Judges 13
ECFJudges 13:1
Ambrose of Milan: The Philistines for many years kept the Hebrew people in subjection; for they had lost the prerogative of faith, whereby their fathers had gained victories. Yet had not their Maker wholly blotted out the mark of their election nor the lot of their inheritance; but as they were often puffed up by success, He for the most part delivered them into the hand of their enemies, that thus, after the manner of men, they might be led to seek for themselves the remedy of their evils from heaven. For it is when any adversity oppresses us, that we submit ourselves to God; good fortune is wont to puff up the mind. This is proved by experience, as in other instances, so particularly in that change of fortune whereby success returned again from the Philistines to the Hebrews. — Letter 19.9
Judges 13:2
Ambrose of Milan: After the spirit of the Hebrews had been so subdued by the pressure of a long subjection that no one dared with a manly spirit to rouse them to liberty, Samson, fore-ordained by the Divine oracle, was raised up to them. A great man he was, not one of the multitude, but first among the few, and beyond controversy far excelling all in bodily strength. And he is to be regarded by us with great admiration from the beginning, not because in his early abstinence from vice he gave signal proofs of temperance and sobriety, nor on account of his long preserving as a Nazarite his locks unshorn, but because from his very youth, which in others is an age of softness, he achieved illustrious deeds of virtue, perfect beyond the measure of human nature. By these he gained credence to the Divine prophecy, that it was not for nothing that such grace had gone before upon him, that an Angel came down by whom his birth beyond their hopes was announced to his parents, to be the leader and protector of his countrymen, now for a length of years harassed by the tyranny of the Philistines.
His father was of the tribe of Dan, a man fearing God, born of no mean rank, and eminent above others, his mother was barren of body, but in virtues of the mind not unfruitful; seeing that in the sanctuary of her soul she was counted worthy to receive the visit of an Angel, obeyed his command and fulfilled his prophecy. Not enduring however to know the secrets even of God apart from her husband she mentioned to him that she had seen a man of God, of beautiful form, bringing her the Divine promise of future offspring, and that she, confiding in this promise, was led to share with her husband her faith in the heavenly promises. — Letter 19.10-11
Bede: Thus Jacob, the patriarch Joseph, Samson, [who was] the bravest of the chieftains, and Samuel, [who was] the most distinguished of the prophets, [all] had as their progenitors [mothers who were] for a long time barren in body but always fruitful in virtues. In this way their dignity would be known from the miraculous nativity of those who were born, and it might be proven that they would be famous in their lives, since at the very outset of their lives they transcended the norms of the human condition. — Homilies on the Gospels 2.19
Judges 13:4
Augustine of Hippo: We can ask why the angel told Samson’s mother, by announcing to her, that she was sterile, that she was going to have a child, the following words: But now beware of drinking wine and fermented drink and do not eat anything impure. What is an impure thing? Perhaps it is a relaxation of discipline, which had begun to spread in Israel and which would have led people to eat things forbidden by God, related to different animals (Cf Deuteronomy 14,3). Why should we not believe that the people could have been much more inclined to do these things precisely because they also committed sins related to the cult of idols? — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 50 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Judges 13:6
Augustine of Hippo: Samson’s mother tells her husband how the angel announced the birth of the son: I asked him where he was from, and his name, and he did not tell me. Regarding this, you may wonder if this woman told the truth, since this is not read in the scene in which the angel spoke to her. You have to think that the Scripture omitted it there and said here what it had omitted there. It should also be noted that the mother does not say: I asked her what her name was and she did not tell me her name; but it says: I asked him where he was from. And this seems an incongruity with what follows: and he did not tell me his name. Because the woman, when asked where she was from, had not asked her the name, but the place or city where she was from, thinking she was a man. She said he was a man of God, but looked like an angel because of the look or the dress, that is, because he saw him as enlightened as she said. Well, if the sentence is divided like this: I asked him where he was from and his name, understanding: “I asked him”, and then he adds: and he did not say it, the whole problem disappears. Actually, the words: and he did not tell me, they can refer to both, that is, he did not tell him where he was from or his name. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 51 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Judges 13:7
Augustine of Hippo: Nor is it read that the angel told this woman what she says that she said: Because the child will be a Nazir of God from the womb (of his mother) until the day of his death. And, on the other hand, the woman does not mention what she does read that the angel told her: He will comment on saving Israel from the hand of the Philistines (Jc 13,5). And she did not say anything she heard either, and, on the other hand, you should not think she said something that she had not been told. Actually, the Scripture has not said all the words of the angel when he introduces it to the narrative by talking to the woman. It is said: From the womb (of his mother) until the day of his death, precisely because in the law it was called nazir to whom he made a vow for a time, according to what was prescribed in the Scripture by Moses (Cf Numbers 6,2-21). This is what Samson is told not to put a razor on his head and not to drink wine or fermented drink. Samson observed all his life what was observed on certain days by those who had made the vow of nazireat and fulfilled it. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 52 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Judges 13:8
Ambrose of Milan: But he, informed of this, devoutly offered his prayers to God, that the grace of this vision might be conferred on him also, saying, “To me, Lord, let Thine Angel come.”
