Samson in rabbinic literature x. 13), was a member of that clan (comp. I Chronicles iv. 3). The name "Samson" is derived from "shemesh" ("sun"), so that Samson bore the name of God, who is also "a sun and shield" (Psalm lxxxiv. 12 [A. V. 11]); and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived (Sotah 10a); and he further resembled God in requiring neither aid nor help (Genesis Rabba xcviii. 18). In the blessings which Jacob pronounced on the tribe of Dan (Genesis xlix. 16-17) he
Samson of Tottington Samson of Tottington Samson of Tottington (1135 – 1211) was an English Benedictine monk who became Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. His life was later used by Thomas Carlyle as a model of leadership in his book "Past and Present". Samson was born at Tottington, near Thetford, in 1135. After taking his M.A. in Paris, Samson returned to Norfolk and taught in the school at Bury St. Edmunds. In 1160 the monks of St. Edmunds sent him to Rome on their behalf to appeal against an agreement of the abbot and Henry II of England, and for this on his