The Galilean Samson

[volgadon]

I'm pretty excited over this news.

There have been recent excavations at two sites near my home in Israel, Huqoq and Wadi Hamam, to be precise. I had lived in that area for about half my life, so it is special to me.

Here is the Church News' article on Huqoq. http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/62613/Ancient-mosaic-uncovered.html

During the next few weeks of the excavation, archeologists continued to uncover what they could of the floor, finding more than just images, but depictions from the scriptures.

"The last thing found in the area was a depiction of a very large human being, with foxes being tied to torches by their tails," Brother Grey said. "We realized that it was depicting Samson."

As they realized what they were uncovering, one of the team members immediately opened a set of scriptures and began reading Judges 15 — first in Hebrew and then in English — where it describes the story of Samson tying foxes to torches, setting their tails on fire and releasing them into nearby fields as an act of retribution against the Philistines.

The mosaic dates back to the late Roman period — around the 4th or 5th century A.D., and is believed to have been hidden for more than 1,500 years.

Were this all, it would be a sufficiently significant find in and of itself, but there is more.

The excavations at the ancient synagogue in Wadi Hamam have uncovered a portion of a mosaic depicting a man of heroic proportions slaughtering his (puny) enemies.

The expedition's archaeologist, Uzi Liebner has identified this as Samson slaying the Philistines with the jawbone of an *ss.

Elchanan Reiner and David Amit wrote a piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz proposing that this similar subject matter from two synagogues from the same time and place practically represents a distinctly Galilean reading of the Bible.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-holidays/sukkot/samson-follows-the-sun-to-galilee.premium-1.468506

The story of Samson, they suggest, would have been seen by this communities as taking place right there, in the Arbel Valley. The Bible was more than localised, the Bible was the lens through which they viewed their existence, part of the sacralisation of landscape. Miriam's well, for instance, was located in the Sea of Galilee, almost at a straight line east from Wadi Hamam. Joshua's burial place was also located at Arbel.

Joshua, as the Bible goes, was buried at Timnath-Heres, which became identified with the same TImnath where Samson performed several of his exploits. To understand the implications, I'll quote at length from the article.

The character of Joshua is connected to the sun not in his burial but rather in his life, in his cry "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon" ‏(Joshua 10:12‏) and the results of stopping the sun in its course: " ... the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord harkened unto the voice of a man" ‏(Joshua 10:13-14‏). This event granted Joshua a divine dimension, the only man whose bidding God did.

Hence Joshua was interpreted as someone who controlled the sun, and centuries later his power had not diminished. "After all, at his hand the sun stood still," writes Ben Sira − and it is not hard to see a certain resemblance between those words, penned at the end of the third century B.C.E, and the figure depicted by the artist at Hamat Tiberias at the turn of the third century C.E. And indeed in the Galilean images of Joshua, in those aspects concerning the sun, there is something of the character of that same sun god. Of Timnath-heres, in the Arbel Valley, apparently Timnath-sun, a late Midrash says the following: "It is called Timnath-heres because they put a picture of the sun on his grave, to say: ‘The one who made the sun stand still.’" Thus the meaning of Timnath-heres is tmunat-heres − a picture [tmuna] of the sun, the place where literally a picture of the sun was positioned.

Most probably out of the expectation that this local tradition would be questioned, other homilies already make a conscious connection between Samson’s Timnath and Joshua’s Timnath-heres and conflate them, and thereby also conflate Joshua and Samson themselves. Thus these two suns are found to be intertwined, Joshua who controls the sun and Samson in whose name the sun shines ‏(Samson in Hebrew is Shimshon, derived from shemesh, sun‏).

The two mosaic images of Samson bookend the Arbel Valley. If indeed the mythical figure of him is connected to Galilean culture, then it, like the figure of Joshua, is connected mainly to the area of the Arbel Valley, at Timnath-heres, the site of Joshua’s burial "with a picture of the sun on his grave." Thus Joshua and Samson embody different mythical aspects of the image of the sun. To a certain extent, both of them are different degrees of anthropomorphization of the sun and manifest a central motif in the religious world of Galilean Jews, which has not yet been accorded the attention it merits.

I'm thinking that this tradition could also be one of the roots of the Jewish idea that the Messiah, Menahem ben Amiel, would appear in the Arbel Valley.

Food for thought.

[treeface]

That dude looks to be exceedingly large in stature. Are you sure it's not Nephi?

[volgadon]

That dude looks to be exceedingly large in stature. Are you sure it's not Nephi?

If the head is tiny, we know it was Freiberg's ancestor doing the work.

[treeface]

If the head is tiny, we know it was Freiberg's ancestor doing the work.

