Jesus Is Borg The Truth Shall Set You Free.

The story of Samson is another favorite children's Bible story with many facts conveniently left out of the children's version. To understand the background of Samson and why he didn't cut his hair, we must first discuss the Hebrew law of the Nazarite. According to God's law, a person could take a vow of seperation and they would be called a "Nazarite." This vow was taken so that a person would be holy or untouched by the law. A person who took this vow had to abstain from wine or anything made with grapes, he never cut his hair, and he never came in contact with anything that was dead. If the person kept this vow, they were considered holy or righteous no matter what else they did. So if a person took this vow, they could have sex with prostitutes and still be considered holy. But if they didn't keep the vow, i.e. they drank wine, cut their hair, or killed something, they were no longer considered holy and they became accountable for whatever they had done before because they defiled their seperation (Number 6:1-12).

Before Samson was born, an angel appeared to his mother (she was barren and couldn't have children at that time) and told her that she was going to have a son but he would be a Nazarite from birth. So she had to abstain from drinking wine while she was pregnant and she was to never cut his hair. How a child can take such a vow before it is old enough to understand the covenant is not addressed by the angel. So Samson is born and he is blessed with mighty strength because he is a Nazarite unto God. Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman (not of God's chosen race) and he wants to marry her so he tells his father to "get her for me because she pleases me." (Judges 14:3) While he and his parents are traveling to visit his future wife, he encounters a lion and kills it with his bare hands. Samson is afraid that if his parents learn about the lion, they will think that it is a sign from God telling them that he shouldn't be marrying this woman who is not of his race, so he hides the lion's body from them. According to the law of the Nazarite, Samson should have lost his strength the first time he touched something that was dead or the first time he killed something but for some reason, God lets Samson remain a Nazarite, keeping his superhuman strength even after he breaks the rules.

Samson's father makes a feast for the bride-to-be and her family and thirty men show up at the party. Samson decides he will make a little profit from this party and he makes a bet with the men at the party. He tells them that if they can guess the answer to a riddle, he will give them 30 sheets and 30 changes of clothes, but if they can't guess the answer in a week they would pay him 30 sheets and 30 changes of clothes. These men cannot guess the answer to the riddle so they threaten Samson's fiance, telling her that if she doesn't tell them the answer to the riddle, they will burn her and her father's house with fire (Judges 14:15). She is able to get Samson to tell her the answer and she tells the answer to the men. When the day arrives to answer the riddle, the men have the right answer and Samson storms off to another city, "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him..." and he murdered thirty men and took their property to pay off his gambling debt. (Judges 14:19) Interestingly each time Samson murders someone it is after "the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him." Again Samson has violated the vow of the Nazarite but he is still considered "holy" and keeps his strength. After he payed off the debt, he returned to his own city and the father of the woman he was going to marry thought he had abandoned her so he gave her to another man to marry (Judges 15:2).

After Samson's anger cools a little, he returns to take his bride, only to find that she has been given to another man. In his anger, Samson captured 300 foxes (yeah, right) and tied burning sticks to their tails and set them loose in the cornfields and vineyards of the Philistines, destroying their food supply. The Philistines found out that Samson had destroyed their crops so they in turn burned the woman he wanted to marry and her father to death with fire (Judges 15:6). This enraged Samson and he went out and killed the men who burnt his ex-fiance and her father. Now the Philistines are even angrier so they send out an army to take Samson and bring him to justice. His own people tie him up and deliver him to the Philistine army, but once again, "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him..." and he killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:14-15). Once more he violates the law of the Nazarite with no consequences. After this incident, the Bible says that Samson served as a judge in Israel for twenty years. We can only imagine the sort of justice which he dished out during that period.

Later Samson goes to a city called Gaza and he has sex with a prostitute (Judges 16:1). When the Philistines learn that he is in the whorehouse they try to lay a trap to kill him in the morning but Samson surprises them by getting up at midnight and tearing the gates of the city off their hinges and escaping into the night. We must remind you that it's okay for Samson to have sex with prostitutes because he is a Nazarite. I know quite a few men who wish they could take the vow of the Nazarite today.

Then came Delilah, another prostitute that Samson fell in love with. After numerous attempts she is able to learn the secret of his strength and she cuts his hair and he loses his strength. Why it was okay for Samson to violate the other statutes of the vow but not the one regarding the cutting of hair is another of those mysteries of God. Supposedly, Samson regains his Godly strength once his hair grows back (Judges 17:22). His hair acting like some sort of magic steroids, he becomes strong enough to pull down the pillars of the stadium and kills around 3,000 people. Completing the legend of Samson with a final violation of the vow of the Nazarite, we are left to wonder what is the point of making laws if selected individuals can violate them with impunity?