Samson was on a mission from God to never drink alcohol, to not eat honey found in a lion's carcass, and to not cut his hair ever. FORESHADOWING! bit.ly/EMPatreon

I’ve been saying for years that Samson could have his own God of War style game.

Summarising the story in one sentence: "Pfuh, boi that escalated quickly."

So that's how we got to have firefox

Gilgamesh: I am the broest bro to ever bro. Samson: Bro, hold my beer (if you're strong enough). Everyone: You're a NAZARITE! You're not supposed to drink!

He ripped a lions head in half... That is so Metal I can’t even

is Samson the first Florida Man? Florida Man Ties Flames to Foxes Florida Man caught planing to kill 30 people for Laundry Florida Man tears Lion in Half and eats Unidentified honey out of the corpse

Technically, most Nazarite vows only lasted seven years, Samson’s situation was a unique one.

Thing to remember: the Book of Judges is about how the twelve tribes of Israel repeatedly fell short of the requirements given to them by God. Sampson is, from a literary view, supposed to be emblematic of those shortcomings. This is also, by no means, the most messed up story in that book (looking at you, implied child sacrifice of Jephthah in Judges chapter 12)

Fun fact: In the UK we have golden syrup that has a dead lion and bees on it's packaging - based off this story

So a HUGE thank you for covering this. As an orthodox jew it's fascinating to see how they get interpreted by other cultures. A couple minor things: being a nazirite wasn't a "life sentence" generally. The minimum period was 30 days, after which you bring an offering to the temple as part of the ceremony to cut and burn the hair. Samson was a unique case in that he wasn't as restricted as a standard nazirite - he was only DIRECTLY restricted from the hair cutting, even though his mother was told to refrain from all the other nazirite aspects. As such, it's not clear whether he was in fact prohibit from contact with the dead or consumption of wine. All that aside, Samson is never held up as an upstanding citizen. If anything, he's sort of a jewish antihero, the Hebrew Batman, if you will...

You missed a big detail. His thirty groomsmen were philistines, he killed other philistines to pay them. He didn’t kill other Jews.

"A covenant they had just broken." Again.

A point to make about Samson being "unreasonable". The story makes it clear he is looking for a fight with the Philistines. He purposefully stirs up trouble to antagonize them and provoke them into retaliating or being jerks so he could "justify" attacking them.

To be fair the hiding in a cave after burning the food supply is a reasonable thing to do.

I like how he is essentially a Jewish D&D barbarian

I’m a Christian and I love that you are telling bible stories in an unbiased telling. Of the story

Some details that you got slightly wrong: -It never actually says that Samson's mother prayed for a child, merely that she had no children. -The nazirite oath actually prohibits all grapes, even if not fermented. As others have noted, it also is not usually for one's entire life; Samson was an exception in this regard. -It seems from the text that his parents were not actually present when he killed the lion; for whatever reason (one suggestion is that he was avoiding the vineyards to avoid the temptation to eat grapes, being a nazirite), he was alone during the incident. -It doesn't say that the spirit of God burned way his bonds, but rather that it caused his bonds to be (due to his immense strength) like fire-scorched flax (i.e. extremely weak). Also, as for why the honey doesn't count as an unclean thing under nazirite rules: Only certain things are prohibited to the nazirite, and something that merely touched an animal carcass is not among them. (The command to his mother to refrain from unclean things presumably means those things that are a concern for a nazirite).

Electronic Arts, being the company of upstanding gentlemen they are, decided to remove lootboxes and microtransactions with the realization that it preys off the commitment of its customers for petty gain... *... except no they didn't, and pushed microtransactions until it was deemed illegal.*

4:49 Apparently, fathers trying to trick/cheat the protagonist into marrying the _other_ daughter is also kind of a theme...

As someone who takes this story seriously, I appreciate the consideration and accuracy that went into this video. You put a lot of effort into getting this right, and I especially like how you mention the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Samson. That's a crucial detail to the narrative, and it's one that's easy to miss.

I like how you cleared the definition of "myth" up as to not offend people and stir up controversy

A bit of a cultural note, but I think the “Judge” was in more sense “a military leader” (imagine FF12), not the like Western version of judge.

I thiiiiink God should have put a couple moore rules on that oath XD

With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men.

This is by far the best retelling of the story of Samson and Delilah that I have yet come across. Can't wait for next weeks episode. It's funny how you don't realize how weird and bizarre these stories are, until someone tells them to you outside of your Sunday School.

