The Prayer Of Manasses
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [1]
1. Name
2. Canonicity and Position
3. Contents
5. Authenticity
6. Author and Motive
7. Date
8. Text and Versions
(1) Greek
(2) Latin
The Prayer of Manasses purports to be, and may in reality be, the prayer of that king mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:13 , 2 Chronicles 33:18 f.
1. Name:
In Cod. A it is called simply "A Prayer of Manasses," in the London Polyglot "A Prayer of Manasses, King of the Jews." Its title in the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) is "A Prayer of Manasses, King of Judah, when He Was Held Captive in Babylon." In Baxter's Apocrypha, Greek and English this Prayer appears at the end with the heading "A Prayer of Manasses, son of Ezekias" (= Hezekiah).
2. Canonicity and Position:
The Greek church is the only one which has consistently reckoned this Prayer as a part of its Bible. Up to the time of the Council of Trent (1545-1563 AD), it formed a part of the Vulgate, but by that council it was relegated with 3,4 (1 and 2) Esdras to the appendix (which included uncanonical scriptures), "lest they should become wholly lost, since they are occasionally, cited by the Fathers and are found in printed copies. Yet it is wholly absent from the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) of Sixtus V, though it is in the Appendix of the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) of Clement VIII. Its position varies in manuscripts, versions and printed editions of the Septuagint. It is most frequently found among the odes or canticles following the Psalter, as in Codices Alexandrinus, T (the Zurich Psalter) and in Ludolf's Ethiopic Psalter. In Swete's Septuagint the Psalter of Solomon followed by the odes ( Ωδαι , Ōdai ), of which The Prayer of Manasseh is the 8th, appear as an Appendix after 4 Maccabees in volume III. It was placed after 2 Chronicles in the original Vulgate, but in the Romanist Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) it stands first, followed by 3,4 (1 and 2) Esdras in the apocryphal Appendix. It is found in all manuscripts of the Armenian Bible, where, as in Swete's Septuagint, it is one of many odes. Though not included in Coverdale's Bible or the Geneva VS, it was retained (at the close of the Apocrypha) in Luther's translation, in Mathew's Bible and in the Bishops' Bible, whence it passed into our English Versions of the Bible.
3. Contents:
According to 2 Chronicles 33 (compare 2 Kings 21 ) Manasseh was exiled by the Assyrians to Babylon as a punishment for his sins. There he became penitent and earnestly prayed to God for pardon and deliverance. God answered his prayer and restored him to Jerusalem and to the throne. Though the prayer is mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:13 , 2 Chronicles 33:18 f, it is not given, but this lack has been supplied in the The Prayer of Manasseh of the Apocrypha. After an opening invocation to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Judah and their righteous seed, the Creator of all things, most high, yet compassionate, who has ordained repentance, not for perfect ones like the patriarchs who did not need it, but for the like of the person praying, there follows a confession of sin couched for the most part in general terms, a prayer for pardon and a vow to praise God forever if this prayer is answered.
4. Original Language:
The bulk of scholars (Fritzsche, Reuss, Schurer, Ryssel, etc.) agree that this Prayer was composed in Greek. The Greek recension is written in a free, flowing and somewhat rhetorical style, and it reads like an original work, not like a translation. Though there are some Hebraisms, they are not more numerous or striking than usually meet us in Hellenistic Greek. It is of some importance also that, although Jewish tradition adds largely to the legends about Manasseh, it has never supplied a Hebrew version of the Prayer (see Text And Versions , VIII.). On the other hand, Ewald ( Hist . Isr , I, 186; IV, 217, note 5, German edition, IV, 217 f), Furst ( Gesch . der bibl . Lit ., II, 399), Budde (ZAW, 1892,39 ff), Ball ( Speaker's Apocrypha ) and others argue for a Hebrew original, perhaps existing in the source named of 2 Chronicles 33:18 f (see Ryssel in Kautzsch, Die Apocrypha des Altes Testament , 167).
