The interpretation timeline

Judg 15:15

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Judg 15:15 · Douay-Rheims
“And finding a jawbone, even the jawbone of an ass which lay there, catching it up, be slew therewith a thousand men.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
542
A.D.
Caesarius of Arles Patristic
c. A.D. 470–542
“Now when Samson destroyed a thousand men with a jawbone from the body of an ass, the Gentiles were prefigured in the ass; for thus Scripture speaks concerning both Jews and Gentiles: "An ox knows its owner, and an ass its master's manger." Before the coming of Christ all the Gentiles were torn to pieces by the devil and lay scattered like dry bones from the ass's body, but when Christ the true Samson came, he seized them all in his holy hands. He restored them by the hands of his power, and with them overcame his and our adversaries. Thus, we who had given our members to the devil before so that he might kill us, were seized by Christ and became instruments of justice unto God.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.