Ha! Either that, or Nephi was a descendant of Samson!

Are there traditions about Samson that don't appear in the Bible? Like, is there a tradition that he was a giant?

[volgadon]

Ha! Either that, or Nephi was a descendant of Samson!

Are there traditions about Samson that don't appear in the Bible? Like, is there a tradition that he was a giant?

The word choice of heroic was deliberate on my part.

Anyway, yes, there are Jewish traditions of Samson being a giant, which isn't a totaly illogical reading.

[volgadon]

The Babylonian Talmud, t. Sotah 10a.

"It has been taught: R. Simeon the Pious said: The width between Samson's shoulders was sixty cubits, as it is said: And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders; and there is a tradition that the gates of Gaza were not less than sixty cubits [in width]."

[Calm]

About 30 yards or 27.6 meters

Delilah must have had a good deal of trouble getting all that hair cut all while he was asleep.

[bcuzbcuz]

The Babylonian Talmud, t. Sotah 10a.

"It has been taught: R. Simeon the Pious said: The width between Samson's shoulders was sixty cubits, as it is said: And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders; and there is a tradition that the gates of Gaza were not less than sixty cubits [in width]."

I think someone was spreading it on a little too thick. Noah's ark was only 50 cubits wide. (Unless they had different cubits for different things)

[mfbukowski]

I'm thinking that this tradition could also be one of the roots of the Jewish idea that the Messiah, Menahem ben Amiel, would appear in the Arbel Valley.

Food for thought.

I have long been fascinated by the pronounced English ambiguity between "son" and "sun" which apparently has very old roots in the Germanic languages and beyond.

son (n.) Look up son at Dictionary.com

O.E. sunu "son," from P.Gmc. *sunuz (cf. O.S., O.Fris. sunu, O.N. sonr, Danish søn, Swedish son, M.Du. sone, Du. zoon, O.H.G. sunu, German Sohn, Goth. sunus "son"), from PIE *sunu-/*sunyu- (cf. Skt. sunus, Gk. huios, Avestan hunush, Armenian ustr, Lith. sunus, O.C.S. synu, Russian and Polish syn "son"), from root *su- "to give birth" (cf. Skt. sauti "gives birth," O.Ir. suth "birth, offspring"). Sonny as a familiar form of address to one younger or inferior is from 1870. Son of _____ as the title of a sequel to a book or movie is recorded from 1929.

sun (n.) Look up sun at Dictionary.com

O.E. sunne, from P.Gmc. *sunnon (cf. O.N., O.S., O.H.G. sunna, M.Du. sonne, Du. zon, Ger. Sonne, Goth. sunno), from PIE *s(u)wen- (cf. Avestan xueng "sun," O.Ir. fur-sunnud "lighting up"), alternative form of root *saewel- "to shine, sun" (see Sol). O.E. sunne was fem., and the fem. pronoun was used until 16c.; since then masc. has prevailed. The empire on which the sun never sets (1630) originally was the Spanish, later the British. To have one's place in the sun (1680s) is from Pascal's "Pensées"; the German imperial foreign policy sense (1897) is from a speech by von Bülow.

http://www.etymonlin...ex.php?term=son

The ambiguity is such that in the present day endowment, when the term "Son" is used, it is necessary to add a clarification that the term is being used to refer to the "Son of God" as opposed to the "sun".

But for LDS the distinction is definitely ambiguous with our understanding of the Light of Chirst, being the light of the Son, as well as being analogized as the light of the sun.

And then of course we have Malachi 4:

4 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

² But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

And then there are parallels as well between the god of the sun Ahura Mazda, the "Father" who is usually pictured as a circle with wings in Persepolis and other locations in Zoroastrian contexts, and the obvious links to the notion of the winged serpent which heals, and Moses brazen serpent, a clear representation of savior.

It is impossible to imagine that all these symbolic references do not point to the same underlying common ancestral belief identifying the creator God with the sun and re-birth. There are just too many parallels.

I find it fascinating that here on the Pope's glove is a "sunburst" pattern arguably in the same location as one having significance in the LDS temple when one factors in the ambiguity between "son" and "sun".

There are many many links available to exploring these parallels in iconography which include many world religions.

Edited December 10, 2012 by mfbukowski

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

Ha! Either that, or Nephi was a descendant of Samson!

Are there traditions about Samson that don't appear in the Bible? Like, is there a tradition that he was a giant?