5. Authenticity:
Have we here the authentic prayer of Manasseh offered under the circumstances described in 2 Chronicles 33 ? Ewald and the other scholars named (see foregoing section), who think the Prayer was composed in Hebrew, say that we have probably here a Greek rendering of the Hebrew original which the Chronicler saw in his source. Ball, on the other hand, though not greatly opposed to this view, is more convinced that the Hebrew original is to be sought in a haggadic narrative concerning Manasseh. Even if we accept the view of Ewald or of Ball, we still desiderate evidence that this Hebrew original is the very prayer offered by the king in Babylon. But the arguments for a Greek original are fairly conclusive. Many Old Testament scholars regard the narrative of the captivity, prayer and penitence of Manasseh as a fiction of the Chronicler's imagination, to whom it seemed highly improper that this wicked king should escape the punishment (exile) which he richly deserved. So De Wette ( Einleitung ), Graf ( Stud . u . Krit ., 1859,467-94, and Gesch. Bucher des Altes Testament , 174) and Noldeke (Schenkel's Bibelwerk , "Manasse"). Nothing corresponding to it occurs in the more literal narrative of 2 Kings 21 , an argument which, however, has but little weight. Recent discoveries of cuneiform inscriptions have taken off the edge of the most important objections to the historicity of this part of Chronicles. See Ball (op. cit., 361 ff) and Bissell (Lange's Apocrypha, 468). The likeliest supposition is that the author of the Prayer was an Alexandrian Jew who, with 2 Chronicles 33 before him, desired to compose such a prayer as Manasseh was likely to offer under the supposed circumstances. This prayer, written in excellent Alexandrian Greek, is, as Fritzsche points out, an addition to 2 Chronicles 33 , corresponding to the prayers of Mordecai and Esther added to the canonical Est (Additions to Esther 13:8 through 14:19), and also to the prayer of Azarias (The Song of the Three Children (Azariah) 1:2-22) and the Song of the Three Young Men (The Song of the Three Children (Azariah) 1:29-68) appended to the canonical Book of Daniel.
6. The Author and His Motive:
That the author was an Alexandrian Jew is made probable by the (Greek) language he employs and by the sentiments he expresses. It is strange to find Swete (Expository Times, II, 38 f) defending the Christian authorship of this Prayer. What purpose could the writer seek to realize in the composition and publication of the penitential psalm? In the absence of definite knowledge, one may with Reuss ( Das Altes Testament , VI, 436 f) suppose that the Jewish nation was at the time given up to great unfaithfulness to God and to gross moral corruption. The lesson of the Prayer is that God will accept the penitent, whatever his sins, and remove from the nation its load of sufferings, if only it turns to God.
7. Date:
Ewald and Furst (op. cit.) hold that the prayer is at least as old as the Book of Chronicles (300 BC), since it is distinctly mentioned, they say, in 2 Chronicles 33:13 , 2 Chronicles 33:18 f. But the original form was, as seen (compare 4 above), Greek, not Hebrew. Moreover, the teaching of the Prayer is post-Biblical. The patriarchs are idealized to the extent that they are thought perfect and therefore not needing forgiveness ( 2 Chronicles 33:8 ); their merits avail for the sinful and undeserving ( 2 Chronicles 33:1 ) (see Weber, Jud . Theologie , 292). The expressions "God of the Just" ( 2 Chronicles 33:8 ), "God of those who repent" ( 2 Chronicles 33:13 ), belong to comparatively late Judaism. A period about the beginning of the Christian era or (Fritzsche) slightly earlier would suit the character (language and teaching) of the Prayer. The similarity between the doctrines implied in The Prayer of Manasseh and those taught in apocryphal writings of the time confirms this conclusion. There is no need with Bertholdt to bring down the writing to the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Fabricius ( Liber Tobit , etc., 208) dates the Prayer in the 4th or 5th century AD, because, in his opinion, its author is the same as that of the Apostolical Constitutions which has that date. But the source of this part of the Apostolical Constitutions is the Didaskalia (3rd century), and moreover both these treatises are of Christian origin, the Prayer being the work of an Alexandrian Jew.
