Samson
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Biblical Samson
Samson, Shimshon (Hebrew: שמשון, Standard Šimšon Tiberian Šimšôn; meaning "of the sun" – perhaps proclaiming he was radiant and mighty, or "[One who] Serves [God]") or Shamshoun شمشون (Arabic) is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Children of Israel mentioned in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), and the Talmud. He is described in the Book of Judges chapters 13 to 16.
Samson is a Herculean figure, who is granted tremendous strength through the Spirit of the Lord to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats unachievable by ordinary men: wrestling a lion, slaying an entire army with nothing more than the jawbone of an ass, and destroying a temple.
Samson's activity takes place during a time when God was punishing the Israelites, by giving them "into the hand of the Philistines." An angel appears to Manoah, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan, in the city of Zorah, and to his wife, who had been unable to conceive. This angel proclaims that the couple will soon have a son who will begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. The wife believed the angel, but her husband wasn't present, at first, and wanted the heavenly messenger to return, asking that he himself could also receive instruction about the child that was going to be born. Requirements were set up by the angel that Manoah's wife (as well as the child himself) is to abstain from all alcoholic beverages, and her promised child is not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a "Nazirite" from birth. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for awhile could take a nazarite vow, which included things like the aforementioned as well as other stipulations. After the angel returned, Manoah soon prepared a sacrifice, but the Messenger would only allow it to be for God, touching his staff to it, miraculously engulfing it in flames. The angel then ascended to Heaven in the fire. This was such dramatic evidence as to the nature of the messenger, that Manoah feared for his life, as it has been said that no-one can live after seeing God; however, his wife soon convinced him that if God planned to slay them, He would never have revealed such things to them to begin with. In due time the son, Samson, is born; he is reared according to these provisions.
When he becomes a young man, Samson leaves the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. While there, Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah that, overcoming the objections of his parents who do not know that "it is of the Lord", he decides to marry her. The intended marriage is actually part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines. On the way to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by an Asiatic Lion and simply grabs it and rips it apart, as the Spirit of God moves upon him, divinely empowering him. This so profoundly affects Samson that he just keeps it to himself as a secret. He continues on to the Philistine's house, winning her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey. He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents. At the wedding-feast, Samson proposes that he tell a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines); if they can solve it, he will give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments. The riddle ("Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.") is a veiled account of his second encounter with the lion (at which only he was present). The Philistines are infuriated by the riddle. The thirty groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they will burn her and her father's household if she does not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them. At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson tells her the solution, and she tells it to the thirty groomsmen. Before sunset on the seventh day they said to him,
"What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?"
Samson said to them,
"If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle."
He flies into a rage and kills thirty Philistines of Ashkelon for their garments, which he gives his thirty groomsmen. Still in a rage, he returns to his father's house, and his bride is given to the best man as his wife. Her father refuses to allow him to see her, and wishes to give Samson the younger sister. Samson attaches torches to the tails of three hundred foxes, leaving the panicked beasts to run through the fields of the Philistines, burning all in their wake. The Philistines find out why Samson burned their crops, and they burn Samson's wife and father-in-law to death. In revenge, Samson slaughters many more Philistines, smiting them "hip and thigh."
Samson then takes refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam. An army of Philistines went up and demanded from 3,000 men of Judah to deliver them Samson. With Samson's consent, they tie him with two new ropes and are about to hand him over to the Philistines when he breaks free. Using the jawbone of an ass, he slays one thousand Philistines. At the conclusion of Judges 15 it is said that "Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Later, Samson goes to Gaza, where he stays at a harlot's house. His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he rips the gate up and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron."
He then falls in love with a woman, Delilah, at the Brook of Sorek. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1100 silver coins each) to try to find the secret of Samson's strength. Samson, not wanting to reveal the secret, teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength should he be bound with fresh bowstrings. She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings. She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She binds him with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too. She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together. She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes. Eventually Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair. Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson's seven locks. Since that breaks the Nazarite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines. They burn out his eyes by holding a hot poker near them. After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain.
One day the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, one of their most important gods, for having delivered Samson into their hands. They summon Samson so that he may entertain them. Three thousand more men and women gather on the roof to watch. Once inside the temple, Samson, his hair having grown long again, asks the servant who is leading him to the temple's central pillars if he may lean against them (referring to the pillars).
"Then Samson prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.' (Judges 16:28)." "Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' (Judges 16:30) Down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more as he died than while he lived." (Judges 16:30).
After his death, Samson's family recovers his body from the rubble and buries him near the tomb of his father Manoah.
The fate of Delilah is never mentioned.
In Popular Culture
Comics
In the Image Comics series Invincible an African-American character with great strength is named Black Samson.
Superman meets and arm wrestles Samson and Atlas in All Star Superman.
Online Comics
The Supehero Universe character Seven is said to have the strength of Samson along with strengths of other Biblical heroes like the wisdom of Solomon. First appearance of Seven was in Time-Rider 15.