I am of opinion therefore that it was not from jealousy of his wife, because she was remarkable for her beauty that he acted thus, as one writer has supposed, but rather that he was filled with desire of the Divine grace, and sought to participate in the benefit of the heavenly vision. For one whose mind was depraved could not have found such favour with the Lord, as that an Angel should return to his house, who, having given those monitions which the Divine announcement made requisite, was suddenly carried away in the form of a smoking flame. This sight, which terrified the man, the woman interpreted more auspiciously, and so removed his solicitude, in that to see God is a sign of good not evil. — Letter 19.11-12
Judges 13:15
Augustine of Hippo: What does Manoe say to his wife: We will die without remedy, because we have seen God (Jc 13,22), after the angel, who spoke with Manoe and his wife, told them who he was? Indeed, according to those words of the law, which says: No one can see the face of God and continue to live (Exodus 33,20), they thought, as men, that they had seen God through such a great miracle, because the angel, that little before he had spoken with them, like a man, he stood in the fire of sacrifice. But did they believe that God was in the angel or did they believe that the angel was God? The Scripture says: And Manoah took the kid of the goats and the sacrifice offered him on the stone to the Lord, who does wonderful things. And Manoé and his wife waited. And it came to pass that as the flame of the altar ascended toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. And Manoé and his wife waited. And they fell face to the ground. And the angel of the Lord did not continue appearing more Manoe and his wife. Then Manoé knew that he was the angel of the Lord, and Manoé said to his wife: “We will die without remedy, because we have seen God” (Jc 13,19-22). As in the previous words Manoé did not say: we will die without remedy because we have seen an angel of the Lord, but because we have seen God, the question arises whether they thought that God was in the angel or called God the angel. The hypothesis that they believed that it was God who was an angel can not be affirmed, since the Scripture says expressly: Then Manoe knew that he was the angel of the Lord. But why were they afraid to die? The Scripture in the Exodus had not said: no one sees the face of an angel and will live, but God had said, speaking himself: my face. Is it perhaps that Manoe, recognizing God in the presence of the angel, was so disturbed that he feared he would die? His wife replied: If the Lord had wanted to kill us, he would not have received the burnt offering and the sacrifice from our hands, nor would he have made us known all these things, nor would he have made us hear all this (Jc 13,23). Did they believe, then, that the angel had received the sacrifice, because they saw him being in the flame that came up from the altar, or did they think that the Lord accepted the sacrifice because the angel did it to show himself as an angel? Whatever the explanation, the angel had already said: But if you prepare a burnt offering, you will offer it to the Lord (Jc 13,16), not to me, but to the Lord. The fact that the angel was in the flame that came up from the altar seems to mean rather that angel of the great council in the form of a servant, that is, in the man in whom the sacrifice would fall, not who would receive it, but would be himself the sacrifice itself. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 54 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Judges 13:16
Athanasius of Alexandria: Therefore to God alone appertains worship, and this the very angels know, that though they excel other beings in glory, yet they are all creatures and not to be worshiped, but worship the Lord. Thus Manoah, the father of Samson, wishing to offer sacrifice to the angel, was thereupon hindered by him, saying, “Offer not to me, but to God.” On the other hand, the Lord is worshiped even by the angels; for it is written: “Let all the angels of God worship him.” — Discourses Against the Arians 2.16.23
Augustine of Hippo: The Scripture says that Manoe did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. It is clear that his wife also believed that he was a man. In saying Manoe: Let us hold you by force and prepare a kid in your presence, invite him as if he were a man, but to eat with him the sacrifice he had prepared. Because it is not usually said that a kid is prepared more than when a sacrifice is offered. The angel responds to him thus: If you hold me by force, I will not eat your bread. From this it follows that he had been invited to eat. Then he adds: If you prepare a holocaust (Jc 13,16), precisely because Manoe had said: Let’s prepare a kid in your presence. Not every sacrifice was a holocaust. The holocaust did not eat anything, because it burned whole; That’s why it was called a holocaust. But the angel, who was not even going to eat, advised him to prepare a holocaust, not for himself, but for the Lord. And this he did mainly because the people of Israel at that time were accustomed to offering sacrifices to any false god (Cf Jc 13,1); and then he had offended God in such a way that he was handed over to his enemies for forty years. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 53 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Judges 13:18
