National Exceptionalism, Milton's Samson, and the Jews

The troubling concept of national exceptionalism in Milton, the Hebrew Bible, and in our modern world is a crucial way of thinking about Jewish identity. No early modern English author is more important than Milton when it comes to examining, from a critical perspective, both the appeal and dangers of this concept. His most Hebraic poem, Samson Agonistes, brings to a culmination his life-long struggles with national exceptionalism and offers a profound critique. Furthermore, Samson Agonistes dramatizes the divorce between national and individual exceptionalism, the latter manifested by Samson in his final spectacular act. Drawing upon Milton's own anguished and divided responses to national exceptionalism, this article considers whether the concept can indeed be good for Jews in our modern world.