The New View of Delilah as a 'Sex and the City' Type of Woman

The tale of Samson and Delilah has migrated over the centuries from the realm of Sunday-school stories to its current place in modern culture as—depending on one's perspective—a morality play, a feminine discourse, or a caution to lovesick men. Samson has become a byword for strength, Delilah a synonym for temptress. The crossroads of their lives is a train wreck whose meaning remains open to interpretation.

To recount the basics: Samson is the strong man who defends Israel, meets beautiful Delilah, and falls under her spell. His strength comes directly from God and depends on his hair never being cut, but Delilah pries that secret from him, his locks are shorn, and he falls from God's grace. It is a classic tale of romance and betrayal, complete with violence, money, and special effects. But like most biblical stories, what is not said about Delilah is as important as what is.

Who was Delilah? Was she a pawn, a Judas, or a strong woman and survivor? And what is this story really all about? "It's a story about God delivering Israel," says Susan Ackerman, professor of religion and women's and gender studies at Dartmouth College. Though, she adds, "one of the things that always strikes me about this story is what an unbelievable idiot Samson is."

Samson was an Israelite hero in the 13th century B.C. The Israelites' enemies included the Philistines, a loose confederation of city-states ruled by five lords. Samson's birth was foretold by an angel who appeared to his mother and extracted a promise from her that the boy would be consecrated to God, with this consecration cemented by a vow to refrain from drinking alcohol, touching dead bodies, and cutting his hair. In return, Samson was blessed with extraordinary powers—the long list of his feats well known throughout the ancient world. He became one of the judges of Israel, guiding the Hebrew people.

Samson's deeds now seem extreme in their violence. Whether it was dismantling and carrying on his shoulders the huge gate to the city of Gaza, tearing out two mountains with his bare hands, wrestling a lion to its death, slaying a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass, or tying flaming torches to the tails of 300 foxes to burn down his enemies' grain and olive orchards, Samson was definitely a thorn in the side of the Philistines.

Samson, perhaps predictably, did not have a good track record with women. His name, meaning "sun hero," was an indication of the temperature of his passion in love and in war. He would visit a prostitute, a point singled out in the Bible, and had a weakness for Philistine women. At the rehearsal dinner for his first marriage, he made a bet with his guests, which his fiancée later divulged. Enraged, he slaughtered 30 men to pay off his wager, and his bride-to-be was burned to death in retaliation.

Thus it was Delilah's misfortune—or fortune, depending on one's perspective—that Samson's lustful eye settled on her. One of the few women in the Old Testament not identified as a mother or wife, Delilah is unique. "She was obviously a powerful woman," says Gale Yee, professor of Hebrew Bible at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "She'd be fine nowadays, a real Sex and the City type of woman."

And though Delilah's reputation has been dragged through centuries of interpretation as an evil seductress who brought down a hero, Ackerman tells students to stay open to other explications of the text. "Nowhere in the Bible does it say Delilah is a prostitute, which is very commonly assumed," says Ackerman. "I always say, 'Show me where it says that in the Bible.' " Indeed, Delilah may have been a widow, Ackerman says. "She's clearly a woman who is independent of a man, and widows would fit that description."

Whatever her marital status, her community stature was high enough for each of the five lords of the Philistines to offer her 1,100 pieces of silver if she would discover Samson's weakness so they could destroy him. We do not even know from the Bible whether Delilah was an Israelite or a Philistine. "Winners write the history,'' says Ackerman. "I think she would come out looking quite well if we had the Philistine Bible.''

Betrayal is the concept most often associated with Delilah's actions when she agreed to the Philistines' request. But nowhere do we read that Delilah loved Samson; only that he loved her. Yee says the characterization of Delilah is often based on popular culture, pointing out: "There isn't any evidence that she seduced this guy; he fell in love with her." Nor is the image of Delilah as wily temptress supported by the biblical text. Ackerman notes that when she speaks to some alumnae groups, "they think of Deli-lah as a scantily clad Hedy Lamarr, like in the 1940s movie Samson and Delilah."

In fact, Delilah was direct and aboveboard in her attempt to find out the truth from Samson. "If you read the text, Delilah asks Samson, 'Please tell me what makes your strength so great and how you could be bound so that one could subdue you,' '' says Yee. "Then he tells a lie. You'd think he would clue in that she wants to know how he could be vanquished. He's the one who in his answers lies to her every time."

It's also not clear from the text whether Delilah pressed Samson for the secret of his strength because she was loyal to the Philistines, because she wanted the money offered to her, or because she was strong-armed into it. "The Bible doesn't give motivation," says Yee. Nor do we know Samson's motivation for revealing the secret on the fourth occasion. "He may be teasing her, or he may have an unconscious wish to be bound and vanquished by this woman," says Yee. "The biblical text engages your imagination so that you have questions about why Samson is nuts enough to do this three times."

In what is one of the most familiar stories of a strong man turned weak in the hands of a woman, Samson lies in Delilah's lap after his confession and is lulled to sleep. While she cradles his head, Delilah calls in a man to cut Samson's hair, robbing him of his superhuman strength and any hope of continuing as the Israelites' warrior. In Ackerman's view, this imagery is profoundly sexual. "Hair is a very sexual motif," she explains, particularly for ancient Israelites. "The whole business of the hair would have been a little bit titillating, as would the reference to Samson's head in her lap."

In spilling his secret to Delilah, Samson breaks his vow and suffers God's consequences. Shorn, humiliat-ed, and the prisoner of his Philistine enemies, Sam-son is bound, and his eyes are gouged out. In a final blow to his manhood, he is put to work in prison on a job viewed as a woman's chore—milling grain.

The story culminates not long afterward with the Philistines celebrating at an agricultural festival in the Temple of Dagon by bringing the ruined wreck of Samson out to parade around for their enjoyment. Unnoticed by them, his hair has begun to grow back and, with it, his strength. Standing between the pillars that support the temple, he calls on God to give him one more chance at redemption. In a final and impressive show of God-given power, the blind giant pulls down the pillars, collapses the temple, and dies with the 3,000 Philistines who have gathered to mock him.

There is no further mention of Delilah. Some biblical scholars suggest that she was at the Temple of Dagon to view her handiwork and perished with Samson. If she survived and lived out her days as a rich and vindicated heroine, perhaps she would not care that her actions are now often portrayed as those of a seductress and Judas rather than a clever survivor forever linked to a violent bully who ultimately was beaten by a girl. "I like feisty women, so I like Delilah," says Ackerman, who has named one of her Airedale terriers after the woman who brought Samson down.