Chapter 21: Still human, after all
'Could this be one of such concealed matters I was looking for? Could the story of Samson be one of such cases where a human gains the ability of a Nephilim after the contact with the arcane?'
'Did the author of The Book of Judges enter this information on purpose?'
Gray, still listening to the lesson, couldn't help but sigh.
'Ahhhh, this is so complicated.'
'Well, it has to be of course.'
''If it hadn't been like this, everyone would've aware of the Nephilim. But now I can't help but wonder: Would it be better if the whole world was aware of their existence?'
'Hmm…'
He thought for a few seconds.
'No, definitely no.'
'Everyone would become paranoid. Then maybe, if the Nephilim were to group together, could they be able to overturn the world government?'
'If they can, then why haven't they done that?'
'Frankly, I have no idea.'
'I'm glad they didn't do that though. The thought of a super-powered, oligarchic elite governing the world with an iron fist doesn't sound good. Nobody would be able to stand against them.'
'Well, I should really pay more attention in this lesson.'
Gray kept listening to how Samson was brought up, of how he had wanted to marry a Philistine woman, and of how this powerful Biblical figure had mauled a young lion with his bare hands , feeding his parents with the honey that resided in its carcass after he had left it there for some days.
Just as he wondered if Casanova could do such an amazing feat, he noticed that Samson had just broke his vow of not touching corpses.
The professor then said, breaking Gray's stream of thoughts about the man's Nephilim abilities, "Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men."
"When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions. 'Let me tell you a riddle,' Samson said to them."
"If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes."
"Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."
"He replied, 'Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet,' For three days they could not give the answer."
'Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet… What could this possibly mean?'
'Is this related to the carcass of the lion? It has to!'
The professor then explained of how the thirty men coaxed the woman who was to be Samson wife to tell them the answer to the riddle, threatening her to burn her household and the one belonging to her father.
"Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, 'What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?'"
Samson said to them, 'If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle,' Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father's home.
"And Samson's wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast."
Gray, after hearing about the story, was slightly dumbfounded to hear about the wife's fate and the one of those thirty men.
"Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, 'I'm going to my wife's room,' But her father would not let him go in."
"'I was so sure you hated her,' he said, 'that I gave her to your companion. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.'"
'Couldn't her father have just asked? Wasn't that a choice that required more of one's own opinion?!' Gray silently chuckled.
'Samson is going to break hell loose… That, I'm sure of it.'
Just as Gray expected, Samson, in his anger, said to them, 'This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.'
"So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines."
"He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves."
"When the Philistines asked, 'Who did this?' they were told, 'Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.' So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death."
'WHAT?!'
'That could have been easily preventable…'
The professor then continued and recited, "Samson then said, 'Since you've acted like this, I promise that I won't stop until I get my revenge on you."'
"He then attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them."
Gray listened of how Samson went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. Since the Philistines wanted their revenge, they came up and camped in Judah, evoking the displeasure of the people of Judah, who then asked, 'Why have you come to fight us?'"
"'We have come to take Samson prisoner,' they answered, 'to do to him as he did to us.'"
'This is getting pretty entertaining…'
"Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, 'Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?'
He answered, 'I merely did to them what they did to me,' They said to him, 'We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.'
"Samson said, 'Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves,'
'Agreed,' they answered. 'We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.' So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock."
"As he approached Lethi, the Philistines came up towards and started shouting. The Spirit of THE LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands."
"Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men."
"Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to THE LORD, 'You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?' Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines."
The professor flipped the page and kept on reciting the Bible, speaking of how Samson had went on Gaza, and wanted to spend the night there with a prostitute, when some people attacked him, but failed, of course.
He explained of how Samson had met a woman called Delilah, and fell in love with her. He taught of how the rulers of the Philistines went to her and decided to bribe the woman into finding the source of Samson's strength and how to subdue him, so they could kill him.
Delilah asked Samson multiple times for his secret, but he always lied about it.
Every time he told her how to subdue him, the rulers of the Philistines came up with methods that matched Samson's lies.
Delilah asked and asked, but every time she thought that the new method was the right one, she kept on looking like a fool in front of everyone.
