Kenosis to Gnosis

The story of Samson in the book of Judges is a part of the Old Testament that gets a lot of attention and was even turned into a popular movie because of the interesting life and ability that Samson had. Samson was a Judge in Isreal before it became a kingdom. There were other Judges before Samson, but the thing that set Samson apart from the other Judges was the fact that he was born by a miracle, because his mother was barren, much like Rachel who gave birth to Isaac and Isaac received Abraham's inheritance. Samson seemed to be just as important because of this and his mother even had an angel informing her that she would give birth to Samson, Judges 13: 3. The story of Samson has some bizarre elements to it, which will be discussed here because they seem to have some hidden messages in them.

 

The first bizarre element in this story is in Judges 14: 5, where Samson is in the vineyards of Timnah and a young lion roared at him. The Bible saids that "The spirit of the LORD rushed on him and he tore the lion apart barehanded". This is the first time he displayed his super strength, but the strange thing in this part of Judges is when Samson returns to the carcass of the lion, "he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey." Samson then scapes the honey and eats it and when he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them as well, although he didn't tell them it came from the carcass of the lion he had killed. Anyone would know that bees don't go into the carcasses of dead animals nor do they produce honey inside of them. This part seems implausible, which suggests that the bees producing honey inside the carcass of the dead lion must be symbolic of something. This may represent the Lion of Judah, also known as Jesus Christ, where the dead lion represents his crucifixion and the honey represents something good comming out of it. Of course it can also represent Samson himself. He's like a lion who will be killed and something sweet will come out of it. The story of Samson gets stranger from there.

 

In Judges 16: 4, Samson falls in love with Delilah and the Philistines came to her and offered her 1100 pieces of silver in return for Deliliah finding out the secret of his strengh so they could overpower him and subdue him. The really bizarre thing is that Delilah makes it clear to Samson that she is trying to betray him on 3 occasions. If Samson didn't want to be caught by the Philistines then he would have gotten rid of her the first time she tried to betray him. But if he was wanting to be captured, on the other hand, then why did he trick Delilah 3 times first and not allow her to betray him the first time? The number 3 is an important number in numerology and it represents completion, it also represents the combination of the spiritual, represented by the number 1, with the physical, represented by the number 2. That may be why he tricked Delilah 3 times before allowing himself to be caught by the Philistines. Also the number 7 is used by Samson to trick Delilah, he told her to use seven fresh bowstrigs that are not dried out, the first time he tricked her and he told Delilah to weave the seven locks of his head the third time he tricked her. Having seven locks on his head seems strange in itself, but it is obviously referring to the seven days of creation in Genesis. Samson finally told Delilah that it was his long hair that made him strong and that cutting it would make him like anyone else. So Delilah had a man come and shave off the seven locks of his head and he lost his strengh and the LORD left him. But the question that needs to be asked is why did having long hair make Samson so strong and why would shaving the seven locks off make him weak and cause the LORD to leave him? When the seven locks of his hair were cut off Samson became a man. It's that simple, Samson became a man, a mortal man who didn't have any special abilities, and that maybe what is represented by his long hair being shaved off, because men didn't have long hair in Isreal. This maybe supported by the other parts of the story of Samson that will be explained later on. Another figure in the Bible who has long hair is Samuel and he had long hair and had a miracle birth as well, but the best known figure as portrayed in most pieces of art as having long hair is Jesus Christ and men didn't have long hair in his day either. Is there some kind of connection here? There may be a connection between the story of Samson and Adam and Eve as well. Eve gave Adam the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and that caused them to fall into a state of polarization. In a similar way Delilah caused Samson to lose his abilities and become a mortal man.

 

Samson's eyes were gouged out and he became blind, this may represent spiritual blindless and then he was bound. The job that Samson had in prison was to "ground at the mill in the prison." Judges 16: 21. The mill was a large round stone that is turned around to ground wheat. Normally that would be a job for an animal, but for a Human it would have been very hard. This is an important symbol for cycles or time that people in a polarized state are in. There is a passage in the Gnostic Gospel of Philip that is related,

(63: 10) An ass which turns a millstone did a hundred miles walking. When it was loosed it found that it was still at the same place. There are men who make many journeys, but make no progress towards any destination. When evening came upon them, the saw neither city nor village, neither human artifact nor natural phenomenon, power nor angel. In vain have the wretches labored.

 

There is a message here and it is this, captivity isn't about ropes and chains, it is about polarization, blindless and cycles or time. That's why Sampson could only be bound when he went into all three of these states. The fact that Samson's hair started to regrow after it had been shaved represents the fact that his abilities, which he had lost started coming back. It didn't occur to any of his prison captors to keep shaving his head, even though they were well aware that it was his long hair that gave him his special abilities. That is another indication that this story maybe about the spirit and what happens when someone enters the body.

 

How does Samson defeat the Philistines who are holding him captive? Everyone knows the answer but they don't see what it's really about. There are two pillars that hold the house up. He called to God and pushed the pillars with all his might and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. The two pillars that held the house up represent the two polar opposites, Ying and Yang, good and evil, left and right etc. These two pillars come down and then Samson dies, this may represent how when someone dies the polar opposites collaspe and they gain back everything that they lost when they entered the body.

 

It's interesting to note that the story of Samson starts at chapter 13 in the Book of Judges. The number 13 in numerology represents death and rebirth and this certaintly describes the life of Samson quite well, except being a mortal and becomming polarized, becoming blind and living in cycles or time is considered death and he lost his special ability when that happened. Samson gained his special ability back at the end of his life and he could destroy the place that was holding him captive by knocking down the two pillars, which represent polarization.