Rép . : Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicidebomber

[jonnyangel]

> Because Samson's God is 'unsearchable. . .' The God of Adam and Moses and
> Abraham no longer appears or speaks. No bushes burn. Samson is like us, or
> like17th C. Christians, lonely, sinful and bewildered. There had been signs
> once for Samson and yet he has come now to be shackled, enslaved and shamed.
> His apparently divine impulses led him to the Timnan woman and what a mess
> that turned out to be! His marriage to Dalila was not motioned by God  and now
> he thinks God wants him to go to the idolatrous forbidden feast of Dagon.
> Milton himself was doubtful about the provenance of Samson's motions: 'whether
> prompted by God or by his own valour . . . '(CP 4.1, 102). He records his
> anxiety about such promptings elsewhere: "divine illumination . . . no man can
> know at all times to be in himself, much less to be at any time for certain in
> any other . . ." (CP 7, 242).

No bushes burn, but he does slay 12,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an
ass (among many other acts impossible without the assistance of his God).
These acts occurred before Samson's fall from grace, but the biggest act is
his last act; again, not possible without God's assistance. While there is
no "direct" communication (like the burning bush etc) between God and
Samson, there does seem to be a communication *through* Samson. In PR, the
Son is told by Mary and John the Baptist who he was, and then the Spirit led
him into the wilderness, so there's not a lot of direct communication going
on there either. The Father, however, does speak *through* the Son in PR, as
well as *through* the actions of Samson. The Son regains Paradise by
specifically not falling (like Samson), yet God restores Samson's strength
to destroy more Philistines in one act than he had killed in his entire
lifetime (including himself). So why the restoration of strength at the end?
(It's also important to note that PR is based on the NT and SA on the OT.)
 

> SA is a sad, tragic study of the loneliness of humanity, listening in the
> darkness for a God who will not respond or appear, One who almost seems to
> taunt us with ambiguous scraps that make us a little better than hopeless,
> even then to deceive our fragile hopes. Samson's best guess at liberation is
> like mad Lear's: 'Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.' Those e-mails about Godot
> were unintentionally quite relevant.

But here's where I would argue that God *did* respond and *did* appear in
Samson's final act (God did restore his strength).

"And which is best and happiest yet, all this
 With God not parted from him, as was fear'd,
 But favouring and assisting to the end." [ SA:1718-20 ]

Now you could say his Pop might have been a little screwed up here, but
Samson's strength *was* restored, and it's hard to argue that Samson's God
wasn't the one behind it.

If you read Judges carefully, Samson is (quite frankly) a spoiled,
egotistical, narcissistic prick. It's all "I, me, mine" with that cat.
I remember when I was a child in theology school, a very learned Professor
gave a lecture on Samson, and his take on Samson was basically mine. At the
end, I raised my hand and asked him why God restored his strength at the
end: he didn't really have an answer. Biblically, it's always been a
difficult subject for theologians and scholars alike. And as far as SA, I
don't know why it should be any different.

But Milton wasn't writing a thesis paper (thank God). What he left us with
is an endless bag of questions that we're all collectively digging through,
trying to find the "perfect" question to pose: the answer hardly seems
relevant. I have many theories on Judges and SA, but I'm pressed for time
because my masochistic nature has landed me in summer session, but I would
like to talk more about what I believe to be Milton's overlooked
masterpiece. 

Cheers, 

Jonny  

PS- The cliff notes of the cliff notes on the Old Testament: God creates
man. Everything man does makes God angry.




>  
> Derek Wood.
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> Derek N. C. Wood,
> Senior Research Professor and Shastri Fellow,,
> St. Francis Xavier University,
> ANTIGONISH,    NS,
> Canada,    B2G 2W5
>  
> e-mail: dwood at stfx.ca
> phone: 902-867-2328 (w)
>            902-863-5433 (h)
> fax:      902-867-5400
> web:     http://www.stfx.ca/people/dwood
> <http://www.stfx.ca/people/dwood/Welcome.html> /Welcome.html
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> 
>  . . .There *is* a Dagon, then, in SA? Then why does Dagon--or Jehovah, for
> that matter--not speak in SA? Why, of the last three great works, does SA
> function as the one in which "God" is given no voice but that of human
> assertion? . . .
> 
> Michael Bryson
> 
> 
> 
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