i know the story but my question is was samson a demi god? was he a decendant of the nephilim? WTF. if he was a prophet than he should be beyond reproach. but he acted young, dumb, and full of... somthing. i personally think that samson was the heeb answer to hurculies. any insight or observations waelcome.
superman samson
by dingo1 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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OldGenerationDude
One has to remember that the Bible is not a historical narrative. It is history from a Judeo-Christological take.
When dealing with the Jewish writings one has to also take into account the fact that certain Near Eastern models of expression which we now view as mythological were viewed as fact. For instance the creation-flood story found in the Jewish texts is not so much borrowed or stolen from pagan sources as it is merely using the popular view of the time as how things came about in telling its story.
The Biblical narrative is the same with Samson. There is much that seems to equal with the Near East Eniku tale which later inspired Hercules.
Recall again that the ancients took their lore as fact, almost in some sense as we see science. Just as most cultures linked a great flood with the time of creation in their history of the world, there also is a common legend of giants and a hero from among them (who was not as perfect as “good” people but not as morally “bad” as his own). This may be a way that history was bearing witness to something similar in reality.
This is not to say that there were literal giants, but that people often attributed strength in people to “evidence” that they were linked to this race of demi-gods (which seemed reasonable to many of the ancients). Samson is likely the Jewish tale of Judge Bedan, according to his identity in Jewish tradition. The Bible’s take is wrapped in the Near Eastern lore, differing from the actual historical tradition in rabbinic and Talmudic teaching.
The Biblical story is written by Jews, meant to be incorporated with their Talmudic understanding. Without it the story is hard to understand. Again, as I’ve used this illustration before, the Bible is just offering the equivalent of The Legend of Paul Revere, offering us the “poem” but not the literal history. Without the literal history (which is called “oral tradition”—different from the tradition criticized by Christ, but not understood as such by the Watchtower), the story is just a story. Together the two create an explanation regarding Judge Badan’s Talmudic reputation for being physically powerful but not morally perfect.
Unless we abandon the Watchtower method of reading Scripture as if it were transcribed history and choosing to remain ignorant of the religious traditions that shaped the stories, we won't get any smarter than the Witnesses themselves.
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WTWizard
Samson--stolen from Hercules. Can't they come up with anything that's their own? Everything in the LIE-ble is stolen from ancient legends, including Jesus himself, and corrupted to render it worthless to anyone wishing to use the myths to empower their own souls.
Yes, even the number 144,000. That number is how many nadis there are in the human soul. That is where the Christmas tree lights came from--the Christmas tree represents the human soul, and the lights the nadis (any wonder why I recommend high numbers of undersized lights for your tree?). They then corrupted that to represent only 144,000 being "anointed", and the Washtowel takes that number as literal. I would rather find the original legends these things were stolen from, and try and use the originals to guide me to my own soul, even if it means having to go out and buy 144,000 Christmas lights for my Christmas tree and spend a few months installing them.
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Black Sheep
You could spend some time studying the Dreamtime. Bible God is just a newbie compared to Aboriginal culture.
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transhuman68
Scanned this from "Mysteries of The Bible" :
The book of Judges says that Samson “judged Israel twenty years."
Israel's judges were not solely legal authorities as we know them today. They were primarily military leaders.
Samson, however, unlike the other principal judges, never led his people into battle, and he operated alone.
Moreover, the narrative never attributes to him a religious motive for any of his actions, nor even a patriotic or nationalistic motive.
Romantic love or lust, a delight in trickery, anger at injured pride, and revenge were the driving forces of Samson's life.
The fascination of these adventures of an earthy hero with superhuman strength among the judges of Israel has led to a wide range of interpretation of these stories.
Many have noted, for example, that the name Samson in Hebrew is Shimshon, closely related to the Hebrew word shemesh, meaning "sun." This, in turn, has led scholars to compare him to other supernaturally strong heroes of ancient myth and legend who were also associated with the sun, figures such as the Greek Hercules, the Phoenician Melkart, or the Babylonian Gilgamesh.
His seven locks have been compared to representations of the sun's rays, and it is perhaps significant that the name of his nemesis Delilah, may be a pun on the Hebrew word laylah, meaning "night."
As the stories of Samson were retold in Jewish legends, he became a folk hero with superhuman powers. Sometimes he was described as gigantic in size, more than 200 feet across the shoulders. The onset of his superpowers, which the Book of Judges describes with the words, "the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahanehdan, between Zorah and Eshtaol," was expanded. In these legends, Samson manifested the stirring of God's power by lifting two mountains and rubbing them against each other, and, in one stride, covering a distance equal to that between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. But it's not only Samson's strength that increases in later versions of the story. The particular "props" of his strength grow in dimension, too. The jawbone of an ass, with which he slew Philistines, became the jawbone of the very ass on which Abraham had ridden when he traveled to Moriah to sacrifice Isaac.
Though the tradition delighted in describing Samson's physical strength, it also emphasized that he was morally weak, yielding impulsively to attractive women. "He who went astray after his eyes, lost his eyes." The one virtue with which he could be credited was unselfishness toward his people; though he did them great service, he never asked them for the smallest thing. Thus in Jewish tradition, the stories of Samson combined the delights of a tall tale with a moral purpose that was brought into focus by the tragic end of the story.
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dingo1
transhuman mayby i didnt read ur entire post but samson was endowed with superhuman strength with the hippie hair, which is a shame to a man. i personaly belive it is all BS AND belive it might be atributed to prophets being mighty men of war. my only comp,laint is that gods hero indulgd in all of the unclean things and was still gods chosen. WHAT BS.
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transhuman68
From what I can find out it seems all Hebrew men had long hair and uncut beards way back then. They must all have looked a bit like Michael J Fox in 'Teen Wolf'. heh heh heh.
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kurtbethel
Samson -- fighting for truth, justice, and the Hebrew way!
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exwhyzee
Another story to teach children what happens to people who don't do what God and the people who say they are his chosen ones, want them to do.
The story of Jack and the beanstalk could have just as easily been a bible story had someone made it up soon enough to get in included.
Jack stood for God's children who sell the family cow (spiritual heritage) and succumb to selfish longings. The magic beans symbolized Man's foolish teachings that appear fertile and valuable. The Giant stood for Satan's organization. The beanstalk stood for worldly pursuits and ambitions that can, for a time, help one achieve lofty positions in this system of things. The goose that laid the golden egg is the riches that can be sought after and aquired at great danger to our spiritual lives etc etc...
