Romanticizing Samson’s Mother

Samson’s mother is nameless in the Hebrew Bible. Little is said about her as a person. Roughly two millennia ago, in three sources of Rewritten Bibles her character is fleshed out, she becomes much more of a real figure. This article addresses specific verses pertaining to her in Judges 13 showing how they were recast in three pieces of literature from the Late Second Temple period and beyond. The three works are Josephus’ Judean Antiquities; Biblical Antiquities (Pseudo-Philo – Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum [L.A.B.]); and the homiletic discourse, Pseudo-Philo’s “On Samson.