No, but both related to Adam. Edited December 11, 2012 by Bill “Papa” Lee

[volgadon]

I think someone was spreading it on a little too thick. Noah's ark was only 50 cubits wide. (Unless they had different cubits for different things)

There are two assumptions at play in that statement. The first is that heroes were of gigantic stature. This was part of the shared cultural idiom of the Hellenistic world (not that ancient Mesopotamia was much of an exception, either). If the heroes of nations were gigantic, Samson- the Jewish hero par excellence- could scarce have been lesser. In Philostratus' fiction there is a description of a 30 cubit tall hero. Protesilaos, the subject of the work, was only ten cubits tall, true, but had he not died young he would have grown larger.

http://chs.harvard.edu/wa/pageR?tn=ArticleWrapper&bdc=12&mn=3565

In page 292 of Adrienne Mayor's "The First Fossil Hunters," it is mentioned that Heracles' footprints preserved by the Dniester were said to have been one meter long.

Page 277 quotes from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy 3.724-25. The hero Achilles' "bones were like an ancient Giant's."

The second assumption, regarding the exact span between Samson's shoulder blades, is based on the tradition that the gates of Gaza were of a certain size, so Samson had to match it.

[mfbukowski]

There are two assumptions at play in that statement. The first is that heroes were of gigantic stature. This was part of the shared cultural idiom of the Hellenistic world (not that ancient Mesopotamia was much of an exception, either). If the heroes of nations were gigantic, Samson- the Jewish hero par excellence- could scarce have been lesser. In Philostratus' fiction there is a description of a 30 cubit tall hero. Protesilaos, the subject of the work, was only ten cubits tall, true, but had he not died young he would have grown larger.

http://chs.harvard.e...&bdc=12&mn=3565

In page 292 of Adrienne Mayor's "The First Fossil Hunters," it is mentioned that Heracles' footprints preserved by the Dniester were said to have been one meter long.

Page 277 quotes from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy 3.724-25. The hero Achilles' "bones were like an ancient Giant's."

The second assumption, regarding the exact span between Samson's shoulder blades, is based on the tradition that the gates of Gaza were of a certain size, so Samson had to match it.

But as we know, it was also common in the iconography of those times to make more important figures appear larger in stature, mostly because the illiterate masses were told stories in pictures and symbols.

The objective was not so much to represent the scene photographically as to tell a story where it was clear who was important to the story and who was not. The below depicts Constantine tussling over the crown with Sylvester I where both figures dwarf the buildings and giant governmental officials look on.

These were the newspapers of their day, and just as we make "headlines" in bold type to show they are important and catch the eye, these visual picture stories did the same thing in a similar way without words. People look at these and conclude that "they didn't know how to draw". That totally misses the point!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Constantine

Edited December 11, 2012 by mfbukowski

[volgadon]

But as we know, it was also common in the iconography of those times to make more important figures appear larger in stature, mostly because the illiterate masses were told stories in pictures and symbols.

The objective was not so much to represent the scene photographically as to tell a story where it was clear who was important to the story and who was not. The below depicts Constantine tussling over the crown with Sylvester I where both figures dwarf the buildings and giant governmental officials look on.

These were the newspapers of their day, and just as we make "headlines" in bold type to show they are important and catch the eye, these visual picture stories did the same thing in a similar way without words. People look at these and conclude that "they didn't know how to draw". That totally misses the point!

http://en.wikipedia...._of_Constantine

Good points, but I would quibble slightly with the bit about illiterate masses. I know that is popular wisdom, but these mosaics and frescoes were meant for all members of the community, carrying different levels of meaning and association for different people. The better versed you were in scripture and tradition, the more you got out of the whole experience of art and liturgy. Same principle behind our temple worship. Of course, why am I lecturing you, you know this probably better than I do.

There is a good quote from p. 13 of Swartz and Yahalom's "Avodah," explaining the attraction for ancient audiences of the dense, allusive, and often cryptic genre of poetry called piyut.

We should consider that while most Jews in Palestine in late antiquity were not rabbinic scholars, their level of basic education was not necessarily poor. Elementary education in this period, which was available to some, if not all, might include the extensive memorization of passages from the Bible and some extrabiblical traditions such as the Mishnah. Moreover, people from all walks of life would be familiar with stories about biblical figures and other heroes, told in everyday settings and in sermons delivered by popular preachers. Such stories and exegeses would also be embedded in the translations (Targum) that accompanied the weekly reading of the Torah, which were in Aramaic, the daily language of Palestinian Jews and a close relative of Hebrew. Recently, Shelomit Elitzur, analyzing the compositions of the classical poet Yannai, has argued that these poems were structured in such a way as to telegraph the basic outline (or “plot”) by which the poem proceeds while at the same time providing details from the more obscure corners of biblical and rabbinic lore. Thus the educated listener could appreciate the poet’s clever allusions and plays on words, while the less-educated listener could follow the basics of the composition and marvel at the poet’s erudition and skill.

