The Bible in the News

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In a world filled with Simpsons—Jessica, Homer and O.J.—is there still a place for a Samson, especially the much-storied Biblical Samson? Have no fear! This Biblical strongman of Judges 13–16 has managed to muscle his way into popular culture and the popular press, even if he doesn’t (you’ll pardon the expression) bring the house down anymore.

Not surprisingly, it is his hair, or its loss, that attracts the most attention. But it is in the world of sports that shorn, or unshorn, locks are most frequently associated with Samson. Thus it was that a month before Super Bowl 2009 the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story headlined “Shaggy Fans Let It Grow,” about (male) football fans adopting a “no-shaving trend” in support of their beloved Eagles. The newspaper’s female fashion writer opines: “Who knows why men take leave of their grooming senses when they are up against a competitive wall? Perhaps the superstition harks back to the Biblical story of Samson, who loses all of his strength after his lover, Delilah, orders a slave to shave his head.”

It is not only fans of American footballers who are affected. We learn from The Mercury, for example, of Dale Thomas, a footballer for the Melbourne (Australia) football club, who went “from dreadlocks over summer to shoulder-length early in the season—and now, almost a corporate cut.” Although Thomas himself was nonplussed (“Hey, it’s only a haircut, not a cruciate ligament”), “fans will be dropping to their knees until Saturday’s elimination final, imploring no repeat of the Biblical version of Samson’s demise.” Be that as it may, Thomas was following his “Mum’s” desires. Would that Samson had been so respectful of parental wishes.

With such popular interest in Samson imagery, it is not surprising that there has been commercial interest in images of Samson. So, we read of an action figure “Spirit-Warrior Samson [who] looks ready to pull down the Philistine temple again.” As reported in Melbourne’s The Age, Samson will be joining many other Biblical characters in “a spiritual battle for the toybox [that] has broken out in the U.S., where a Christian toymaker is producing action figures alternative to sexualised dolls such as Barbie and violent cartoon heroes.” We may indeed wonder just how irenic any Samson figure can be, but (as reported in London’s Guardian) Samson can be associated with some of the sweetest items we know of: “Look closely at Tate & Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin and a quote from Samson appears underneath an image of a dead lion and a swarm of bees: ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’” (from Judges 14:14). As the author of this story continues, “It seems clear what the sweetness refers to. But any connection between Samsonian strength and consuming lots of the sticky yellow contents with your pancakes seems more linked to Victorian marketing hyperbole.”

It is not our custom to end a column with anything other than undiluted sweetness. And nothing says sweetness better than a love story. So we close with a story, reported in the Belfast-Telegraph, of a fabled running of the All-Ireland Donkey Derby. This particular race, dating to sometime in the 1950s, featured “Samson” as “a super donkey, fed Guinness and a cup of molasses daily along with the best of oats and trained to win the Derby as an odds-on-favourite.” But, we are told, this Samson “had one big weakness. He fell too readily in love with girl donkeys,” one of whom—Delilah by name—was in this very race. The result: “Instead of dashing past Delilah on the way to the winning post, Samson, braying donkey of devotion, insisted on following behind her all the way, never mind the coaxing of his young and frustrated jock to sweep past to victory.” Although Samson “the amorous ass” was only runner-up in the race, somehow I believe, or at least like to believe, that he savored a far sweeter victory on the grazing fields of Ireland.

In a world filled with Simpsons—Jessica, Homer and O.J.—is there still a place for a Samson, especially the much-storied Biblical Samson? Have no fear! This Biblical strongman of Judges 13–16 has managed to muscle his way into popular culture and the popular press, even if he doesn’t (you’ll pardon the expression) bring the house down anymore. Not surprisingly, it is his hair, or its loss, that attracts the most attention. But it is in the world of sports that shorn, or unshorn, locks are most frequently associated with Samson. Thus it was that a month before Super Bowl 2009 […]