Bible stories, truth or fiction?

[Par5]

Some bible stories seem to be so outrageous that for many people they are just not credible.
There are those however who believe that every word of the bible is true and therefore every event recorded in that book is true.
One such story is that of Samson and his fight with the Philistines when he killed 1000 of them using nothing more than the jaw bone of an ass.
Do any of our CF posters really believe this event actually happened?
I have posted a link showing a clip from the Samson movie and his fight with the Philistines.
You could be excused for thinking it was a clip from The Incredible Hulk, and I could only begin to believe it was a true story if the Philistines were as inept at soldiering as the movie made them out to be.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Some bible stories seem to be so outrageous that for many people they are just not credible.
There are those however who believe that every word of the bible is true and therefore every event recorded in that book is true.
One such story is that of Samson and his fight with the Philistines when he killed 1000 of them using nothing more than the jaw bone of an ass.
Do any of our CF posters really believe this event actually happened?
I have posted a link showing a clip from the Samson movie and his fight with the Philistines.
You could be excused for thinking it was a clip from The Incredible Hulk, and I could only begin to believe it was a true story if the Philistines were as inept at soldiering as the movie made them out to be.

I believe it could have happened. But since I can't hop into a time-machine in order to vet out whatever historical research I'd like to observe firsthand, we'll never really "know" in certain terms in this lifetime ...

Sure, we can see what few pieces of this or that old story might be uncovered through archaeological means, but an absence of evidence---or even the finding of a few bits of it---from some past that's buried or unrecoverably burned into incompleteness doesn't guarantee our conclusions either way.

... as far as Samson's exploits are concerned, like anything, their actuality all depends on whether or not the God expressed in the pages of the Bible is real or not.

{By the way, your video is blocked for me, so I can't see it...}

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Some bible stories seem to be so outrageous that for many people they are just not credible.
There are those however who believe that every word of the bible is true and therefore every event recorded in that book is true.
One such story is that of Samson and his fight with the Philistines when he killed 1000 of them using nothing more than the jaw bone of an ass.
Do any of our CF posters really believe this event actually happened?
I have posted a link showing a clip from the Samson movie and his fight with the Philistines.
You could be excused for thinking it was a clip from The Incredible Hulk, and I could only begin to believe it was a true story if the Philistines were as inept at soldiering as the movie made them out to be.

It was a miracle. Be blessed.

 

[Tinker Grey]

It's like Bruce Lee and everybody waiting their turn to get their butts kicked.

 

[HTacianas]

Some bible stories seem to be so outrageous that for many people they are just not credible.
There are those however who believe that every word of the bible is true and therefore every event recorded in that book is true.
One such story is that of Samson and his fight with the Philistines when he killed 1000 of them using nothing more than the jaw bone of an ass.
Do any of our CF posters really believe this event actually happened?
I have posted a link showing a clip from the Samson movie and his fight with the Philistines.
You could be excused for thinking it was a clip from The Incredible Hulk, and I could only begin to believe it was a true story if the Philistines were as inept at soldiering as the movie made them out to be.

The stories in the bible are neither fact nor fiction, but are legend, meaning that they are embellishments of actual events. They are not meant to be taken as historical fact but are meant to convey a message.

 

[PuerAzaelis]

I think the EO understanding is right on as usual.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Dare we reduce God's work to human limitations.

God had a work to do using Samson as His servant.

God is not to be messed with - we seem to have lost sight of His Holy nature and intolerance of sin.

 

[Par5]

Dare we reduce God's work to human limitations.

God had a work to do using Samson as His servant.

God is not to be messed with - we seem to have lost sight of His Holy nature and intolerance of sin.

Are you saying that you actually believe Samson killed one thousand men in a fight using an animal bone?

 

[Carl Emerson]

I am saying that God did it using Samual in the process.

Some battles were fought and won without any human help.

 

[Par5]

I am saying that God did it using Samual in the process.

Some battles were fought and won without any human help.

You mean like the one just before he killed 1000men. Here Samson used 300 foxes that he caught, tied their tails together, placed a firebrand between the tails, and set them off running into the Philistine's cornfields.
That he was able to catch 300 foxes only goes to show that they must have been as dozy as the soldiers he slaughtered shortly after. Terrible cruel treatment of the poor foxes though. Good job animal welfare officers weren't about in those days.

 

[Paulomycin]

Do any of our CF posters really believe this event actually happened?

Yes. I believe it actually happened as stated in the scripture. Of course, Hollywood takes some artistic license. Yes, morale problems and disciplinary failure among troops is a very real thing. They're human beings; not robots.

Now then, the mistake that most atheists tend to make is when they compartmentalize the story/myth/historical account as-if it happened in a vacuum. No. The source of Samson's miraculous strength is, as always, an omnipotent being who does incredible things. Even through a man's own hair, if the Lord so wills. lol.

