Good morning, we are talking about the book of Judges, in particular about Samson, this very particular figure whose name "Shimshon" derives from the flower of the stones: the name then becomes known in Greek, this flower, with the name of helianthemum from "Elios" which meaning sun and "antohs" meaning flower. Obviously the etymology is uncertain. Some link her to "shemesh" the sun god etc, but what matters is what she did.
He is included in the book of Judges because he would begin to free the Israelites from the domination of the Philistines that was beginning. What is also interesting to know is that the period of the Judges includes the historical era that goes from the time of Joshua, who was the successor of Moses, until the monarchy was established, in short, it begins with the times of Samuel so we are between 12th - 11th century BC. We have already seen in the previous videos some actions, some heroic works performed by Samson but now let's move on.
I had said that Samson had entered into one of those marriages that were foreseen by the ancient Semitic order whereby the husband went from time to time to his wife and visited her . One of these times he decides to go to his wife bringing her a goat but the wife's father says: but why, I thought that you no longer wanted it and so I gave it to your wedding partner. Samson, who was not a properly balanced person - then we will also see why, because about him, it is written several times, Yahweh "burst" upon him and made him do things , let's say, that were not exactly normal here.
And then the wife's father tells him: listen, I gave her to your wedding partner, take her sister who is even prettier, but Samson doesn't accept this so what does he do? He captures a large number of foxes, ties their tails together, places torches, lights them and then launches these foxes who, terrified, obviously begin to run across the fields - it was harvest time - and then burn the wheat, burn the vineyards , the olive trees burn. Then many Philistines ask: but who did this and why?
And the answer that is given is: but it was Samson because his father-in-law no longer gave him his wife but gave her to his partner. So what do the Philistines do? They take their father-in-law and ex-wife and burn them alive.
Here we are in a system of continuous actions and reactions that are not exactly balanced. Then Samson gets angry at the fact that his ex-father- in-law was burned alive together with his ex-wife and, as they normally say, he intervenes against the Philistines and takes one to beat the other - literally in Hebrew there is it's thigh against hip - and it literally makes a killing. Obviously the Philistines decide to take revenge for this massacre and move towards Judah, towards the tribe of Judah, because at that time, at the time of the Judges, the state of Israel had not yet been established so, let's say, all the land of Canaan was, from point of view of possession, distributed in a chessboard pattern: therefore the Israelites had gradually inserted themselves inside.
So there were territories that were theirs and other territories that belonged to other peoples, the Philistines were one of these who were on what we know today as the Gaza Strip, so, in short, the story comes back. Then they move against Judas and the Judas say: but why do you come against us who in essence have done nothing? Because we want to capture and bind Samson for the things he has done against our people.
Then those of Judah say: we'll take care of it and convince him to let himself be captured. So they do: Judah's men move, they go to Samson, they convince him to be captured by swearing that they would not hit him, that they would not kill him and that they would not do anything bad to him and Samson agrees to be tied up. When he is tied up and the Philistines find out about it, they obviously rush in en masse to finally catch him.
But the thick ropes that were used to bind him, the Bible says, become like scorched wicks. He tears them up and, for a change, using a still half-fresh donkey jaw that he found, makes a further massacre. And here's that verb "Yahweh broke in" on di again him and we have already said that it is a verb that indicates "penetrated".
So these Elohim had a system that allowed them to penetrate the head, the mind of men - Samson was a Nazirite, he was a consecrated to Yahveh - and also to give them a special strength. I have read some interesting studies by neuroscientists from American and Australian universities, etc. , who talk about this "hysterical force".
There is within us, there would be within us, a system that inhibits the total use of the forces that we would have, that is, of our nervous system and our muscular system, starting from the heart, then also the circulatory system. . .
Why? Because if the system always worked to its maximum potential, obviously it would wear out much sooner and we would live much less. So these neuroscientists are talking about an inhibitory system which, at times, is blocked autonomously and therefore releases these very powerful forces that our body would have.
