Samsonâs Moment of Truth
In: Biblical InterpretationSearch for other papers by Bruce Herzberg in
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Samson gives away the secret of his strength, the story says, because Delilah nags him. Since only an incredibly stupid person could have failed to recognize her plan to betray him, Samson has been tagged as a musclebound lamebrain ever since. But nothing else in the story suggests that he is stupidâquite the opposite, in fact. The problem, then, is not Samsonâs intelligence but the narratorâs weak explanation for Samsonâs moment of truth. Elevating Samsonâs complex characterizationâand bracketing the ânaggingââreveals a Samson who has powerful reasons for allowing Delilah to cut his hair. Moreover, two retellings of the Samson tale, Miltonâs Samson Agonistes and DeMilleâs film Samson and Delilah, diminish or eliminate the ânaggingâexplanation and find far more satisfying alternative explanations for Samsonâs actions. The biblical narrator, we may conclude, has misread the story or attempted to engineer an unsatisfactory interpretation and is thus âunreliableâ, though in a way rather different from the modern critical understanding of the unreliable narrator.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 383 | 117 | 10 |
| Full Text Views | 35 | 2 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 98 | 10 | 8 |
Samsonâs Moment of Truth
In: Biblical InterpretationSearch for other papers by Bruce Herzberg in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Samson gives away the secret of his strength, the story says, because Delilah nags him. Since only an incredibly stupid person could have failed to recognize her plan to betray him, Samson has been tagged as a musclebound lamebrain ever since. But nothing else in the story suggests that he is stupidâquite the opposite, in fact. The problem, then, is not Samsonâs intelligence but the narratorâs weak explanation for Samsonâs moment of truth. Elevating Samsonâs complex characterizationâand bracketing the ânaggingââreveals a Samson who has powerful reasons for allowing Delilah to cut his hair. Moreover, two retellings of the Samson tale, Miltonâs Samson Agonistes and DeMilleâs film Samson and Delilah, diminish or eliminate the ânaggingâexplanation and find far more satisfying alternative explanations for Samsonâs actions. The biblical narrator, we may conclude, has misread the story or attempted to engineer an unsatisfactory interpretation and is thus âunreliableâ, though in a way rather different from the modern critical understanding of the unreliable narrator.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 383 | 117 | 10 |
| Full Text Views | 35 | 2 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 98 | 10 | 8 |