Gregory of Nyssa: And so, too, the word that was spoken to Manoah shows the fact that the Divinity is not comprehensible by the significance of His name, because, when Manoah asks to know His name, that, when the promise has come actually to pass, he may by name glorify his benefactor, He says to him, “Why askest thou this? It also is wonderful”; so that by this we learn that there is one name significant of the Divine Nature—the wonder, namely, that arises unspeakably in our hearts concerning It. — AGAINST EUNOMIUS 8.1
Pacian of Barcelona: On the name Catholic I answered fully and with calmness. For I said, that it mattered to neither, what the other was called. And if you demanded the meaning of the name, I said that, whatever it might be, it was wonderful, whether it was ‘one in all,’ or ‘one over all,’ or (an interpretation which I have not mentioned before,) ’the king’s son,’ that is, ’the Christian people.’ Certainly too that was no accessory name which endured through so many ages. And indeed I am glad for thee that although thou mayest have preferred others, yet thou agreest that the name attaches to us. What, should you deny? Nature would cry out. But and if you still have doubts, let us hold our peace. We will both be that which we shall be named, witness the antiquity of the name. If, however, thou perseverest in asking, beware lest that man of might exclaim, Why askest thou thus after My Name, seeing it is wonderful? I next added, that we need not consider, whence Catholics derived this name, because neither was it wont to be any imputation against the Valentinians, if they were called after Valentinus, nor the Phrygians, if from Phrygia, nor the Novatians, if after Novatian. — LETTER 2.2
Judges 13:20
Augustine of Hippo: For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other natural substance or physical species; and a person [is able] to use, face, tongue, hand, pen, letters, or any other means for the purpose of communicating the secret things of his own mind: in a word, if, though he is human, he sends human messengers, and he says to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to his servant, “Do this,” and he does it"; with how much greater and more effectual power does God—to whom, as Lord, all things are subject—use both angel and man in order to declare whatever pleases him? — EXPLANATIONS OF THE Psalms 78.5
Judges 13:22
Gregory of Nazianzus: And are you not amazed at Manoah the Judge of yore… the one being unable to endure the sight even of one in whom was a representation of God; and saying, “We are undone, O wife, we have seen God;” speaking as though even a vision of God could not be grasped by human beings, let alone the Nature of God. — THEOLOGICAL ORATIONS 2 (28).19
Judges 13:25
Ambrose of Milan: And why should i speak of all one by one? Samson, born by the divine promise, had the Spirit accompanying him, for we read: “The Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the camp.” And so foreshadowing the future mystery, he demanded a wife of the aliens, which, as it is written, his father and mother knew not of, because it was from the Lord. And rightly was he esteemed stronger than others, because the Spirit of the Lord guided him, under Whose guidance he alone put to flight the people of the aliens, and at another time inaccessible to the bite of the lion, he, unconquerable in his strength, tore him asunder with his hands. Would that he had been as careful to preserve grace, as strong to overcome the beast! — On the Holy Spirit 2, Introduction, 5
Ambrose of Milan: Above, you read that “the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to go with him.” Farther on it is said, “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” Again he says, “If I be shaven, my strength will depart from me.” After he was shaven, see what the Scripture says: “The Lord,” it says, “departed from him.“4You see, then, that he who went with him, himself departed from him. The same is, then, the Lord, who is the Spirit of the Lord, as also the apostle says: “The Lord is the Spirit, now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” — On the Holy Spirit 2.1.17-18
Caesarius of Arles: The strength which Samson possessed, dearly beloved, came from the grace of God rather than by nature, for if he had been naturally strong his power would not have been taken away when his hair was cut. Where, then, was that most powerful strength, except in what the Scripture says: “The Spirit of the Lord walked with him”? Therefore, his strength belonged to the Spirit of the Lord. In Samson was the vessel, but the fullness was in the Spirit. A vessel can be filled and emptied. Moreover, every vessel has its perfection from something else, and so in Paul grace was commended when he was called a vessel of election. — SERMON 118.2