Oh boy, as an Israeli it's so weird to hear this tale in English. Also, PLEASE DO MORE BIBLE STORIES! בדיעבד, הייתי צריכה לכתוב את זה בעברית, הגויים לא צריכים לדעת...

“Then he did something reasonable. Wait, no he didn’t, he...” 😂 A PERFECT MEME FOR A BUNCH OF OT DUDES!!

Samsons riddle makes Bilbo Baggins final riddle look quite fair in compairson.

Extra Credit: starts making jokes about the madness and bloodiness of the Old Testament. Old Testament: You ain’t seen nothin yet!

That was actually pretty faithful to the original text, thanks for treating it with respect.

Israel: *Breaks Covenant with God God: How many times do we have to teach you old man!

"OH WAIT, NO HE DIDN'T!" is the new "GET 'EEEEEEEEM!"

The honey thing was actually against the nazarite vow but it symbolizes Sampson's steps from God.

To do an Old Testament story on this channel, you picked a good one. Few are going to get very "up in arms" about the story of Samson and Delilah being here (except maybe Samson). I thought you did a great job with it!

I can't help but feel Samson failed in his oath the moment he grabbed that honey from a corpse... and you know, killing random people for some clothes.

Takes some serious courage to upload a Bible story in a series called extra mythology, I respect that.

"With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." And they say video games are violent.

Apparently my children's bible didn't tell the whole story of Samson

All were upstanding gentlemen back then.

"Who has tied 300 foxes together to burn our crops without getting nipped to death?" "Eh, probably the dude strong enough to tear a lion apart with his bare hands."

Lol... love the "Disclaimer" in the begining

darkmatter2525 has made a really good cartoon covering this story called "Samson Da Barbarian"

As my women in religion professor once said, "Samson had one role, to kill Philistines and that's all, and he's really good at it" lol

When i was a kid this was the first story i read that didn't have a happy ending

4:32 And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he (Sampson) said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. Judges 14&18 I think Sampson knew how they got the riddle...

Appreciate all these contributions, I always look forward to each one.

1. I love hearing these old testament stories, especially the ones less popular than Moses or David 2. I'm starting to notice a common thread in Jewish history...

I feel like if orcs from the Warhammer Universe had myths this would be one.

Judges 15:16 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey- one heap, two heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I struck down 1,000 men.” I always thought that verse was funny

Samson's tale in a nutshell: *OH WAIT BUT HE/THEY DIDN'T!*

You forgot what he said after the riddle "if you haven't plowed with thy Heffer,you wouldn't have solved thy riddle"

Old Testament was metal As reference watch the Prince of Egypt

This video is basically Fractured Fairy Tales: Bible Edition

The honey was inside the lion's carcass aka "an unclean thing".

All this going down and Sansom's Mother looking out a window seeing the town, her ex daughter in-law and such on fire "I told him so..."

Me, a Christian, starting at the beginning of the video: “Ok, lets see how accurate they get this...

Ah, yes. Sampson, the only man throughout history to wear long hair and facial hair, and NOT get called a hipster.

And then everyone, regardless of beliefs old and new, respected and enjoyed the religion of the episode. Oh wait... No they didn't. People couldn't resist making edgy comments mocking other people's religion/irreligion and culture and started a flame war. Seriously; love and respect everyone. No matter how stupid you think their beliefs and culture are.

I just want to give a huge shout-out to Extra Credits for videos like this. Coming from a family of Bible thumpers, the story of Samson has always been a favorite, but the presentation here made it feel new, exciting, and just fun to watch. Love it!!!!

Fun Fact: Honey has antibacterial properties and actually has an infinite shelf life. - So while eating honey from an lion's carcass is 110% disgusting, it might not be as... unsanitary... as you might think.

Me: (clicks on the video) KZfaq: (puts an ad of World Video Bible School) Me: Hmmmmm.

“How do you tie 300 foxes together without being nipped to death?” Samson: Uh.....because I’m awesome?

Petition to make Samson the new Kratos, because both are insanely strong and frankly equally well-adjusted

I find Samson to be one of the most hilarious stories of the Bible, straight out of a Monty Python sketch

This is why you don't make riddles out of inside jokes.

I love how DONE Sampson's parents are.