 

[cloudyday2]

Here is an interesting article about Samson and some quotes.

Samson’s conception story may be read subversively as the result of a union between a divine being and a mortal woman, making Samson a demi-god with superhuman characteristics. At the same time, the text keeps open the more mundane possibility that his father is Manoah and his powers are simply a gift from God.
...
In addition to his great strength, the text here implies, though it does not state definitively, that Samson is a giant: his arms spanned at least as wide as a large city gate, allowing him to tear the entire structure off its gateposts and carry it on his shoulders. Interpreting the verse, a baraita in the Babylonian Talmud makes this point explicitly (b. Sotah 10a)
...
This giant size is implied again in Samson’s final act of suicide. After he is captured and blinded, the Philistines take him out of his prison in Gaza into the Dagon Temple there, in order to poke fun at him during a celebration. Samson asks a lad to lead him to the two pillars that support the structure, which would generally be too far apart for a regular sized person to touch both.
...
Samson’s name, Shimshon, recalls the common noun used for “sun,” (šemeš), as well as the proper noun that serves as the name of a solar deity in several Semitic languages, such as the Akkadian sun god Šamaš. As the ending sound “ōn” is a diminutive, his name means something like “little sun” or, if he is meant to be a demigod, “son of the sun.”

Samson the Demigod? - TheTorah.com

 

[Paulomycin]

You mean like the one just before he killed 1000men. Here Samson used 300 foxes that he caught, tied their tails together, placed a firebrand between the tails, and set them off running into the Philistine's cornfields.
That he was able to catch 300 foxes only goes to show that they must have been as dozy as the soldiers he slaughtered shortly after. Terrible cruel treatment of the poor foxes though. Good job animal welfare officers weren't about in those days.

Or in the days of animal research.

Yay science. lol.

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

Yes. I believe it actually happened as stated in the scripture.

Why do you believe the story is true?

 

[Paulomycin]

Why do you believe the story is true?

Because the whole redemption story, the entire Biblical narrative, assumes the existence of God all the way back on page 1, chapter 1, verse 1, as well as assumes an omnipotent being is provable in nature and nature's laws thereof (Romans 1:18-20).

Outside the Bible. If one takes the Bible literally, then it is literally saying that God existed before the Bible did. So, "the Bible is true because the Bible says so," is sorta false. Or, incomplete.

 

[Paulomycin]

Why do you believe the story is true?

Or put more simply: Nature proves an omnipotent being >> omnipotence is capable of miracles >> therefore, accounts of miracles (though extremely rare) are not completely unreasonable.

(If one stretches the timeline of the Bible out, the cases of miraculous activity over time is very infrequent)

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

Or put more simply: Nature proves an omnipotent being >> omnipotence is capable of miracles >> therefore, accounts of miracles (though extremely rare) are not completely unreasonable.

(If one stretches the timeline of the Bible out, the cases of miraculous activity over time is very infrequent)

How does nature prove an omnipotent being? This is just an assertion. You even said the bible assumes this.

 

[Paulomycin]

You even said the bible assumes this.

Yes, the Bible assumes this after the fact of God's prior existence. It's the clear distinction between the Doctrines of General Revelation (nature) vs. Special Revelation (the Bible).

It's, "God first exists, and then speaks."

Not, "God speaks, therefore, God exists." <-- That's problematic. Any professing Christian who proposed this needs to be stuffed in a crate and shipped back to seminary.

How does nature prove an omnipotent being? This is just an assertion.

No. I'm referring to Thomism. The law of causality was never refuted. Thus, it's an absolute truth that proves a Prime Mover. Then there's Kurt Gödel's proof of God. Descartes' proof of God from absolute skepticism, and on and on and on. . .700+ years worth of proof and evidence of an omnipotent being.

Most of us are under the mistaken idea that since we were raised in secular schools, that proof and evidence of God were clearly missing. No, they were all omitted from the secular curriculum and never disproven as-such.

 

[Paulomycin]

How does nature prove an omnipotent being? This is just an assertion. You even said the bible assumes this.

BTW, are you okay with this drifting away from the OP? Just wondering.

 

[cloudyday2]

Or put more simply: Nature proves an omnipotent being >> omnipotence is capable of miracles >> therefore, accounts of miracles (though extremely rare) are not completely unreasonable.

What about God's style? Does it seem in keeping with God's style that Samson would be enabled to miraculously catch hundreds of innocent foxes, tie their tails together, attach torches to them, and start a fire to harm the Philistines? Wouldn't it seem more likely that God would simply cause the Philistine crops to wither without all the cartoon-like silliness?