Due to her continuous nagging, he decided to tell her everything.
"'No razor has ever been used on my head,' he said, 'because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.'"
"After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him."
"Then she called, 'Samson, the Philistines are upon you!' He awoke from his sleep and thought, 'I'll go out as before and shake myself free.' But he did not know that THE LORD had left him.
"Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.
"But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved."
Then, the Philistines decided to make a sacrifice to their god and celebrate Samson's capture. To mock him, they brought him out to entertain them.
Samson then stood close to the seven pillars of the temple, and prayed to THE LORD, "Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.'"
"Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived."
The professor then closed his Bible, checked his watch, and after seeing that his hour was about to end, decided to ask his students once more, "So, now that we are done with this passage of The Bible, Why did Samson decide to keep telling Delilah the secret of his strength?."
"She was too annoying!" Rowan exclaimed.
'There's no way he just said that!'
'…'
'I mean…'
'He's kinda right…'
'She was pretty annoying.'
After hearing him, the girls inside the class couldn't help but look at him in a different way, feeling slightly disgusted.
One of them then sneered and said, "No, you idiot. It's because of love, obviously,"
Ironically, the one who said this was Veronica Sacramento, the same girl who broke up with her boyfriend just one day after he gifted her a brand new phone.
That moment, Gray couldn't help but think of her as one of the most hypocritical persons he had ever met in his life.
Remembering about Rowan's mission to conquer her, he silently chuckled to himself and turned left, wondering of what expression his dear friend was going to have.
Rowan was clearly shocked, just as he expected. His mouth was wide agape, his lips quivering.
'I wonder what he's thinking at this moment.'
…
Meanwhile, inside Rowan's mind.
'N-no. I-It can't be… Could my mission have failed before it even started?!'
'I can't let this happen. I won't let you get away from me...'
'I won't let you TWO get away from me!'
'T-those soft buns reminding me of mochi…'
'Those two rising hills…'
'I CAN'T LET THEM GET AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
'Ever since I've seen them, they inhabited my mind rent-free… I tried everything to keep my mind clear and occupied, but no matter what I do, they always reappear.'
'Even during art class, I ended up drawing them…'
'THIS MUST BE THE WORK OF FATE!!!!!!'
Rowan then turned around to face his friend, his face still shocked.
'Will you help me with conquering her?!'
This time, Gray could clearly understand what Rowan was thinking.
In turn, he nodded.
"Don't worry, I got you," he silently mouthed.
Seeing that his friend was able to understand what he was thinking, Rowan sighed exhaustively.
"Now, now. In a sense, the girls are right," the professor chuckled.
"As you guys and girls have heard from this story, Samson was someone who was strong—Tremendously strong. He was so powerful that he could slain lions with his bare hands and slaughter men as if they were ants.
"However, no matter his strength, he was human."
"He kept on trusting Delilah no matter her actions due to the fondness he felt for her. He kept on staying, all because he loved her, even knowing of how she was corroborating with the Philistines."
"To put it into perspective, he even broke the Nazirite vows—the one not to cut his hair, due to Delilah's continuing questioning of his love towards her."
"Yes, he was able to destroy everything with his strength, but after all, he was a man. And like every man is, he faltered to temptation brought by her—again and again. Men have two brains, and we can suppose he used the wrong one in the matters concerning Delilah," the professor said, evoking the laughter of the whole class.
"This whole story is an allegory of how mankind keeps on sinning and refusing to listen to God. However, no matter of how much man keeps sinning, because of God's grace, He still tends his hands toward us, as you can see from Samson's death."
He then did the reality-check Casanova had taught him.
Wanting to see the time, he sneakily unlocked his phone and saw that class would end in less than two minutes.
"Well, you guys can prepare to go home," the professor said.
Once he realized it was Friday, he added, "And have a good week—end!"
Obeying to the man, every student started to prepare their bags. After they were done, they went out of the class and said their goodbyes to both the professor, and to their friends.
"Shall we go home?" Rowan asked.
"Yeah," Gray replied, looking forward to the movie Rowan had kept on pestering him about.