From: John Croft
Message: 3158
Date: 2000-08-16
--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "John Croft" <jdcroft@...> wrote:
> 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