Samson

by Ellen Gunderson Traylor

His strength was his weakness; in his blindness he saw God! One of the most fascinating and complex of Bible characters, Samson was a man of striking contradictions. Chosen by God, yet captive to his passions, he knows his great purpose, yet wallows in meaninglessness. Betrayed by his best friend, seduced by Delilah - he is nonetheless a chosen judge whose valiant sacrifice will save his people.

Genres: Biblical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Christian, Fiction

351 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ellen Gunderson Traylor, "America's Foremost Biblical Novelist," is a gifted storyteller who brings characters of the Bible to life. Her many bestselling novels have sold about a million copies in English, with numerous foreign translations.

In addition to writing bestselling novels, Traylor has been a magazine/newspaper columnist and correspondent. An award-winning feature writer, Traylor has written screenplays and political speeches, and was a contributing writer and researcher for the Tyndale Family Bible Encyclopedia project.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting take on Samson. It moved at a reasonable pace; it held my interest from start-to-finish. The character development is decent; the author creates a couple of "side characters" to flesh out Samson's story a bit more by giving him more people with whom to interact. She also gives individuals mentioned in the Book of Judges actual names in this book; I assume to make them more relatable to the reader? That way, they are not just nameless shades mentioned in passing.

It was also interesting to read it after reading the novelization of the Samson movie. The novelization is a bit "cleaner" than this story, hahahah! Not that this one is lurid in its details, but I don't remember the women being described in quite the same way as they are in this book. The women definitely stood out more in this book! And it seemed like Samson engaged in more inappropriate relationships with Philistine women in this book than in the movie novelization.

The characters: I don't know if "Marissa" was truly necessary to the story or not. The author creates a "love triangle" between Samson and two childhood friends - Josef and Marissa. She is supposed to be Samson's betrothed, but he betrays her by falling in love with and then marrying the first Philistine woman. I suppose I could see her being Samson's betrothed, but it also seems like young girls were matched with older men who had established themselves in society from what I have been taught in some classes. Who is to say what is true? But before Samson meets Delilah, he is reunited with Marissa and they plan to be married. Then he gives up his secret and is captured after spending the night with Delilah, breaking Marissa's heart. Yet she still goes to him one final time and discovers a crazy secret - SAMSON HAS A SON!!!! Yes, that is right! He has a son from his marriage to the Philistine woman so many years before, and she agrees to take him home with her right before Samson dies in the temple and rear him as her own. It was an interesting twist.

Josef was interesting to add as well. The novelization makes him a Philistine friend of Samson's, but he is a former childhood friend of Samson who becomes bitter when Marissa's gaze turns from him to Samson after Samson saves Josef's life at a young age (teen years). Smaller than Samson and thin (sounding closer to frail), he sees himself as being the brains to Samson's brawn. He becomes a wealthy merchant, trading wares between the Philistines and Israelites. So he becomes the reason why Samson wandered down to Timnah and saw the Philistine woman. Samson is to be married, but Josef encourages Samson to take a trip to Timnah to see the wedding present Josef has bought for him. The plan is that because Samson has never seen how beautiful the Philistine women are, he will be overcome by the beauty of one and copulate with her, thereby breaking Marissa's heart and opening the door for Josef to "move in" and maybe get back his lady love. The plan partially succeeds - Samson is smitten by the Philistine woman but his betrayal slams the door shut for Josef when Marissa realizes what Josef has done to sabotage their wedding. He is Samson's best man at the wedding and convinces the Philistine father to let him marry his daughter Jezel (pretty close to "Jezebel", if you ask me, lol! I kept wanting to read "Jezel" as "Jezebel", lol). Both men know she is pregnant with Samson's child, and when Jezel and her family are killed by the Philistines, Josef finds the just-born baby and rears it as his own - up until the boy is around 9 or 10 years of age and Josef gives him to the temple of Dagon. He is also instrumental in encouraging Delilah to pursue Samson and entrap him, ruining Marissa's second chance of marrying Samson. Josef does get his just desserts at the end, dying in the temple's collapse.

