Calculating Delilah
If she was even half as pretty as Hedy Lamarr, who played her in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1949 film, it is easy to see why Samson was fascinated with Delilah. Fascinated too, over the centuries, were those many readers of Holy Scripture who found in the tragic romance of Delilah and the Danite the stuff of (as Milton remarks) “Acts enroll’d/ In copious Legend, or sweet Lyric Song.”
However, the romance was mainly on Samson’s side, it would seem. While the Bible asserts that he loved Delilah (Judges 16:4), it does not even faintly hint that she loved him. Much less do the pair appear to have been married. Milton’s Samson Agonistes is an exception in regarding them as such, though Chaucer (“The Monk’s Tale”) does extract from their dolorous story a practical if dubious domestic counsel—namely, that wives are not to be trusted in matters touching limb and life.
The Delilah of DeMille’s film is a Philistine, and this construction of the story is common. Indeed, Saint-Saëns’ opera on the theme portrays her as an ardent nationalist, eager to avenge the Philistines’ humiliation at Samson’s hand.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
22.6—July/August 2009
on the Integration of Anger into the Virtuous Life by Leon J. Podles
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
