This post is for paid subscribers. If you’ve been encouraged by the content of this Biblical Theology site, and if you’d like to have complete and unending access to hundreds of archived articles, consider supporting this newsletter in 2026! Your support is a blessing and an encouragement.
Over on the Westminster Books site, Denny Burk’s new book Mere Complementarianism is on sale. And there’s a super discount on David Gibson’s book The Lord of Psalm 23. If you find some books you like, use “CHASE” as a promo code at checkout for an even lower total.
There are twelve judges in the book of Judges, and the last one is Samson. When the biblical author introduces his story, he tells it across four chapters—the most space dedicated to any of Israel’s judges in the book.
Samson’s story is told across Judges 13, 14, 15, and 16. But the judge’s exploits do not begin in the opening chapter. The only thing Samson does in Judges 13 is get born. The entirety of this chapter is a birth narrative, and that fact is very unusual when we compare it to the other stories of the judges. Nobody else gets a birth narrative in the book.
So, if an entire chapter is devoted to setting up Samson’s story, then the biblical author must be suggesting the importance of the man who is to come.
Not only is Samson’s story introduced by a birth narrative, there are also some remarkable features of the story worth pointing out.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.