Art
See Samson Art
Samson has been a popular subject for paintings:
- Alexander Anderson, Samson Fighting the Lion, ca. 1800 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Jean Audran, after F. Verdier, The Burial of Samson, ca. 1700 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), Samson and the Honeycomb, ca. 1657 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Niccolu Boldrini, after Titian, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1540-1545, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Boucicaut Master, Samson and the Lion, 1415, Getty Museum
- Hans Burgkmair the Elder, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1500 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Lovis Corinth, Samson Blinded, 1912
- Giuseppe Caletti (Il Cremonese), Samson and Delilah, ca. 1625 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Lucas Cranach the Elder, Samson and Delilah, 1529
o Samson's Fight with the Lion, 1520-25
- Salomon de Bray, Samson with the Jawbone, 1636 Getty Museum
- Gerard de Jode, Samson Tying the Firebrands to the Foxes' Tails, ca. 1550 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Etienne Delaune, Samson Setting Fire to the Wheat of the Philistines, ca. 1575 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- H.B. (John Doyle), Samson and Delilah, ca. 1800 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Gustave Doré, Death of Samson, 1865
o Samson and Delilah, 1865 o Samson Carrying Away the Gates of Gaza, 1865 o Samson Destroying the Philistines, 1865 o Samson Destroys the Temple, 1866 o Samson Fighting with the Lion, ca. 1496 o Samson Slaying a Lion, 1865
- Albrecht Dürer, Delilah Cuts Samson's Hair, 1493
- Josephus Farmer, Samson, 1982, Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Philip Galle, Samson Fighting the Lion, ca. 1600 Lutheran Brotherhood's Collection of Religious Art
- Luca Giordano, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1675 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Guercino, Samson Captured by the Philistines
- Reinhold Hoberg, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1900 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Lord Frederic Leighton, Illustrations for Dalziel's Bible Gallery, 1881, Tate Gallery:
o Samson and the Lion o Samson Carrying the Gates o Samson at the Mill
- Andrea Mantegna, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1500
- Jacob Matham after Peter Paul Rubens, Samson and Delilah, 1613
- Matthaeus Merian the Elder, 1625-30, Samson and Delilah
o Samson and the Gates o Samson's Strange Weapon o Samson Slays a Lion
- Michelangelo, Samson and Two Philistines, ca. 1530-50
- Aureliano Milani, Samson Slaying the Philistines, 1720 National Gallery, Canada
- Erasmus Quellinus, Samson Killing the Lion, ca. 1650 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Archie Rand, Samson, contemporary Bernice Steinbaum Gallery
- Guido Reni, The Triumph of Samson, 1611-12
- Rembrandt van Rijn, The Blinding of Samson, 1636
o Delilah Calls the Philistines, ca. 1655 o The Sacrifice of Menoah, 1641 o Samson Accusing His Father-In-Law, 1635 o Samson Betrayed by Delilah, 1629-30 o Samson Putting Forth His Riddles at the Wedding Feast, 1638
- Kirk Richards, Delilah, 1997
- Paul Roorda, Samson, contemporary
- Peter Paul Rubens, The Death of Samson, ca. 1605 Getty Museum
o Samson is Seized, 1609-10
- Jacob Savery I, Samson Wrestling with the Lion, (after), ca. 1595 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Hans Leonhard Schaufelein, Samson Destroying the Temple, Fifteenth to Sixteenth centuries Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Solomon Joseph Solomon, Samson and Delilah, 1887 Walker Art Gallery
- Jan Steen, Samson and Delilah, 1667-70
- Matthias Stom, Samson and Delilah, 1630s
- James Tissot, 1896-1900. Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Samson Breaks His Cords
o Samson Kills a Young Lion o Samson Puts Down the Pillars o Samson Slays a Thousand Men
- Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1851-60' World Mission Collection, The Death of Samson
o Samson Kills the Lion o Samson Kills the Philistines o Samson is Seized
- Christiaen vanCouwenbergh, The Capture of Samson, 1630
- Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Samson and Delilah, 1620
- Gerrit van Honthorst, Samson and Delilah, ca. 1615
- Israhel van Meckenem the Younger, Samson and the Lion, ca. 1475 National Gallery of Art
- Frans van den Wyngaerde, Samson Killing the Lion, ca. 1650 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Claes Jansz Visscher the Elder, Delilah Cutting Samson's Hair, ca. 1610. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Les Drysdale, Samson, contemporary
Anonymous:
- Samson Destroying the Pillars of the Philistine Temple, ca. 1600 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Display Cabinet (with figure of Delilah cutting Samson's Hair), 1620s Getty Museum.
- The Women at the Tomb (with scene from Samson and the Lion), Unknown German, c. 1170s. Getty Museum
- Samson Destroys the Temple, Unknown German Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Film
The most detailed film version of the Biblical Samson was the 1949 Cecil B. deMille film Samson and Delilah (1949 film), starring Victor Mature as Samson. Two made for TV films, one in 1984 and later in 1996, retold the story of Samson and Delilah.
The Samson character was later featured in a series of 5 sword-and-sandal adventure films made in Italy in the 1960s, as follows:
- Samson (1961 Italian film) portrayed by Brad Harris
- Samson vs. The Pirates (1963) a/k/a Samson and the Sea Beast
- Samson Challenges Hercules (1963) a/k/a Hercules, Samson and Ulysses
- Samson vs. the Black Pirate (1963) a/k/a Hercules and the Black Pirate
- Samson and the Mighty Challenge (1965) a semi comedy/satire co-starring Hercules, Ursus & Maciste