8. Text and Versions:
(1) Greek:
The Greek text occurs in Codices Alexandrinus, T (Psalterium Turicence 262, Parsons). Swete ( Old Testament in Greek , III, 802-4) gives the text of Codex Alexandrinus with the variations of T. It is omitted from the bulk of ancient manuscripts and editions of the Septuagint, as also from several modern editions (Tischendorf, etc.). Nestle ( Septuaginta Studien , 1899,3) holds that the Greek text of Codices Alexandrinus, T, etc., has been taken from the Apostolical Constitutions or from the Didaskalia . The common view is that it was extracted by the latter from the Septuagint.
(2) Latin:
The Latin text in Sabatier ( Bib . Sac . Latin , III, 1038) is not by Jerome, nor is it in the manner of the Old Latin; its date is later.
Literature.
The outstanding literature has been cited in the foregoing article. Reference may be made to Howorth ("Some Unconventional Views on the Text of the Bible," Psba , Xxxi , 89 ff: he argues that the narrative concerning Manasseh, including the Prayer in the Apostolical Constitutions, represents a portion of the true Septuagint of 2 Chronicles 33 ).
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
one of the shorter apocryphal pieces appended to the O.T. (In the following account we mainly follow the articles on the subject in Kitto and Smith's Dictionaries.) Though wanting in the early printed editions of the Sept., it must have been included in the ancient MSS. of the Sept., as is evident from the fact that there exists an Ante-Hieronymian Latin version of it. It is found in the Codex Alexandrinus, and the Greek text was first published in Robert Stephens' edition of the Biblia Latina (Paris. 1540), and in the edition of the same printed in 1546. It was also printed in the Apostolical Constitutions in 1563; it was then published by Dauderstadt in 1628; inserted in the fourth volume of the London Polyglot, with the various readings of the Codex Alexandrinus, in the Apostolical Fathers of Cotelerius in 1672; in the Libri apocr. V. T. (Francof. ad M. 1694, Halle, 1749); in the editions of the Apocrypha by Reineccius (1730). Michaelis (1741); and after the text of the Cod. Alexandrinus in the editions of the Sept. by Grabe and Breitinger.
I. Title And Position. — This apocryphal production is called The Prayer Of Manasses ( Προσευχὴ Μανασσῆ ) , or Hymn Of Prayer ( Προσευχὴ Τῇς ῼδῆς ) , because it purports to be the supplications which this monarch offered to God when captive in Babylon, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:12-13. Its position varies in the MSS., printed editions of the text, and in the versions. It is more generally appended to the Psalter with the collection of hymns and prayers, as in the Codex Alexandrinus, the Zurich MS. of the Psalms mentioned by Fritzsche, and in the Ethiopic Psalter, published by Ludolf (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1701); in the three Latin MSS. used by Sabatier it is placed at the end of 2 Chronicles (Sabat. Bibl. Lat. 3:1038); in the editions of the Vulgate formed after the Trident. Canon of the Bible it is usually put at the end of the N.T., succeeded by the third and fourth books of Esdras. Luther placed it as the last of the Apocrypha, at the end of the O.T., while Matthew's Bible, which first inserted it among the Apocrypha, and which is followed by the Bishop's Bible and the A. V., puts it before the Maccabees.
II. Contents, Author, Date, Original Language, Etc. — It opens with an appeal to the God of the faithful patriarchs and their righteous seed, describes his greatness as Creator of all things, before whose power every one trembles, and whose wrath no sinner can endure, and speaks of his proffered pardon to the penitent ( 2 Chronicles 33:1-8). Thereupon the repentant king confesses his sins, humbles himself on account of them, prays for pardon, and promises to lead a life of gratitude and praise ( 2 Chronicles 33:9-15).
Many writers have seen nothing in this prayer to militate against its being the penitential dirge of the penitent Manasseh; on the contrary, they think that the simnplicity and appropriateness of its style, the earnest and touching manner in which it is expressed, go far to show that if it is not literally "his prayer unto his God" rendered into Greek, that prayer formed the basis of the Greek. It is, indeed, certain that the prayer was still extant when the Chronicles were compiled, that the chronicler saw it "in the book of the Kings of Israel" ( 2 Chronicles 33:18), and that later writers, as well as tradition, constantly refer to it (compare Sanhedrin, 101, b; 103, a; Jerusalem Sanhedrin 17; Midrash Rabboth on Lev., Parsha 30, p. 150; on Deut., Parsha 2, or ch. 4:25, p. 216, ed. Sulzbach; Chaldee Paraphrase of 2 Chronicles 33:11, etc.; Const. Apost. 2:22). We may more reasonably conclude, however, that it is but the embodiment of these traditions. (See Manasseh), 3.
