Samson

Samson is the last of the major judges in the Book of Judges. His story opens with a visitor, called the angel of the Lord, who tells the childless wife of Manoah that she will bear a son to be a Nazirite from birth: no wine, and no razor on his head. When Manoah asks the visitor's name, he answers that it is secret, or wonderful. Manoah offers a sacrifice, and the visitor goes up to heaven in the flame of the altar (Judges 13).

The child grows into a man of unnatural strength who kills a lion bare-handed and a thousand Philistines with a donkey's jawbone. Delilah learns that his strength depends on his uncut hair and betrays him; the Philistines blind him. In the end he pulls down the pillars of the temple of Dagon at Gaza, killing himself and many Philistines.

Scholars note that his name comes from the Hebrew word for sun and compare him with folk heroes such as Heracles; some see a solar myth behind the story. He is known only from Judges.