In the case of our Avodah piyyutim, ancient listeners were at an additional advantage. They had already read chapter 16 of Leviticus, which sets out the ritual procedure, and they would know that the poem would begin with the history of the world and Israel’s heroes and advance to the description of that ritual. In fact, the description of the ritual itself in most Avodah piyyutim is relatively straightforward in comparison with the poets’ treatment of other themes. Moreover, it is in the nature of piyyut to overwhelm the listener with images from Israel’s culture; just as the programmatic meaning of a frieze or mosaic need not have been clear to every participant in a Greek temple, Byzantine church, or ancient synagogue, so the subtleties of the payetan’s handiwork may not have prevented the ancient Jew from appreciating his craft.

There is an amazing description of a Byzantine church service by St. Paulinus of Nola describing the dazzling interplay of light, fine emroidery, and precious jewels. Add to that the message of the liturgy against the backdrop of the art, powerful stuff at any level. I remember how stunned I was as a little kid when we would frequently visit a Greek Orthodox church in Nazareth and watched the priest in his robe conduct the sacraments in the small, dimly light church with frescoes of the saints and biblical heroes, the candle light flickering in front of the icons and iconostasis, intoning the (Arabic) liturgy in a powerful voice. No matter what faith or lack of it, ne cannot help be moved.

As for people not being abe to draw, I was amazed at how many times I heard that sentiment from fellow students in an art history class!

[volgadon]

The new issue of BAR has the long-promised article and picture from Jodi Magness of Samson in the Huqoq synagogue:

A second section of the mosaic runs along the inside of the synagogue wall. It is made of larger tesserae and contains no figural decoration. Closest to the wall it consists of a white band with a black border. Next to the black border is a colorful, three-strand guilloche (braided ribbon) pattern. A few rows of much smaller tesserae on the other side of the guilloche pattern preserve the beginning of black and red frames.

The final section of the mosaic depicts the midsection of a large male figure whose head is not preserved. The surviving portion (from the abdomen to the thighs) is clothed in a tunic decorated with an orbiculum (roundel), cinched around the waist by a thick decorated red belt. The figure wears a red cloak. The orbiculum has a rare bronze tessera in the center of its geometric motif. The orbiculum signifies status but also, as Britt suggests, has an apotropaic function (to ward off evil).

Two pairs of foxes (only partially preserved) face outward, with each pair’s tails tied together around a lighted torch.

Although we don’t have much of the scene, this is clearly a depiction of an episode in Judges 15:4 involving Samson. Samson apparently was attracted to Philistine women. The woman involved in the Biblical episode referred to here was Samson’s wife, before he met Delilah. When Samson went to Timnah to take this wife, her father told Samson he had given her to another and offered Samson her younger sister instead. Enraged, Samson captured 300 foxes and tied a torch between the tails of each pair of foxes. Then he set them free in Philistine grain fields, destroying not only the grain but also vineyards and olive trees (Judges 15:1–5).

Some readers may be surprised to see depictions of men, women and animals decorating a Late Roman/Byzantine synagogue. Before the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., Jewish art was almost entirely aniconic, that is, without figures. When the ancient synagogues from a later period first came to light in the early 20th century, scholars were surprised. Nothing in rabbinic literature indicates the existence of figural decoration in these ancient synagogues. Today, however, we know of dozens of Late Roman and Byzantine period synagogues decorated with humans and animals. Several synagogues, including those at Hammath Tiberias, Beth Alpha and Sepphoris, have mosaic floors showing the Greco-Roman sun god Helios surrounded by the signs of the zodiac and personifications of the four seasons! It is now clear that rabbinic literature provides only a partial, biased picture of late antique Judaism.

Although figural decoration is not uncommon in ancient synagogues, only a few are decorated with Biblical scenes, and only one or two others contain scenes showing Samson. One of these is the synagogue floor mosaic at Wadi Hamam, an ancient Jewish village about 3 miles from Huqoq that was excavated by Uzi Leibner, where Samson is shown smiting the Philistines with the jawbone of an ***.^a5 Why did the Jewish community at Huqoq (and at Wadi Hamam) choose to decorate their synagogue with Samson’s exploits?

Rabbinic literature and texts of the early Church Fathers indicate that Samson enjoyed widespread popularity among Christians as well as Jews in Late Antiquity (fourth–sixth centuries).