I thought it was an an interesting twist to have Samson not only have a son but his own flesh-and-blood child taking care of him in Dagon's temple was even "better" on one hand. Dan's presence brought Samson much comfort during his imprisonment and I assume Samson had a powerful influence on his son in the limited time they spent together.

Delilah: I thought it was interesting how she drugged his drink in order to get him to forget his vow and reveal his secret to his strength. I don't know if there is ever any "good way" to present what happened with Samson, why he was arrogant enough to reveal the "secret" to his strength, but drugging his drink(s) makes as much sense as anything. Granted, it could have been nothing more than his pride that made him reveal his secret. The book makes it seem like Samson reveals his secret out of ... fear, for lack of a better word. But the Bible says that she basically nagged him to the point of death and it sounds like he revealed his secret more out of frustration than anything else. Also, Samson never comes across as loving Delilah in this story whereas the Book of Judges says that Samson fell in love with Delilah and was basically living with her when the Philistine leaders approached her with their proposition to encourage her to get the secret of his strength.

I also liked how the loom being used to weave his hair adversely affected him and filled him with pain. I thought that was a nice touch, especially because of how close it was to the truth of his strength (his hair never being cut). I could see that being the case, that this was a "last minute warning" for Samson to get out of there because he was getting so close to revealing his secret by that point. That was very clever on the part of the author to include that in her story.

It was funny to me that the prostitute Samson visited before becoming involved with Delilah was portrayed as Delilah's rival in this book. I did not get that sense in the Book of Judges, but it was still an interesting touch because of how it changed the dynamics of Delilah's interactions with Samson. She never loved him in this book; he was just a means to an end (a profitable end of over 1100 silver pieces!). But the author did expand upon this prostitute's character as well, having Josef be a regular visitor/patron of hers as well as the one to whom Josef takes Samson's son for revenge. She dies by Josef's side when the temple collapses.

Samson is said to have judged Israel for twenty years. It does not seem like he served as a judge for twenty years in this book. More like ten years, to be honest. There are a lot of "time jumps" in this novel, but the Book of Judges also skips ahead regarding Samson and his story. I say ten years because of the age of Dan in the book. Samson did not "become a judge" until after his Philistine wife Jezel was killed by angry Philistines. So the time period between Dan being born and Samson's death is closer to ten years, based on the age of the boy. I don't know how big of a deal it really is, but this is one part of the book's story that definitely did not match up with the Bible (in terms of how long Samson acted as a judge of Israel).

One other thing very different about this book is that Samson does not have any siblings. Not even any cousins. His story in the Book of Judges ends with Samson's brothers and extended family coming to take his body home out of the temple so that he could be buried with his people. Even in the movie novelization, Samson had at least one brother. Not in this book. Also, in this book, Samson's body is left in the temple ruins to rot. A little disrespectful, there, for this former judge of Israel I felt.

Samson also has an expensive home in which he lives, which was interesting. I was not expecting that. Nor was I expecting Samson to have brokered peace treaties and trade agreements with the Philistines during his time as a judge. That was an interesting change as well - that he was able to forge a peace that lasted for as long as he was alive and had his strength. I did not see Samson as being the type of person to have an expensive home, to be honest.

I enjoyed the descriptions of what life might have been like during this tumultuous time in Israeli history, a time when every man did what was right in his own eyes and Samson let his appetites get the best of him time after time. And yet, God still used him for God's own glory despite knowing about Samson's weaknesses regarding women. I thought the author did a decent job of describing the Philistines, and she incorporates some of the blood of the sons of the Nephilim in this story by having Delilah's lover be a giant and clearly having the blood of Anak in him. These kinds of stories are fun and funny to read for me, 'cuz sometimes I wonder if life is portrayed as being "too easy" (or easier than I usually hear it described), and then other times in these kinds of historical novels I wonder if the living conditions are described as being worst than they actually were. In any case, it was a "fascinating" (fun) look at what relations might have been like between these two nations beyond what was described in the Book of Judges.

I am glad I finally got around to reading this copy of the book I found at a local thrift store. It was worth the pittance I paid for the book, hahahah!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book by Traylor.

She makes a very real, gifted but human & therefore faulted great man.

[Lori-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional read! I feel blessed to have read it!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all her books, simply wonderful.

[Kelly Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good job on characters and Biblical story