From the Zwingli bible:
https://imgur.com/HDM4MrC
Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath; and, behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand; but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. (Judges X1V 5-6)
Surely there's little doubt that the figure with his hands in the lion's mouth is Samson? Yet still the discussions swing back and forth. The strangeness of the figure's action in forcing open the lion's jaw must stem from the Old Testament quote above - after all, if you're going to rend something, you have to start somewhere, and the mouth end seems the logical choice. There are lots of illuminations of Samson and the lion in the Getty too, as well as a statue in Prague. Long ago I made a similar comment on AT and the thread died...
Pen
Samson Woodcut 1560
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Last edited by Pen on 19 Dec 2017, 18:13, edited 4 times in total.
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...