THEOSISVissarion (Nechaev)
Manoah and his wife no longer witnessed the manifestation of the Angel of the Lord, or God appearing as an angel, a messenger tasked with fulfilling His will in human form. It is reasonable to infer that, through this representation, the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, was present. The Son of God did not only make appearances to individuals, such as Gideon (Judg. 6:11, 14, 16, 23), in the guise of a divine messenger, but is also explicitly referred to in the Old Testament as an Angel — namely, the Angel of the great counsel (Is. 9:6) and the Angel of the covenant (Mal. 3:1).
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As previously discussed in relation to the Book of Judges, He serves as the mediator between God and humanity, the herald and executor of the eternal divine plan for human salvation, the eternal Word of the Father who reveals Him to mankind. Furthermore, the fact that the Angel who appeared to Manoah bore the name ‘Wonderful’ evokes one of the titles attributed to the Son of God by the prophet Isaiah: “and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6). This account is appropriately read during the celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist and on the day set aside to honor his righteous parents, due to the similarities surrounding the births of Samson and John the Baptist. Both mothers were initially barren, with Manoah's wife and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. The resolution of their barrenness was proclaimed by an angel, and both births occurred in a miraculous manner. According to the angel's prophecy, both Samson and John the Baptist were declared to be Nazoreans from the moment of their conception. The only distinction lies in the identities of the angels who announced their respective births: the announcement of Samson's birth came from an uncreated angel, the Son of God Himself, while the Archangel Gabriel, a created angel, announced the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:19).