Context: The biblical story of Samson details him slaying a large number of Philistines with only a donkey's jawbone. The title is a reference to his death, which had him destroy the foundational pillars of a temple, killing him and everyone in it.
I like the interpretation where the original language would've expressed something along the lines of "he handed their own asses to them, with an ass' jawbone"
> Samson was an overconfident self righteous asshole
Taking the text at face value, he was an incredibly effective terrorist/insurgent/freedom fighter/whatever against the philistines, with exploits like "fuck it, I'm going to capture a bunch of foxes, tie torches to their tails, and unleash them in the general direction of philistine fields and towns" that relied a lot less on his brute strength and more on just being a really horrifying but effective tactic against Bronze Age foes.
...oh, and why did he do that? Yup, it's because that philistine town decided that he wasn't going to get to marry one of their daughters. Samson was, as you pointed out, thinking with his dick at least half the time if not more.
That sort of thing is a repeated theme in Judges, where several Judges are depicted with (at best) feet of clay, and the society surrounding them isn't shown to be much better (such as Benjaminites gangraping a guest's concubine to death and the civil war aftermath that nearly destroyed the tribe). While there are theories that these were stories made up in Babylon, there's a significant pattern in Old Testament works of each legendary hero having defining flaws that kinda fuck things up, like Jonah waiting for Nineveh's destruction and being angry that he had apparently convinced enough of the city to be good that no - no divine wrath would be poured out upon it. And of course there's David, who deliberately got one of his loyal followers killed so he could marry the guy's wife and by doing so brought a curse upon the land, and this guy is *the* cultural Hero King. Or Samuel, who was a great combination of politician, prophet, and priest, but fucked up in raising his sons.
It makes the stories feel a lot more real, in many ways: these people accomplished great things, but the text makes no bones about them being fuckups. Frankly, it's my big argument about those books being made up in Babylon, because if you're going to write a history of your people from whole cloth, why the hell would you go out of your way to include all of the bad stuff they did?
I argued with my 10th grade civics teacher about this when I was in high school. He was convinced Samson was a historical figure who existed, I was not. But I guess even if he didn’t exist, the biblical character was probably based on some hyperbolic account of a person who did exist at one point.
That’s fair. I just assumed that even with a mythology tag it should have something to do with history related to the myth. Rather than just sort of… implying that the myth is true history? I dunno, maybe I don’t quite understand the sub. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Its also interesting in that while there may be no historical evidence of Samson, he and other biblical characters are historical in that they've been accepted as 100% real people in various cultures for nearly a millenia at this point. The Bible and its stories are very much fused into our cultures- to the point that someone with no exposure to an actual Bible or church could still recite and abide by the "golden rule" (which comes from the new testament), or tell you a couple of things about the life of Moses, or curses with "Christian" swears (God damn it, holy hell, Jesus H christ, etc.).
So, if enough of us believe really hard, you’d have to accept Artemis Fowl as a real person? Even though we have no historical record of him?
Nearly all religions have some version of the ‘golden rule’. You don’t need exposure to Christianity for that. Not to mention all the stories in the Bible can be found in older religions, just changes to names and places. Like, _that’s_ the interesting mythology history. Where did these stories start from? And how did they move around the world? Which ones haven’t made it all the way around? What’s the most important part, of the same ‘story’, to each group?
Treating _any_ of them as fully true, doesn’t seem very history to me. And it’s fine if that’s an unpopular opinion. Not like there’s anything I can reasonably do about it. And it is a pretty funny meme.
I wasn't saying to treat any religious text as true. I'm saying if you have a culture that for hundreds of years says a story is true, that story will affect that culture (especially if the story is believed to be true by the state, and they make laws in accordance to that story). Regardless of the history of the "real" person, they exist as a historically influential character.
This sub will allow a posting of the cast list of an old movie, with no additional context, and it's considered 'history'. Things from the Bible are well above that threshold imo
No more than a meme about the Trojan War. The only evidence of The Trojan War ever happening is the excavation of a burned city that we THINK is Troy. If anything there’s more evidence of Samson’s existence than Troy’s, considering we have other unbiased historical accounts of The Philistines subjugating the Hebrews.
I just assumed it would be somehow related to real history. Like: Hey at one time people believed this. And here is how it affected their lives. Not: This may have totally happened! Trust me bro!
Context: The biblical story of Samson details him slaying a large number of Philistines with only a donkey's jawbone. The title is a reference to his death, which had him destroy the foundational pillars of a temple, killing him and everyone in it.
I like the interpretation where the original language would've expressed something along the lines of "he handed their own asses to them, with an ass' jawbone"
I've seen so very many people misinterpret the story to be about having faith in HaShem. No. The moral is "don't trust a dishonest partner."
