Samson’s Death Scene: Archaeological Confirmation

by Dave Armstrong

This is one of the most famous stories of the Old Testament. Samson, who judged Israel for twenty years (Judges 16:31), lived in the first half of the 11th century B.C. His death occurred in Gaza (Judges 16:1), which hasn’t been excavated because a city sits on top of the ancient ruins. So we have to look for other temples in regions of ancient Philistine to see if they have two central pillars supporting the roof. Four such buildings have been found. Bryan Windle summarizes the evidence:

Excavations at Tel Miqne (Ekron) took place between 1981 and 1996: a joint project of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Israeli archaeologist Trude Dothan (1922-2016) and American archaeologist Seymour Gitin (b. 1936). In their summary of the excavation, Dothan and Gitin refer to a “Stratum V Building 350” that “contained . . . a monumental entrance hall with two mushroom-shaped stone pillar bases” and another building from “Strata VI and V” that also had “two stone pillar bases.” Stratum VI was dated to 1167-1100 B.C. and Strata V to 1000-1050 B.C.: that is, before or during Samson’s lifetime.

Ekron is mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 13:2-3, 13; 15:11; 19:43. The ark of the covenant was there for a time (1 Sam. 5:10; 6:1-8). Ekron’s destruction was foretold in Zephaniah 2:4. Encyclopedia Britannica (“Zephaniah”) states,

The city was destroyed by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 604 B.C.

Archaeologists Avraham Negev and Shimon Gibson describe what has been discovered in Tel Qasile:

Tell es-Safi is ancient Gath: the hometown of the most famous Philistine: Goliath (1 Sam. 17:4). It has been excavated since 1996 under the leadership of Aaron Maeir, of Bar-Ilan University’s Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology. He wrote on the weblog devoted to the project, on July 28, 2010:

This information was reported by The Jerusalem Post on the next day. The ark of the covenant also resided for a time in Gath (1 Sam. 5:8), and it (along with Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron) was one of the five most important Philistine cities of the Philistines (1 Sam. 6:17). This temple is dated to the 9th century B.C., so it’s later than Samson, but it is more evidence of such Philistine structures with two central pillars, in conjunction with the other three examples that did exist before or during Samson’s lifetime.

Note that it is believed that cedar posts rested on top of stone bases. Thus, it’s not a matter of Samson causing completely stone pillars to crumble (which is what I previously assumed, and probably what most people think), but rather, to simply dislodge the cedar columns (about one foot in diameter) from their bases. In the Tel Qasile temple, the cedar posts were held in place only by the weight of the roof, and were about six to six and-a-half feet apart (descriptions differ): able to be reached by a tall man: especially if he had disproportionately long arms, as many basketball players do.  The pillars at the Ekron temple are about 7 and-a-half feet apart. The very fact that these two temples had pillars at different distances from each other illustrates that the pillars at Gaza may very have been even closer together, making it easier still to topple them.

The site, Interbasket.Net contains the article, “The 27 players with the longest wingspans in NBA history” (1-12-23). Wilt Chamberlain’s span was 7’8″: as is current player Dwight Howard’s. Shaquille O’Neal’s was 7’7″, while Alonzo Mourning and Andre Drummond could reach 7’6″, Kevin Durant and Yao Ming, 7’5″, and the great Bill Russell, 7’4″. All of these men could have easily reached the two pillars in the temple at Tel Qasile, standing between them. I could possibly even reach them myself. I’m six feet tall and have disproportionately long arms. My wingspan is 6’4″: the same, incidentally, as that of NBA star Steph Curry (who is 6’2″). Unfortunately, my biceps aren’t nearly as impressive.

Therefore, we know that it was possible for a big and/or tall man to reach the central pillars in at least one of the four Philistine temples that have been discovered. Those are simply facts. But would a man have the strength to pull them down? Well, according to the Guinness World Records, Canadian Gregg Ernst has lifted 5340 pounds. The heaviest train pulled by the neck, according to the same records-keeping source, weighed 71,650 pounds (35.8 tons), using a cable a little larger than 1/16 of an inch (2 mm): achieved by Ukrainian Dmytro Hrunskyi in Dnipro, Ukraine, on 10 May 2022.

Is it naturally possible, then, to do what Samson is reported to have done? Maybe so. It’s not impossible that he was as strong or stronger than Gregg Ernst or Dmytro Hrunskyi. He’s known as one of the most legendary strongmen of all time, after all (probably just behind the semi-mythical Hercules in that regard). In any event, Christians and Jews believe that God answered the recorded prayer of Samson: “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once” (Judges 15:28).

Another “problem” with the account of Samson’s death, however, remains: the ostensible prima facie questionability of at least 3,000 people (Judges 16:27) perishing in a temple that was probably not all that large. It comes down to the complex issue of the Old Testament use of numbers. The book of Judges appears to habitually use neatly rounded and as I shall contend, deliberately exaggerated large numbers: “ten thousand” enemies defeated (Judges 1:4), “ten thousand” Moabites killed (3:29), “ten thousand [fighting] men” from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali (4:6, 10, 14), 32,000 Israelite soldiers (7:3), “a hundred and twenty thousand men” who died fighting against Gideon (8:10), “about a thousand men and women” who died at the Tower of Shechem (9:49), “forty-two thousand . . . Ephraimites” who died (12:6), Samson killing “a thousand men” with the jawbone of an ass (15:15-16), “four hundred thousand” Israelite soldiers (20:2, 17); “twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin” killed (20:35, 46).

In comparison, the US military has about 1.3 million active personnel, out of a population of approximately 334 million. It’s estimated that in 1000 B.C., two million Jews lived in Israel.

David M. Fouts’ doctoral dissertation for the University of Michigan (1991) was entitled, The Use of Large Numbers in the Old Testament. He summarized it in his article, “A Defense of the Hyperbolic Interpretation of Large Numbers in the Old Testament” (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 40/3, September 1997, 377-387). Fouts observes:

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (edited by James Orr, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1939, “Number”) concurs:

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Photo credit: Philistine temple at Tel Qasile [Oren Rozen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0]

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