[Milton-L] Samson as suicide bomber

[Michael Bryson]

Samson was, indeed, a Nazarite. As such, he was set
apart, and supposed to live up to certain vows...but
he fails to do so. He fails, in Judges, as a bringer
of peace, as a deliverer of the people. In SA, who
aside from Samson himself, and/or Manoa and the
Chorus (contesting with one another to see who can
be most bloodthirsty in their fantasies to explain
what might be the cause of the shout that "tore the
sky" near the end of the play), regard Samson as
"God's champion"?

I am going to re-ask some of the questions I raised
(to no apparent effect) earlier:

1) What exactly are the "ungodly deeds" of either
Dagon, or any other member of the
Ugaritic/Philistine pantheon in SA?

2) What exactly are the deeds--of any kind--of any
deity of any pantheon or religious imagination in
SA? What deities exist outside of the words and
claims of the characters in SA? Where do the deities
appear? What do they say? What do they require? What
do we know about them--in the context of SA--outside
of the claims their worshipers make about them?

3) Why should readers credit Samson's point of view?
Particularly since Milton takes from the reader, in
the use of dramatic form, the very certainty over
some of Samson's actions and motivations that Judges
provides through its onmniscient narration?

If there is no particular interest in discussing
these questions, I won't insist on them further. But
it seems to me that such questions are important for
understanding what is going on in SA (as opposed,
perhaps, to what is going on in what gets called
"terrorism" or "suicide bombing" in our time and
place).

Michael Bryson

---- Original message ----

  Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 18:48:32 -0700 (PDT)
  From: Dalian Tross <daliantross at yahoo.com>
  Subject: Re: [Milton-L]  Samson as suicide bomber
  To: John Milton Discussion List
  <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
  >
  >
  >There is a distinct difference between a
  "Nazarite" and a "Nazarene". Samson was the
  former.
  >
  >--- On Sun, 5/10/09, Salwa Khoddam
  <skhoddam at cox.net> wrote:
  >
  >> From: Salwa Khoddam <skhoddam at cox.net>
  >> Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicide
  bomber
  >> To: "John Milton Discussion List"
  <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
  >> Date: Sunday, May 10, 2009, 4:16 PM
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >> Jeffery wrote: "The expression "Suicide
  >> Bomber" refers to anyone who blows
  >> himself or herself up to kill others, usually
  in a
  >> terrorist act." Is
  >> Samson a "terrorist"? Or a
  >> "freedom fighter," or "God's
  >> champion"
  >> elected (he was a Nazarene) to avenge the tribe
  of Judah?
  >> Religion and Politics
  >> were not separate for Samson nor for Milton (as
  supported
  >> by his political
  >> pamphlets).
  >> Salwa Khoddam
  >>
  >> ----- Original Message
  >> -----
  >> From:
  >> Horace
  >> Jeffery Hodges
  >> To: John
  >> Milton Discussion List
  >>
  >> Sent: Sunday, May
  >> 10, 2009 1:00 AM
  >> Subject: Re:
  >> [Milton-L] Samson as suicide
  >> bomber
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >> Carrol Cox wrote:
  >>  
  >>
  >> "'Suicide
  >> Bomber' refers, of course, to Arabs,
  >> who have replaced 'dirty
  >> commies' in the mythology of u.s. politics.
  >> But that is not the
  >> elephant but merely the context. The elephant
  is
  >> that, through
  >> discussing Samson in theological terms,
  >> one implies that the
  >> suicide
  >> bombers of the daily newspaper are acting
  >> or claiming to act
  >> from theological motives -- that they are
  >> religious fanatics. But they
  >> are acting from strictly secular motives, as a
  >> study of a year or so
  >> established: they represent frustrated
  >> nationalism!"
  >>  
  >> The expression "Suicide Bomber"
  >> refers to anyone who blows himself
  >> or herself up to kill others, usually in a
  >> terrorist act. The bomber can
  >> be any ethnicity and any religion -- or even
  have
  >> no religion.
  >> Currently, most such bombers are Muslims
  >> radicalized by Islamism. They
  >> may act out of a combination of motives, but
  >> religion is certainly one
  >> of these. Moreover, regardless of the
  motivation,
  >> Muslims would be
  >> unlikely to engage in "suicide" attacks
  >> if these had not already been
  >> declared not acts of suicide and if these had
  >> not already
  >> been theologically justified by Islamists.
  >> According to such
  >> Islamists, the reward for the
  >> Muslim 'suicide' bomber is paradise
  >> -- which is why they are called by Islamists
  >> "martyrdom
  >> operations." Religion certainly plays a
  >> major role in the
  >> phenomenon, and it cannot be ignored.
  >>  
  >> Jeffery Hodges
  >>
  >>
  >>
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