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Bible Dictionaries
Samson
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Σαμψών)
Samson was the popular hero of the tribe of Dan who began to deliver Israel from the Philistines, the Nazirite whose secret of strength lay in his hair, the blinded giant who prayed for power to avenge himself and his country in the hour of his death (Judges 13-16). He finds a place in the great Roll of Faith contained in Hebrews 11. Much has been written in recent years regarding the legendary elements of the story of Samson and the possibility of its being a solar myth, but such ideas were naturally far from the mind of the anonymous writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Literature.-For solar myth theory see Commentaries on Judges by G. F. Moore (International Critical Commentary , 1895) and K. Budde (Das Buch der Richter, 1897); J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough2, 1900, iii. 390 ff.; A. Jeremias, The OT in the Light of the Ancient East, Eng. translation , 2 vols., 1911, ii. 169ff.
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Samson'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/samson.html. 1906-1918.
