The stories of Samson are found in Judges 13-16. Chapter 13 begins with a formula that is found in most of the stories in Judges. The formula uses language from the Book of Deuteronomy, so it is speculated that the collection of stories were edited by a Deuteronomic redactor. The redactor sees history going in cycles--the Israelites do evil in the eyes of God (worship other gods), God gives them over to another people, the Israelites cry out to God, and God sends a judge to save them. In the case of Samson, the Israelites are subdued by the Philistines.
Samson is one of the most colorful characters in the Hebrew Bible. Even though he is sent by God to save Israel, his battles with the Philistines are all personal, and usually involve women. His name is derived from the Hebrew word for sun, שמש, sheh-mesh. Is he meant to be portrayed as the son of the sun god, like Apollo the son of Zeus, or Osiris the sun of Ra? It is clear to me that our author is playing with this idea, especially with his use of double entendres as we shall see. We are introduced to the mother of Samson, an unnamed barren woman who is married to a man named מנוח, ma-noh-ach. Informing us that she is barren brings to mind Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel, and leads us to suspect that he will be a virtuous character like his ancestors Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We get the opposite.
Samson's mother is visited by angel who informs her that her son will begin to save Israel from the Philistines, and he is to be a נזיר, na-zir, for life. A Nazir is described in Numbers 6 as a man or woman who takes on the vow and does not drink any intoxicating beverage, cut their hair, and have any contact with the dead. It is a voluntary vow that ends after a certain time period. No explanation is given why a person would do this. Part of the humor of the story is Samson's disregard for the vow.
Is Samson the son of the angel? The wording of the angel gives us that idea. The angel tells her in verse 3 that she is barren and that she will conceive and have a son. In verse 5, she now pregnant. The woman immediately tells her husband about the encounter. First, she calls him a man of God, not an angel. Whether or not he is an angel sets us up later for a comic encounter between Manoach and the angel. Her choice of words immediately makes Manoach suspicious. She tells him, אִ֤ישׁ הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ בָּ֣א אֵלַ֔י, "the man of God came to me". The phrase "to come to" also has sexual connotations, as it does today. We see this clearly in Genesis 16:2:
וַתֹּ֨אמֶר שָׂרַ֜י אֶל־אַבְרָ֗ם הִנֵּה־נָ֞א עֲצָרַ֤נִי יְהֹוָה֙ מִלֶּ֔דֶת בֹּא־נָא֙ אֶל־שִׁפְחָתִ֔י אוּלַ֥י אִבָּנֶ֖ה מִמֶּ֑נָּה וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע אַבְרָ֖ם לְק֥וֹל שָׂרָֽי׃
And Sarai said to Abram, “Here, the Lord has stopped me from giving birth. Please come to my maid; perhaps I will be build through her, and Avram listened to the voice of Sarai.
A am a big fan of the Marx Brothers. One of the things they do is set us up for a later joke. For instance, in my favorite movie, "Duck Soup", Groucho asks Mrs. Teasdale to pick a card. When she asks what she should do with it, he says keep it since he has 51 left. Later, when he is introduced to Ambassador Trentino, in a very subtle way he takes the deck out of his pocket, and when Trentino gives him a dirty look, he puts them back.
The woman does the same thing with the name of the angel. She tells her husband that even though she thought he was a man, he was awe-inspiring, looking like an angel. She did not ask for the name and the angel did not give it. This will set us up later, when Manoach will ask for the name. The woman clearly comes across as very intelligent. Not so her husband Manoach. One of the techniques in biblical humor is to make fun of the lack of intelligence of others. We see this at the end of the story with the Philistines. We will come back to this. We see it also in Manoach. He wants to be involved and keeps getting shut out. He asks God to send the man of God again to instruct him what to do. Instead, the angel comes to the woman again when she is alone in the field. Deuteronomy 25:22 tells us that if an engaged woman is raped in a town, she and the man are executed for adultery, since she did not cry out for help. If it is in the field, only the man is guilty, since there is no one there to help her. Her being alone in the field clearly sets up this sexual nuance.
The dialogue between Manoach and the angel in verses 11-18 are humorous because we know the reality but Manoach does not. He is never given a truthful answer to any of his questions. His first question is, "are you the man who spoke to the woman?" He understandably does not want to say "came to" the woman. The angel responds yes, even though he is not a man. His next question implies doubt, "now, when your words come about (in this case, words, not people come), what will be the rule for the child and his deeds?". The angel just repeats the instructions he gave to the woman.
Next, our storyteller wants to be clear the Manoach did not know he was an angel, another setup. He offers the angel a meal, but the angel refuses to eat it and suggests that he offer it up as a sacrifice. Manoach then asks for the name. The angel responds, "Why is this one asking for my name, it is פלאי, feh-liy. The word פלא describes something that is beyond our comprehension, so is the angel saying that his name is "Incomprehensible" or "incomprehensible", another word play that our author seems to enjoy.
Manoach follows the instructions of the angel and offers a lamb as a sacrifice. We see the lack of intelligence of Manoach. The angel disappears in the flames of the sacrifice. It is only when the angel does not reappear that Manoach realizes he is an angel and is afraid that he is going to die. His wife reprimands him by saying that the angel would not have appeared and given her the instructions if he meant to kill them. The chapter ends with the birth of Samson and the spirit of God animating him.
To me, this chapter is a prime example of the techniques utilized by biblical writers to express humor. We will see this again in the rest of the story of Samson.
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