From S. E. Lampitt
I hesitate to spoil a good discussion about the cause of Samson’s behaviour
(17 February, p 19).
But the reason Samson was told not to drink—or cut
his hair—was because he was a Nazirite: one specially dedicated to
God.
Nazirites never drank wine. This reflected the old nomadic, desert-dwelling
days of some of the early Israelites. A few families carried on this somewhat
puritanical approach to life, for example the Rechabites mentioned in
Jeremiah, long after most Israelites became settled, urbanised wine
drinkers. For Samson to be the complete Nazirite his mother was not to drink
during the pregnancy.
As for his behaviour, it is a matter of opinion whether it was deviant and in
need of a sociological explanation, or that of a national hero, keeping hope
alive in the dark days of Philistine oppression.
Warwick
