Glen, one needs to treat biblical connections with a great deal of
care. The final redaction of the Bible is late, post Persian empire
and possibly as late as the Maccabbean revolt against the Selucids.
Still it does contain bits and pieces drawn from many other sources,
Babylonian understandings of 570 BCE Edin gardens and floods, stories
of the the Assyrians and the annals of the Judaic and Israeli
kingdoms
from about 900 BCE, legends of mythical "Davidic" Empires when
Jerusalem was archaeologically smaller than a village, memories for
large scale migrations at the close of the Bronze Age, confused with
the Phillistines time of captivity in Egypt before being given teir
"promised land", bound up with Persian concepts of the Paradice all
bound up with a story showing only if you are unquestioningly
obedient
to a totally inhuman divinity (and his priests), do you have even a
snowflake's hope in hell.
> Now, this Samson-Thunder connection... what's with the hair? Come to
> think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if this haircutting thing has
a
> deeper, more pagan meaning (just as with the Tree of Knowledge).
Samson was a Nizarite. Nizarites were a sect who believed their
power
resided in their hair like the rays of the son ("Sams" is cognate
with
Akkadian Shamash (Sun). We here have a Solar myth, like the Greek
Phaeton, son of the son. Samoson thus tells an old story of the sun
being held captive by enemies (Solar Eclypse) and liberated. The
cutting of the hair refers to the extinguishing of the solar corona
(Crown of hair) which appears at the tme of the eclipse. It was
originally an Akkadian atrological tale, picked up by the Jews during
their time in Babylon, given local colour by adding Nazirite and
Phillistine connecions. Philistines seem to have a statue of s man
stretched between two pillars (eg. have a look at the excavations
from
Tel Quasile), which was also implicated in the Samson mythos.
> Wait, didn't somebody gloss something about a connection between
> "hair" and "(water) waves" before? Something to do with water
> sprites?? Who on this list mentioned this? Speak to me. This is
> getting juicy.
Hope this helps
John