The Strange Story of Sampson (Evidence of Divine Authorship)

By Richie Cooley

This booklet tells the story of Sampson from the book of Judges, emphasizing Messianic prophecies and eschatological applications.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richie Cooley
• Release date: Jul 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463811726

Richie Cooley

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The Strange Story of Sampson

(Evidence of Divine Authorship)

by Richie Cooley

Licensed by:

Richie Cooley (2019); edited: (2020)

Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International

Email: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Sampson’s Nativity

III. Sampson’s Love Life

IV. Citations

V. Works by Me

Before getting started, let’s review a few notes that are common to my writings…

*British spelling is often used, except for the quoted material, which normally employs U.S. spelling.

*Old Testament Scripture is normally taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE® (NASB), copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

*New Testament Scripture is normally taken from the Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament: Third Edition (ALT3). Copyright © 2007 by Gary F. Zeolla of Darkness to Light ministry. Previously copyrighted © 1999, 2001, 2005 by Gary Zeolla.

*The terms LORD, GOD, and Hashem are all ways to describe the personal name of God, also rendered as Yahweh or Jehovah.

*The ALT3 distinguishes between singular and plural second-person pronouns by means of an asterisk (*).

*Divine pronouns are normally not capitalized, unless they appear that way in Bible versions or other quotes.

*As a general rule, words that appear in brackets within quotes are not found in the original texts, and were added by the translators or are my personal comments, etc.

I. Introduction

Sampson is an intriguing Biblical character. A surprising amount of space is devoted to his story. Given that God displayed a strict economy of words when relaying the totality of truth in portable form—why did he give this bizarre bloke so much airtime?

Sampson was a soup sandwich. He mainly seems like a cuckoo’s egg in an otherwise orderly nest. Why did God bother with him?

Not only did Jehovah use him as a judge and record a lot of his life for the future edification of God’s people—but he also set him forth as an important Christ-figure. Sampson’s life often runs parallel with the Lord Jesus, even though he lived over a millennium before.

I’ve mentioned Sampson a few times over the years, but I’ve always wanted to dig a bit deeper and be a bit more thorough. Please join me, for Sampson not only teaches us about the Saviour, but he also provides us with a lot of food for thought regarding wise conduct. I don’t know about you, but I’m always in desperate need of such instruction! And finally, we’ll also see how Sampson portends the end times.

II. Sampson’s Nativity

A. The Backstory

As we begin looking at the Christ-figure elements of Sampson, I want to issue my standard disclaimer. There are obviously different ways to account for the semblances. One way is to say that New Testament authors intentionally lifted elements from the life of Sampson. This should be rejected on two counts. First of all, if a Jewish man in ancient Israel wanted to forge a biographical sketch of a made-up Messiah, utilizing the Old Testament as his source—why would he choose Sampson? As we’ll see, Sampson generally had the wrong stuff.

Second of all, there are many touchstones between Sampson and other Old Testament figures/prophecies. By weaving all these various strands together, the Messianic message of the Old Testament becomes very resplendent. It’s a very complex, ornate, layered, detailed masterpiece. Thus, to try to poke out the Sampson bits is a futile effort. The same story would still be told via the rest