perhaps some elements of the Hercules stories may have been placed upon the story of Samson in a later reaction, I do think that the motifs which underlie the stories of Samson, Gilgamesh and Hercules reflect the mutual influence of Near Eastern sources, and as I mentioned earlier the idea of somebody fighting a lion in Samson's neck of the woods was apparently known in the late bronze age and probably served as some kind of influence upon the eventual formulation of the legend.
But with that aside, I enjoyed the video and I look forward to the next one! Also, this video has made me interested in Reading Jack Sasson's paper on Samson. I enjoyed his commentary on Judges 1 - 12 earlier this year along with Mark Smith and Elizabeth Bloch-Smith's Hermeneia commentary on the first half of Judges. I hope that both parties will bring forward the second halves of their commentaries in the years to come because the story of Judges is absolutely fascinating to me.
Thanks for the comments. Those are some great thoughts. I tend to think there is a bit of both Gilgamesh and Hercules lurking in the literary background of the Samson stories. I didn't get too far into the weeds because I wanted to focus on this one overlooked story instead of the more popular aspects of the Samson legend (his fight with the jawbone, the Delilah story, etc.).
@@InquisitiveBible Fair enough. I would like it if you did return to the story of Samson in a future video because there is a ton of stuff in there that needs discussion and exploring
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Intresting1
Did a bear really eat a ton of kids???
Good example! I never thought of that one.
Deliberate tall tales as compared to regular tall tales? 😁
How about Jonah? I think Jonah is satire and uses humorous elements to make a point.
Direct assistance from God is clearly indicated when his strength is lost upon his hair being cut.
Attributing these deeds to Samson apart from God's empowering him leaves just fairy tales. Once God's power is invoked nothing is impossible.
Was it the old prophet Elijah??? who ran before horses for 40 kilometers. No young person today could do this! Miracles are just that.
People without faith naturally cannot accept miracles, nor what heppened during the Exodus.
If one accepts our reality as artificial, a simulation, nothing becomes impossible for its Creator.
I'm just not satisfied with "it was a miracle" or "God did it" as an explanation every time we encounter a story with incongruous or improbable elements. It's like being the curious kid in Sunday school who is told to be quiet whenever he asks awkward questions. The system is designed to stifle discussion, not encourage it.
There is so much more to these stories and to the complicated history of Bible if you're willing to pull back the curtain. You have to decide for yourself if the simple answer is satisfying or if you are driven to investigate more deeply (as I am).
@InquisitiveBible If you want something to chew on, to satisfy an itch, try Genesis chapter one. I'll even help you. Hint, the earth is not only 6000 years old and the days are not 24 hours.
I'll give you a little test! What happened when it said that "God divided the light from the darkness." It's fairly simple and the rest may be ciphered out too. So far I've seen nobody else get it.
We are showing our hubris as a people thinking we can determine whether Biblical events actually physically "happened" or were meant to be taken some other cryptic way...
I think it is a mistake to assume that because some stories about the creator of the universe, we cannot simply wrap our head around or begin to imagine/ believe...
But God counts righteousness towards faith and faith alone... Jesus many times had to prove to his disciples... Even after his resurrection; showing them the scars of where his hands were pierced to the cross....
So just because we cant begin to imgaone Gods glory, and yes i do believe there are clear as day parables in the bible too.... But that being said i also truly believe that it is factual that Jesus performed REAL LIFE MIRACLES and truly brought the dead back to the living at the absolute disbelief and astonishment of those witness....
I believe a child names David slayed a literal 9ft tool Giant and it literally happened the way the Bible says, not that he threw a metaphorical rock and played a guitar so good he literally "blew Goliaths mind" , it was all a metaphor...
Absolutely not, God means what he says and his miracles are not meant to be interpreted by our inexperienced minds and discounted as this or that because out faith is too little to believe God's glory is really that great and out of this world with his amazing and astonishing miracles....
They still happen and people have stories to this day they may not even share because they are so unbelievable and amazing because our GOD is out of this world and above our understanding!!
Thanks for the comment. I will have to strongly disagree with the viewpoint that it is more virtuous to trust church leaders and traditions instead of exploring the text for ourselves.
Allowing religious leaders to dictate what these texts mean promotes a dangerous mix of hubris and apathy. Humility is recognizing how little we know about these texts and their origins, and faith is having the courage to read them on their own terms in tandem with the best historical and archaeological evidence we can muster.
