Samson's Parents Met Jesus

Did you know the angel who appeared to Samson's parents to announce his birth was the pre-incarnate Christ — and gave them His own messianic title?

The encounter is in Judges 13. The angel of the LORD appears first to Samson's mother (unnamed in the text — only ever called "Manoah's wife"), tells her she will conceive and bear a son who will begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. She tells Manoah, who asks God to send the messenger back. The angel returns.

Manoah asks the question every Christophany witness asks: "What is your name?"

The angel's answer is one of the most cryptic lines in the Old Testament. Judges 13:18 — "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" (KJV) / "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" (ESV).

The Hebrew word translated "wonderful" is פֶלִי (peli) — and it's not just a vague compliment. It shares its root with פֶּלֶא (pele), the same word Isaiah uses centuries later in his prophecy of the Messiah:

— Isaiah 9:6 — "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given... and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

The Hebrew pele / peli in both passages denotes something divinely extraordinary — beyond ordinary human reckoning, the kind of "wonder" that only God can be. The angel was not deflecting Manoah's question. He was giving Manoah his name. The name the pre-incarnate Christ gave Manoah in the 12th century BC is the name Isaiah gave the Messiah in the 8th century BC.

The encounter ends as the most theatrical Christophany in the Old Testament. Manoah prepares an offering on a rock. As the flame rises toward heaven, the angel ascends IN the flame and disappears. Manoah falls on his face and tells his wife: "We shall surely die, because we have seen God" (13:22). His wife — the unnamed theological backbone of the chapter — responds with one of the sharpest pieces of reasoning in the OT: "If the LORD had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted our offering, nor shown us these things" (13:23).

Reformed theologians have read this as one of the most Christologically loaded Christophanies in Scripture. The angel of the LORD refuses to be named — and yet names Himself, by giving the very title Isaiah will use for the Messiah. Same name. Same Christ.

This is the fifth episode in our Christophany mini-series — pre-incarnate appearances of Christ throughout the Old Testament. Subscribe to catch the rest.

📖 Passages: Judges 13:1–24, Isaiah 9:6, Genesis 32:29 (Jacob also asks an angel his name, also refused)