It is tough to answer about "in Judaism" because different branches of Judaism take the biblical texts in different ways. I take it literally to start, and then see the other levels to it as well. I think that this reflects my own take on the bible, and is shared by others in my community. But not everyone, or even everyone who subscribes to others of the tenets of my belief. Go figure.

He's at least as 'real' as Robin Hood - who was probably real.

Did he do and say everything that is written? Maybe or maybe not. Did a 'Shimshon' who judged Israel exist? Probably - he's certainly a valid 'type' person doing reasonable things in a particular (known) period.

We don't read Torah or Tanakh (Judges is not Torah, but is Nakh) and ask 'is this factually correct' so much as we read and ask 'what lesson do I/can I/should I learn from this'. It's a different mindset. The story could be true in every detail, or partly true or not at all true - and it doesn't change it's 'importance' one iota.

Sep 27, 2009 -- 1:31PM, Pam34 wrote:

There are some who believe the Torah (the first five books) are 'literally true' - except that 'literally true' to Jews isn't exactly the same thing as 'literally true' to Christians! Even the 'literally true' believers accept that allegory and metaphor are part and parcel of Torah.

 

As for Nakh (the prophets and historical books), these don't have quite the 'aura' of divine authority as the Torah does. They are not considered to be 'divinely dictated' even by the people who think Torah WAS divinely dictated. They are certainly considered 'true' by the same people who believe in literal divine word in Torah.

 

But as I mentioned above, it doesn't quite 'matter' in the same way to Jews/Judaism: the authority of the text is not really solely dependant on it all being 'literally true'.

That's what I was getting at.  

To me, it looks like the Samson story might've been told for humor, and it's exactly the kind of story that a very warlike people--which the early Jews certainly were--would find hilarious.  Samson is, literally, a dumb jock.  That's obvious in how Delilah tricks him: she keeps asking him the secret of his strength, and each time he tells her a lie, she does exactly what he's told her it would take to take away his strength.  So when she finally gets him to tell her it's the hair, what does he do?  Falls asleep in her lap.

One would think he'd have learned by then that whatever he told her would take away his strength, she'd do.  But he doesn't seem to get the picture.  So he must not be very bright.

And yet he kills many Philistines in the end.

I can imagine the people laughing their heads off over that one.  Ha ha, even our dumb jock can beat the best of theirs!

It seems rather like the history of the song Yankee Doodle--which the British made up during the American Revolution to mock the colonists, and the victorious Americans turned the tables by adopting the song with pride.

Sep 27, 2009 -- 7:19PM, Pam34 wrote:

'every man did what he thought right,  there was no king' - a prescription for anarchy, no less.

Considering that it was written after the rise of the monarchy, I think that was meant as propaganda in favor of the monarchy.

I don't know why one would doubt the historicity of Samson. The details fit in with what we know of the period. While the Bible was not written as a history book, the book of Judges portrays real events and real individuals - from a spiritual and religious perspective. The author may have stressed certain incidents and ommitted others to prove a point - but that doesn't mean that he invented the story out of whole cloth.

I always saw Samson as a tragic figure - a person of great strength and potential who was ruled by his drives and passions. His death was especially tragic - although he regained his lost strength to pull down the House of Dagon on the Philistines.

All of the Book of Judges shows the difficulties inherent to a lack of central leadership. Later books (Samuel, Kings) show that the monarchy is not an ideal system either. Tradition assigns the authorship of all of these books to the Prophet Samuel. Perhaps the point is that the system of gov't is less crucial than the moral and spiritual fiber of the leaders and the people.