[Milton-L] Samson as suicide bomber

[James Rovira]

I think it's misguided to separate religion and nationalism at all the
case of the Biblical Samson -- we shouldn't say his motives were
mixed, nor should we say he was motivated by one and not the other.
Samson's tribal (can we really say national at this point? -- what
would we call a collection of tribes?) identity derived from his
religious identity -- his religious identity gave him and defined his
tribal identity.  Israel's existence is credited in Hebrew religion
solely to a single man's (Abraham's) religious experience.  Did Milton
separate the two in his appropriation of the character Samson?  Better
yet, did he see religious and national already separated, culturally,
and seek to reintegrate them?

Jim R