Everything would start from the amygdala, through the hypothalamus and then the emission of hormones, the adrenal glands, so this makes me think that when the Bible talks about "bursts", it makes me think of these Elohim who had the ability to act probably within the men that they chose and therefore unleashed this system whereby this force exploded which we could almost say is inhuman but which, in reality, is human because it is within us but is inhibited, therefore this would also scientifically explain the force of Samson. However, essentially, Yahweh broke into him and Samson, for a change, makes a massacre of him. Then the story goes on to say that Samson goes to Gaza, he goes to Gaza and the Philistines obviously find out about it and say: this time we'll capture him.
Why? Because he goes to Gaza, sees a prostitute, goes with the prostitute, stays with her during the night and the Philistines say: tomorrow at dawn, when he goes out we will capture him. In reality he goes out at night, he even manages to break down the doors of the town of Gaza and takes them away and therefore, in short, they are unable to capture him.
Then Samson, who was particularly sensitive to female beauty, falls in love with Dalila and here we all know the story. Through Delilah, the Philistines come to know what the Bible presents as the secret of Samson's strength, that is, the length of his hair, of his seven braids. And Dalila says to the Philistines: look, the secret of her strength lies in her long hair, which was a fundamental sign of the Nazirite, so the Nazirite who shaved his head lost this privileged relationship with Yahweh: therefore Dalila manages to put Samson to sleep and manages to get him to cut his hair.
Samson is captured, blinded and forced to turn the millstone. Meanwhile his hair grows back - frankly I have always thought of the stupidity of the Philistines, but perhaps the Bible intended to present this. .
. it intended to make fun of those who were their rulers for a few decades and they never thought that it was It's a stupid thing to let his hair grow back - the fact is that the hair grows back, Samson regains his strength or, better said, having re-established this fundamental characteristic of the Nazirite, Yahweh intervenes on him again and when the Philistines decide to take the blinded Samson and to use him to have fun and they take him into the temple and tell him: let us have fun and then they make him participate in games etc. , he manages to convince one of his guardians, of those who were supposed to look after him, and says to him: let me feel where they are the columns of the Temple and this guardian makes him feel them and there he carries out the final act of his life, the extraordinary act: by pushing the columns he causes the Temple to collapse, saying: let Samson die with all the Philistines.
Now this Temple was, perhaps, because it is not very certain, the Temple of the Elohim Dagon. I say Elohim on purpose, because it is written in the Bible, because it means that whatever meaning one wants to give to the term Elohim, know that this is how Yahweh was defined, this is how Daogon was defined, or Dagan which could be his name of origin and therefore any what Yahweh means and Dagon, or Dagan, were defined exactly in the same way: they were two divinities of the same type. So it is useless to say that Elohim is God for Yahweh and something else for Dagon, Milkom, Kamosh, Asherah etc.
, because in reality the Bible uses, without any problem, the same terminology to define these divinities. Dagon was a Mesopotamian deity. The scholars say: probably of even non- Semitic origin and it took a route that from the middle of Mesopotamia passed through the north-west of Mesopotamia - and here king Sargon thanks the divinity Dagon because it allowed him to conquer the north-west of Mesopotamia - then he passes through Syria, through Syria he descends to Palestine and there he is adopted as a single divinity by the Philistines.
Now, this can mean two things, we must be honest: either that it was the divinity that moved or it could also be explained by the fact that tribes, clans, families originating from Mesopotamia, by moving, have, so to speak, distributed the cult along the territory they crossed. However, the Bible is clear in this too because Moses, in Deuteronomy 32, clearly says that these Elohim moved, when he complains that the people of Israel had even placed themselves at the service of new Elohim, Elohim who had recently arrived, Elohim who fathers they had not known. So, according to the Bible - and as you know I always pretend that the Bible is true - I think that this Dagon moved along, let's say, this sort of crescent through the territories of the Middle East and then came to choose itself also as a people the Philistines.
The etymology of the term Dagon, or Dagan, is very uncertain, but according to some, it refers to "dag" i. e. fish; according to others to wheat but here they ask: which came first, the chicken or the egg?