The Greek text is undoubtedly original, and not a mere translation from the Hebrew, for even within the small space of fifteen verses some peculiarities are found ( Ἄστεκτος , Κλίνειν Γόνυ Καρδίας , Παροργίζειν Τὸν Θυμόν , Τίθεσθαι Μετάνοιάν Τινι ) . The writer was well acquainted with the Sept. ( Τὰ Κατώτατα Τῆς Γῆς , Τὸπλῆθος Τῆς Χρηστότητός Σου , Πᾶσα Ἡ Δύναμις Τῶν Οὐρανῶν ) , but beyond this there is nothing to determine the date at which he lived. The allusion to the patriarchs ( 2 Chronicles 33:8, Δίκαιοι ; 2 Chronicles 33:1, Τὸ Σπέρμα Αὐτῶν Τὸ Δίκαιον ) appears to fix the authorship on a Jew, but the clear teaching on repentance points to a time certainly not long before the Christian era. There is no indication of the place at which the prayer was written. All that we know is that reference is made to it in a fragment of Julius Africanus (circa A.D. 221), that it is given,at length in the Apostolical Constitutions (2:22), a work attributed to Clemens Romanus, but generally believed to be of the 3d or 4th century, and that the whole complexion of it shows it to be an ante-Christian production, compiled most probably in the first century B.C. The Latin translation which occurs in Vulgate MSS. is not by the hand of Jerome, and has some remarkable phrases (insustentabilis, importabilis [ Ἀνυπόστατος ] , Omnis Virtus Clelorum ) , but there is no sufficient internal evidence to show whether it is later or earlier than his time. It does not, however, seem to have been used by any Latin writer of the first four centuries, and was not known to Victor Tunonensis in the sixth (Ambrosius, 4:989, ed. Migne).
III. Canonicity. — This prayer was considered by many of the ancients as genuine, and used as such for ecclesiastical purposes. It is quoted as such by the author of the Sermons On The Pharisee And Publican; in the sixth volume of Chrysostom's works; by Anthony the monk (2:94); Theodore Studita (Sesrm. Catachet. 93); Theophanes Ceramaeus (Homnil. 2 and 56); by Freculfus, George Syncellus, and George the sinner, in their Chronicles; by Suidas (Lex. s.v. Μανασσῆς ); and by Anastasius Sinaita (in Psalms 6 ); and is still placed by the modern Greeks in their Psalter along with the other hymns (Leo Allatius, De lib. Ecclesiast. Graecorum, p. 62). But the fact of its non-occurrence in the Heb. text, and its uniform rejection by the Jewish Church, clearly stamp it as apocryphal. It was never recognized in the Roman Church as canonical, and has, therefore. been omitted in the ancient editions of the Sept. For this reason it is also omitted from the Zurich Version, and Coverdale's Bible. which follows it, as well as from the Geneva Version; but is retained among the Apocrypha in Luther's translation, Matthew's Bible. and in the Bishop's Bible, and thence passed over into the A.V.
IV. Versions And Exegetical Helps. — Greek and Latin metrical versions of this prayer have been reprinted by Fabricius, in his edition of The Books Of Sirach, Wisdom, Judith, and Tobit (Leipz. 1691). A Hebrew version of it is mentioned by Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraea, 1:778; a very beautiful Hebrew version, with valuable notes, is printed in the Hebrew Annual, entitled likure Ha-Itim (Vienna, 1824), v. 12 sq.; important literary notices are given by Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphs V. T. 1:1100 sq.; Bibliotheca Graeca (ed. Harles), 3:732 sq.; M Ü ller, Erklurung des Gebet Manasse (Salzwedel, 1733); and especially Fritzsche, Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch z. d. Apokryphen d. A. T. 1:157 sq. (Leips. 1851). (See Apocrypha).