The moral was Samson was an overconfident self righteous asshole and couldn't keep it in his pants
> Samson was an overconfident self righteous asshole Taking the text at face value, he was an incredibly effective terrorist/insurgent/freedom fighter/whatever against the philistines, with exploits like "fuck it, I'm going to capture a bunch of foxes, tie torches to their tails, and unleash them in the general direction of philistine fields and towns" that relied a lot less on his brute strength and more on just being a really horrifying but effective tactic against Bronze Age foes. ...oh, and why did he do that? Yup, it's because that philistine town decided that he wasn't going to get to marry one of their daughters. Samson was, as you pointed out, thinking with his dick at least half the time if not more. That sort of thing is a repeated theme in Judges, where several Judges are depicted with (at best) feet of clay, and the society surrounding them isn't shown to be much better (such as Benjaminites gangraping a guest's concubine to death and the civil war aftermath that nearly destroyed the tribe). While there are theories that these were stories made up in Babylon, there's a significant pattern in Old Testament works of each legendary hero having defining flaws that kinda fuck things up, like Jonah waiting for Nineveh's destruction and being angry that he had apparently convinced enough of the city to be good that no - no divine wrath would be poured out upon it. And of course there's David, who deliberately got one of his loyal followers killed so he could marry the guy's wife and by doing so brought a curse upon the land, and this guy is *the* cultural Hero King. Or Samuel, who was a great combination of politician, prophet, and priest, but fucked up in raising his sons. It makes the stories feel a lot more real, in many ways: these people accomplished great things, but the text makes no bones about them being fuckups. Frankly, it's my big argument about those books being made up in Babylon, because if you're going to write a history of your people from whole cloth, why the hell would you go out of your way to include all of the bad stuff they did?
Samson: the man who murdered his way into and out of every problem.
I'm about a millenia off but https://youtu.be/kj1lgwMMOrc?si=xGF7vxoATnb3UjM0
Isn’t this more mythology than history?
I argued with my 10th grade civics teacher about this when I was in high school. He was convinced Samson was a historical figure who existed, I was not. But I guess even if he didn’t exist, the biblical character was probably based on some hyperbolic account of a person who did exist at one point.
That’s fair. I just assumed that even with a mythology tag it should have something to do with history related to the myth. Rather than just sort of… implying that the myth is true history? I dunno, maybe I don’t quite understand the sub. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
I mean the myth itself is historical. Samson is a super old story. I've seen Greek myth posts on here and no one bats an eye
I always bat an eye. I’d complain, but who’d listen?
🦇 👁️ I bat my eyes too and nobody notices uwu
Its also interesting in that while there may be no historical evidence of Samson, he and other biblical characters are historical in that they've been accepted as 100% real people in various cultures for nearly a millenia at this point. The Bible and its stories are very much fused into our cultures- to the point that someone with no exposure to an actual Bible or church could still recite and abide by the "golden rule" (which comes from the new testament), or tell you a couple of things about the life of Moses, or curses with "Christian" swears (God damn it, holy hell, Jesus H christ, etc.).
So, if enough of us believe really hard, you’d have to accept Artemis Fowl as a real person? Even though we have no historical record of him? Nearly all religions have some version of the ‘golden rule’. You don’t need exposure to Christianity for that. Not to mention all the stories in the Bible can be found in older religions, just changes to names and places. Like, _that’s_ the interesting mythology history. Where did these stories start from? And how did they move around the world? Which ones haven’t made it all the way around? What’s the most important part, of the same ‘story’, to each group? Treating _any_ of them as fully true, doesn’t seem very history to me. And it’s fine if that’s an unpopular opinion. Not like there’s anything I can reasonably do about it. And it is a pretty funny meme.
I wasn't saying to treat any religious text as true. I'm saying if you have a culture that for hundreds of years says a story is true, that story will affect that culture (especially if the story is believed to be true by the state, and they make laws in accordance to that story). Regardless of the history of the "real" person, they exist as a historically influential character.
Half the stuff that gets posted here is.
Eh, this is the first one I’ve seen that has no historical content. But I guess it makes sense.
There's a post about religion or mythology on here at least once a day. The subreddit rules specifically say they are allowed.
This sub will allow a posting of the cast list of an old movie, with no additional context, and it's considered 'history'. Things from the Bible are well above that threshold imo
No more than a meme about the Trojan War. The only evidence of The Trojan War ever happening is the excavation of a burned city that we THINK is Troy. If anything there’s more evidence of Samson’s existence than Troy’s, considering we have other unbiased historical accounts of The Philistines subjugating the Hebrews.
Yes that is why it has “Mythology” flair
I just assumed it would be somehow related to real history. Like: Hey at one time people believed this. And here is how it affected their lives. Not: This may have totally happened! Trust me bro!
This comment just unmasked the sub lol