Samson’s popularity among early Christians is due largely to the Letter to the Hebrews (11:32–40), which lists Samson among the prophets who accomplished mighty deeds through faith but were denied the fulfillment of God’s promises through Jesus. Early Christian writers elaborated on this theme, presenting Samson as a saint or even as a Christ-like figure, noting parallels between the two (e.g., both Samson’s and Jesus’ births were foretold by heavenly messengers).⁶ In a sermon on Samson, Augustine explicitly compared Samson with Jesus: “So Samson did some things in the role of the head, some in the role of the body, everything, however, in the role of Christ.”⁷

Ambrose of Milan, writing in the fourth century, interpreted the foxes in Judges 15:4 allegorically as wicked and deceitful people (including heretics), who might be free to bark but are shackled.

But what about the Jews?

Samson had a much more ambiguous status among the rabbis. They frowned on Samson’s sexual transgressions with non-Israelite women. For these sins, Samson was punished with death.⁸

When the Philistines captured Samson (after Delilah famously cut off his hair, the source of his strength), they gouged out his eyes (Judges 16:21). According to the Mishnah, Samson lost his sight because he had followed his eyes by marrying the Timnite woman, reflecting the rabbinic notion of divine justice meted out “measure for measure.”⁹

Samson’s reputation among the rabbis is not all bad, however. Some rabbinic sources emphasize his military prowess and exploits as a warrior. A few texts even refer to Samson as a messianic figure.¹⁰

Although it is impossible to ascertain the relevance of these rabbinic traditions to the Huqoq mosaic, the community must have chosen Samson because they viewed him in a positive light. The orbiculum on his tunic indicates that he is depicted as a military hero. When Samson is described as a messianic figure in rabbinic tradition, it is as a warrior-redeemer. In some of these rabbinic traditions, as in the mosaics at Huqoq and Wadi Hamam, Samson is depicted as a giant, although the Bible describes him only as being very strong.^b

Perhaps Samson’s popularity at these two sites has something to do with his origins. Samson was an Israelite judge from the tribe of Dan, which eventually settled in the north after being pushed out of Judah by the Philistines. Although Huqoq is located in the region of Asher and Naphtali, south of the territory of Dan, later Jewish tradition associated Asher and Naphtali with Dan because the three tribes had camped together in the wilderness. In other words, the Jewish communities at Huqoq and Wadi Hamam might have considered Samson a local hero. We don’t have all the answers, but we are still digging.

When our excavations at Huqoq end, this intriguing mosaic will either be removed for permanent display in a museum or will be left in place and the site will become a national park.

5. See Uzi Leibner and Shulamit Miller, “A Figural Mosaic in the Synagogue at Khirbet Wadi Hamam,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 23 (2010), pp. 249–257.

6. See James L. Crenshaw, Samson, A Secret Betrayed, A Vow Ignored (Atlanta: John Knox, 1978), pp. 138–141; F. Michael Krouse, Milton’s Samson and the Christian Tradition (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1949), pp. 34–45.

7. Sermon 364:3; from Edmund Hill (translation and notes), The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century, Sermons III/10 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995), p. 277.

8. See Shimon Fogel, “Samson’s Shoulders Were Sixty Cubits”: Three Issues About Samson’s Image in the Eyes of the Rabbis (M.A. thesis, Ben-Gurion University: Department of Jewish Thought, January 2009), pp. 30–31 (in Hebrew).

9. m. Sotah 1:8; b. Sotah 9b.

<a id="110">10. For example, Bereshit Rabbah 98.10. See Fogel, “Samson’s Shoulders Were Sixty Cubits,” pp. 89–109, 123–126.

Reference for this article

Magness, Jodi. “Samson in the Synagogue.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Jan/Feb 2013, 32–39, 66–67. http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=1&ArticleID=2

Edited December 31, 2012 by volgadon

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

Interesting stuff! Always good to remember that our theories about the supposed aniconicity of the religion is challenged by stuff like the Dura Europos synagogue, etc.

Gotta say, tho, that it's always been disturbing to me that some folks have looked up to Samson as an honorable figure; I've always seen him as, uh, kind of a psychopath. But the mention of the zodiacal elements of course brings to mind all the stuff about Samson in Hamlet's Mill, which is as good an excuse as any to push that book on people.

[mfbukowski]

I once taught a lesson on Samson and began by saying that I hoped that my talk would not slay my audience with the jawbone of an a**, as Samson had.

It got a few laughs, but not many.

I couldn't tell if they didn't get the joke, or that despite my fondest hopes, the other alternative had already happened.

[mfbukowski]

The new issue of BAR has the long-promised article and picture from Jodi Magness of Samson in the Huqoq synagogue:

Great stuff- thanks for all that effort Mr. V!