That is, in reality, was Dagon considered the god of wheat because his name recalled the name of wheat in Hebrew or vice versa, that is, did they call wheat that way because it derived from Dagon considered as the God of fertility? Then there is also a tradition, an ancient Arab tradition that connects Dagon to the clouds, that is, to the God of storms, but in reality he was essentially considered the god of fertility. But, in short, the etymology is very uncertain.
Its first attestations are found in the Mari area, in the Ebla texts; His name has had several attempts at interpretation. I said before that it was originally called Dagan which then became Dagon with the Western Semitic languages. The term "dag" refers to the fish and here there was a disquisition for a certain time because when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to the Temple of Ashdod - Ashdod was a town - the Temple dedicated in Dagon, the Ark of the Covenant would have twice caused the statue of the God Dagon to fall and, according to a scholar who supported this thesis, the second time only the lower part of the statue would have remained in place which could perhaps recall a fish, but then this is a thesis that has been abandoned.
This remembering of a fish would refer to the figure of Oannes spoken of by Berossos the Babylonian priest, in his history of Babylon, who spoke of these fish-men, that is, of these men who were covered in scales, had webbed hands and feet, lived at night in waters - to be precise in the sea of Eritrea - then came out during the day and these seven sages, of which Oannes was one - the famous seven "apkallu" - and Oannes would teach civilization, he would teach science, he would teach culture to people and therefore, if this lower part of Dagon in the shape of a fish were true, it could theoretically be connected to the figure of Oannes, but it is a very difficult hypothesis, very difficult to support. What is important is that Dagon is mentioned many times in the Bible, he is mentioned in fact, we have seen, in the book of Judges, he is mentioned in the book of Samuel, he is mentioned in the book of Chronicles so he was a very well known deity , deity equated to Yahweh because it was called exactly Elohim like Yahweh and therefore since the Philistines - a people probably of Cretan origin being to the ancient tales - they came from the Aegean, in short they came from the Mediterranean area and, as I have already said other times, it is impossible to think that the Israelites knew the one true God while all the others turned to absolutely non-existent divinities and therefore this Dagon makes us think and confirms to us once again that in the Middle East, but not only, we have seen and said it several times, it applies to the whole world, there were many of these divinities to which the people turned: each people believed that the his divinity was the best, these divinities fought among themselves, Moses tells us that these divinities moved around the various territories also in search of peoples to follow and that Israel often betrayed Yahweh to give his service to some of these others divinity and therefore here too we should say that then even the people of Israel who knew - had the fortune, would have been fortunate enough to know - the true God, in reality, when the opportunity arose, turned to absolutely non-existent divinities. In the Ugaritic theological texts, in the lists, in the most attested one, Dagon is placed in third place: first there is El then there is Ilib then there is Dagon and then there is Baal and the fact that in the stories, in the stories of Baal are not of great importance, of great relevance, it may actually mean that he probably arrived later.
Dagon had several cult centers in the territory of Judah, in the territory of Asher, so it was also very well distributed in the land of Canaan where the Jews instead had their place of worship in Yahweh, which was first Shiloh and then became Jerusalem but in reality these deities were co-present and acted in the same period and each had its own people. So, once again, we must remember that in reality the Bible is not a monotheistic text but is an absolutely polytheistic or, if we want, monolatric text, that is, Israel, among all the possible divinities, tended to refer directly and exclusively to Yahweh because, while the other divinities were much more tolerant, Yahweh was not and therefore Yahweh, in his infinite goodness as a God of love, as a God who loves all humanity, said: if you turn to another I will kill you. With this third video on Samson we had the opportunity to take a journey through Mesopotamia, Syria, the Ugaritic culture, Palestine but, above all, we had the opportunity to reflect once again on the most important aspect which is that of the Elohim and on another equally important aspect: the fact that, for example, Dagon was known by the Israelites and cited in the Bible and was known and cited in numerous extra-biblical texts, confirming the fact that some support each other and all this makes us understand how much what the ancients told us is historical and locally determined.
Bye, thanks and see you next time.