The moment you assume something in the Bible is fanciful anecdote, hyperbole, exaggeration, fantasy, fiction. The same Bible in which the beginning is made possible by a God of supernatural wonders and speaks things into existence. The moment you attribute or try to explain these and anything else but, then you are a stone's throw away from disbelief.☠
I reject any kind of thought-policing that attempts to put restrictions around what I'm allowed to study and learn.
@@InquisitiveBible Criticism and counter-arguments of your opinion are not thought policing. If you post stuff on Public Fora, expect you have to expect feedback. Surely you can hold your own in supporting your claims? Unless you want to create a cosy little echo chamber...
@thethruthchannel I welcome engagement with the arguments I present as long as it is based on facts, scholarship, and the text of the Bible itself. If I am wrong, I want to know why, and not simply be threatened with vague warnings about "disbelief".
Your original comment simply asserts that interpreting the Bible non-literally in any way is wrong. I'm not sure what the use of a skull-and-crossbones emoji adds to the debate, but it doesn't come across as a symbol of open-minded discussion and critical thinking.
If the bible says it happened, then it happened. The gates may not have been as massive as first thought, or perhaps it really was a miracle from God!
Samson came before Heracles.
Anything's possible, but our oldest texts and inscriptions about Heracles are a lot older than our earliest references to Samson (i.e., manuscripts of the book of Judges).
Has anyone else noticed the underlying premises that dictate the interpretation of the Samson story here?
1. It isn't literally true. The story is metaphorical. The old ''take an old historical anecdote about some Israelite pre-monarchy-era hero and exaggerate it to make ourselves look better'' approach.
2. Suggest that the Jews ''borrowed'' / ''were influenced by'' (read: 'stole') the Samson story from ANYONE other than it being their own original story about their own hero. Jews aren't capable of having their own superheroes. They MUST have stolen the story from somewhere else. All similarities between Samson's heroic deeds and that of ANY other culture's heroes, becomes immediate proof that the Jews stole the story.
3. Here's what we believe the gates of Late Bronze Age citadels were like... so that means that the story is talking about gates that WE have decided... not ones that we actually know about.
How about we try a very different approach?
The narrative makes it clear from the start that the conception of Samson was something unusual. The time-period of the story (Late Bronze Age) is a time during which many other cultures speak of certain persons of extraordinary abilities. These 'super' humans all seem to have something peculiar about their conception; something that is often spoken of having involved some supernatural Beings or beings. Why shouldn't we take these records at their word? Why shouldn't we take it all literally? Because those who made record of the exploits of these ancient heroes weren't into making up literary metaphors for the spiritual development of later readers. They told what they observed about a person or persons whose abilities were way beyond those of normal men. Looking for metaphors and spiritual applications is a relatively modern approach; something that belongs to the Late Classical period, not that of ages earlier.
From legends and anecdotes all around the world's cultures, we can deduce that these super humans seem to have occurred within three or four generations; around the time of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age kingdoms. It was a period of great upheavals, accompanied by strange phenomenon. The people who recorded what occurred were not stupid superstitious idiots who ran around terrified of anything that went 'boom!' or looked different. They were people who could build pyramids and temples with huge stones... they understood the complexities of running empires. They were NOT idiots who invented a god for everything that happened... all that came much later.... and the Jews were last of all people to want to have yet another 'god'. They recorded what they saw... not what they thought might make a good yarn for some later audience.
Samson wasn't just some local big lad who ate all his veggies and grew up big and tough... and beat up a few Philistines. He was the offspring of an Israelite woman and something - or someone - totally out of the ordinary. I argue that the same situation was going on in cultures all over the world at that time. Those supermen... what the Greeks called 'heroes'... were a special breed. We're not using the word 'hero' to mean a sporting star of today. It is a term denoting a specific gene-set: they were not entirely human.
We don't have such people today. But the records speak of such persons in Antiquity. They were totally out of the ordinary and their exploits were phenomenal. If the story has it that Samson could carry the gates of a Philistine city dozens and dozens of miles uphill, then that's what happened.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I agree with the general idea that there is a link between the Samson stories in Judges and Greek tales of the age of heroes, which featured characters with divine parentage. Shamgar, described as the son of the goddess Anat in Judges, is another example, and I think the Anakim and Rephaim probably count as well.