I clicked on this video and *BAM* *ArE tHe JeWs GoD's ChOsEn PeOpLe*

Sansom: Mom and Dad, I'm in love with a Philistine woman and STRONGER THAN BOTH OF YOU!

that angel should have been WAY creepier tho

“You shave my head! As clean as my hand. Man strength comes natural, as any other man”

I'll admit when I saw this in my feed from you guys, I clicked on the link with a certain amount of trepidation. Yes, I'd noticed the disclaimer at the start of the last few episodes, and I couldn't help but wonder if that was appearing because you were planning on tackling some of the Biblical narrative - and I’m very pleased that you did. I’m actually part of a group that does Biblical Storytelling in Australia - we did a fair chunk of the Book of Judges many years ago, and our goal is always to get people to engage with the text anew. Sometimes people need to be given permission to laugh, cry and connect with these stories, and Biblical Storytelling has been an effective tool to do so. And those parts which were funny (the foxes and torches part is a personal favourite) we presented in a way that highlighted how crazy the whole situation was, and you guys did likewise. In both cases, (yours and ours) I think we managed to be respectful to the source material. Thanks for your refreshing approach to this, as this is more than just a crazy story for me but part of the history of God’s people and hence part of my faith story. Looking forward to the next episode!

Ain't that some rollercoaster ride. Grew up with these stories and never heard about what a di... I mean, honourable man Samson was.

Yeah, Samson's story is of what not to do with the gifts that God gives. Contrast this with Joseph who was gifted with dream interpretation and who unlike Samson did not fall into temptation. I remember one of my favorite sermons growing up was one that compared Samson and Joseph and how Joseph proved to be the better man.

1:35 The Nazirite vows weren't necessarily for one's entire life, just until the terms of the oath were complete. In Samson's case, it seems to be a lifetime vow, but that wasn't universal to all such oaths. Nazirite vows are defined and described in Numbers 6.

There was so overly sarcastic I thought for a minute I'd clicked on the wrong mythology channel

4:18 this near by village is my city, Ashkelon, but I think that we love this story maybe too much

I actually know this story so if this is how you treat myths I'm now interested in reading the OTHER myths you guys did to see what details you left out of them too.

Just how amazing this channel channel is

Great job covering such an important Biblical story that mean so much to so many people. I know how tough it can be covering a living tradition, but you did it with grace and comedy.

The book of Judges is akin to the Age of Heroes in Game of Thrones. It was the period that gave us legendary heroes like Gideon and Samson. However, if you read the book as a whole, you realize that the main theme is deterioration. The people continuously disobey God while the heroes themselves are progressively corrupt, eventually culminating in the genocidal Benjamite War. Samson, as the last Judge before said war, is in fact the most morally-corrupt Judge in the book. Most of the better known Judges were actually horrible people. The whole book was written to validate the need for a united kingdom. "In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Being a good and respectful subscriber, *insert every singol fan here* waited for the next extra mythology episode. *Oh wait no he didn't, he prepared to track down every single MAN AND WOMAN of extra credits' cast and kidnap them to force them to immediately start make the sequel episode.*

How did I miss this on release, this is your best yet... the contrasting, wow... "because clearly that was the most reasonable thing to do."

This was pretty accurately done! A few like things: him getting the honey from the dead lion was, in fact, breaking the vow not to touch a corpse. The point of the story is that even though Samson repeatedly broke the vows and the laws, God was merciful in allowing him how strength. It was only when he broke the final vow that God took his strength from him.

I’m not first I’m not last But when I saw this vid I clicked fast.

Very well done! Love seeing Bible stories made more accessible! Looking forward to the next one!

For some reason i have been waiting for a video like this to come out

Thanks for doing this series

What a great mythos, I want to build my whole life around the book this comes from.

Boy howdy. I should reread this to figure out how much younger self sanitized all these absolutely metal details from memory.

if she breathes she's a Delilah - judges 16

Boy, that was a rollercoaster of emotions.

Man, I wish the Spirit of God came to me. I don't want to murder people; I just don't want to have to struggle with depression.

4:29 my face when my teacher has us put in to groups

Love this series!

There’s so many moments of “oh wait, no he didn’t” and honestly, I’m here for this.

Can u do a little bit more on World War 2 on Extra history....I just love your War series

My god..... the madness of the “holy book of prophets”.

Nord mythology:We have the most wild craps in our story! Old testament:Hold my Yhwe

This is the most entertaining version of this story that I have ever heard.