Allusions in

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic w ...

to the Biblical character Samson, the ancient

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stel ...

hero who fought the

Philistines The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek ( LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, whe ...

with supernatural strength, contain various expansions, elaborations and inferences beyond what is presented in the text of the Bible itself.

Bedan

Samson is identified with

Bedan Bedan ( he, בְּדָן ''Bəḏān'') is named as one of the deliverer of Israelites in 1 Samuel 12:11. He is not mentioned elsewhere as a judge of Israel. Bishop Simon Patrick and others (including the Talmud) posit the name to be a contrac ...

(I Samuel 12:11); he was called "Bedan" because he was descended from the tribe of Dan, "Bedan" being explained as "Ben Dan".

Ancestry

On the maternal side, however, he was a descendant of the

tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was the first tribe to take its place in the Land of Israel, occupying the southern ...

; for his mother, whose name was

Zelelponith Hazzelelponi ( he, הַצְּלֶלְפּוֹנִי ''Haṣṣəlelpōnī'', "the shade-facing") is a biblical woman mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:3. Tzelafon was named after her. Hazzelelponi was a daughter of a man named Etam and thus a descenda ...

Bava Batra 91a or

Hazzelelponi Hazzelelponi ( he, הַצְּלֶלְפּוֹנִי ''Haṣṣəlelpōnī'', "the shade-facing") is a biblical woman mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:3. Tzelafon was named after her. Hazzelelponi was a daughter of a man named Etam and thus a descendan ...

th, was a member of that clan (compare I Chronicles 4:3).

His name

The name "Samson" is derived from ''shemesh'' ("sun"), so that Samson bore the

name of God There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word ''god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or spec ...

, who is also "a sun and shield" (); and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived, and he further resembled God in requiring neither aid nor help.

Jacob's blessing of Dan

In the blessings which

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. ...

pronounced on the tribe of Dan (Genesis 49:16-17), he had in mind Samson, whom he regarded even as the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

. Jacob compared him to a snake because, like the snake, Samson's power lay entirely in his head—that is, in his hair—while he was also revengeful like the snake; and as the snake kills by its venom even after it is dead, so Samson, in the hour of his death, slew more men than during all his life; and he also lived solitarily like the snake.

His strength

Samson's shoulders were sixty ells broad. He was lame in both feet, but when the spirit of God came upon him he could step with one stride from Zoreah to Eshtaol, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance. He was so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth, yet his superhuman strength, like

Goliath Goliath ( ) ''Goləyāṯ''; ar, جُليات ''Ǧulyāt'' (Christian term) or (Quranic term). is a character in the Book of Samuel, described as a Philistine giant defeated by the young David in single combat. The story signified King Sau ...

's, brought woe upon its possessor. In licentiousness he is compared with Amnon and Zimri, both of whom were punished for their sins. Samson's eyes were put out because he had "followed them" too often.Sotah l.c. When Samson was thirsty (compare Judges 15:18-19) God caused a well of water to spring from his teeth. In the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel, he never required the least service from an

, and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain. As soon, therefore, as he told Delilah that he was a Nazarite of God she immediately knew that he had spoken the truth. When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the

, the structure fell backward, so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father.Genesis Rabbah l.c. § 19 In the Talmudic period many seem to have denied that Samson was a historic figure, regarding him as a purely mythological personage. This is apparently the heretical theory which the Talmud attempts to refute, by giving the names of his sister (named Nishyan or Nashyan) and mother.

References

{{Samson Biblical figures in rabbinic literature Samson