However, all these stories - whether Greek or Hebrew - were written long after the events they purport to describe. This is a simple fact of linguistic development; classical Greek with its Phoenician-derived alphabet was not a written language in the Bronze Age, for example, and we have no evidence of complex narratives being written in, say, Linear A. Similarly, Hebrew did not emerge as a written language until the Iron Age.
For a host of reasons, I think all such stories are the outcome of centuries of legendary development and embellishment, which is the natural course for folktales and ancestor legends to take. I think saying the Jews “stole” the story is uncharitable. All literature, then and now, was an adaptation of the story and genre patterns that came before, and writers in antiquity in particular were part of a very small scribal elite who learned to read and write by copying well-known texts like Gilgamesh, Homer, etc. All literature, without exception, is heavily indebted to the writings that preceded it, and making those connections is instructive in charting the development of myths and ideas in human civilization.
For my part, I do not think positing that these “supermen” or demigods really existed in prehistoric times provides a parsimonious explanation for, well, anything. The evidential burden would be significant, and that entire approach hews way too closely to Von Däniken’s “ancient alien” books and similar pseudo-science for my liking.
@@InquisitiveBible Thanks for the response. Good honest scholarship admits to ignorance, and so admission of any feasible theory ought to be entertained when trying to work out just what was happening 3 millennia or more ago.
The Däniken theories are not his in origin; they owe much to previous scholars, but his popularisation (and admittedly poor in places presentation of them) have not done anything to lend them credence. Yet I am always astounded at how many people are more than prepared to admit ''Oh, there MUST be intelligent life out there in the Universe; how egocentric of us to think that there isn't!!'' And yet such people will be the very first to deny the possibility of alien interference with Human's genetic development. Increasingly, Darwinian evolutionary theory cannot account for the sudden development of so many irreducibly complex systems and capacities humans have that animals don't. There is no space here to discuss this, but Evolution alone is insufficient as an Occam's Razor to account for everything. On the other hand, Alien interference not only provides an clear explanation for our species' relatively rapid development, but also provides a thorough and satisfying answer to the many mysteries that exist in our ancient legends. As for the writing down of those legends, it is an error to 'late date' Hebrew writing to the Iron Age. There are examples of early texts, such as the Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription, which is dated to the 11th-10th century BC and is considered the earliest known precursor to Hebrew. As ancient Phoenician and Hebrew were dialects of an Aramean/Western Semitic language... and were mutually intelligible... it would not too much to argue that these regional early texts were known to the educated of the Levant who committed the legends to writing at a time not so very far from the occasions that the events occurred.
@@v1e1r1g1e1 were the ancients forbidden from crafting fictional tales? Should generations far in the future interpret our comic book stories of hulk and superman as real people and events?
@@a.jperez202 Note the nature of your protest: You are putting a conclusion (Ancient People did write fiction) and applying that to the Samson / Bible / Greek mythologies.... thereby dismissing them as historical accounts.
That is pretty bad logic.
The 'test' that should be applied is whether or not people back then were making a distinction between their own fictions, and what they regarded as their factual histories.
In the case of the ancient Greeks, they built vast temples, made sacrifices, observed holy days, etc ... on a state-sanctioned level... for their historical accounts of gods, demi-gods, heroes and so forth. Our 21st century Western World is a complete shambles - with many confusing reality and fiction - but no state I know builds temples and makes sacrifices to Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Cat Woman... or so on. Individuals might be muddled, but not the broader society.
Similarly, the ancient Israelites / Jews committed to manuscript those stories which they regarded as historical fact; not whether it made their kings, rulers or even themselves look good or amazing. Many times, the history of the Jews (as recorded in the Old Testament) stands as a stinging rebuke to their own culture and people. A strange thing to do!! Most cultures do the exact opposite. I hold that the accounts given of Samson, David and Goliath, the Nephilim, etc, were all held to be factually historically true accounts of reality. The situation in the past is not that of the present... it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
In centuries to come, will people believe that in the middle of the 20th century ... a time when half the planet didn't even have electricity, there was a global war which ended with two bombs that each wiped out an entire city? I doubt it. But it did happen.
@@v1e1r1g1e1 " thereby dismissing them as historical accounts.
That is pretty bad logic. "
You're reading into the texts the will to present everything as historical, just because that's what you want to see