Editing Prayer of Manasseh

{{Short description|Penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah}}
{{Tanakh OT |deutero}}
The '''Prayer of Manasseh''' is a short, penitential prayer attributed to king [[Manasseh of Judah]].

The majority of scholars believe that the Prayer of Manasseh was written in [[Greek language|Greek]] (while a minority argues for a [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] original) in the second or first century BC.<ref name="Dunn2003">{{cite book|author=James D. G. Dunn|title=Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Vo-11umIZQC&pg=PA859|date=19 November 2003|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-3711-0|page=859}}</ref><ref name="Charlesworth">{{Cite book |editor-last=Charlesworth |editor-first=James H. |date=2010 |title=The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RU77ekrD_vIC&pg=PA625 |location=Peabody, Massachusetts |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |pages=625–627 |isbn=9781598564907 |access-date=5 January 2021}}</ref> It is recognised that it could also have been written in the first half of the 1st century AD, but in any case before the [[Destruction of the Second Temple]] in 70 AD.<ref name="Charlesworth"/> Another work by the same title, written in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], was found among the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] (4Q381:17).<ref name="Dunn2003" />

==Origin==
Manasseh is recorded in the Bible as one of the most [[Idolatry|idolatrous]] kings of Judah ({{bibleverse|2|Kings|21:1–18|NIV}}; {{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|33:1–9|NIV}}). The [[second Book of Chronicles]], but not the [[second Book of Kings]], records that Manasseh was taken captive by the [[Assyria]]ns ({{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|33:11–13|NIV}}). While a prisoner, Manasseh prayed for mercy, and upon being freed and restored to the throne turned from his idolatrous ways ({{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|33:15–17|NIV}}). A reference to a penitential prayer, but not the prayer itself, is made in {{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|33:19|NIV}}, which says that the prayer is written in "the annals of the kings of Israel".

== Prayer ==
{{Block quote|text=O Lord Almighty, God of our ancestors, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of their righteous offspring, you who made heaven and earth with all their order, who shackled the sea by your word of command, who confined the deep and sealed it with your terrible and glorious name, at whom all things shudder and tremble before your power, for your glorious splendor cannot be borne, and the wrath of your threat to sinners is unendurable; yet immeasurable and unsearchable is your promised mercy, for you are the Lord Most High, of great compassion, long-suffering, and very merciful, and you relent at human suffering. O Lord, according to your great goodness you have promised repentance and forgiveness to those who have sinned against you, and in the multitude of your mercies you have appointed repentance for sinners, so that they may be saved. Therefore you, O Lord, God of the righteous, have not appointed repentance for the righteous, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who did not sin against you, but you have appointed repentance for me, who am a sinner.

For the sins I have committed are more in number than the sand of the sea; my transgressions are multiplied, O Lord, they are multiplied! I am not worthy to look up and see the height of heaven because of the multitude of my iniquities. I am weighted down with many an iron fetter, so that I am rejected because of my sins, and I have no relief, for I have provoked your wrath and have done what is evil in your sight, setting up abominations and multiplying offenses.

And now I bend the knee of my heart, imploring you for your kindness. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my transgressions. I earnestly implore you, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me! Do not destroy me with my transgressions! Do not be angry with me forever or store up evil for me; do not condemn me to the depths of the earth. For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, and in me you will manifest your goodness, for, unworthy as I am, you will save me according to your great mercy, and I will praise you continually all the days of my life. For all the host of heaven sings your praise, and yours is the glory forever. Amen.|source=[[New Revised Standard Version]]<ref>https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prayer%20of%20Manasseh&version=NRSVUE</ref>}}

==Canonicity==
The prayer's canonicity is disputed. It appears in ancient [[Syriac language|Syriac]],<ref name="J. H. Charlesworth" /><ref>Syriac manuscripts are preserved in the Mediceo-Laurenziana Library in [[Florence]], Italy (9aI) and in the Syriac manuscripts of the ''[[Didascalia Apostolorum]]'' (especially 10DI and 13 DI). There exist also a tenth-century Syriac manuscript in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public  Library in [[Leningrad]]; it is Syr. MS, New Series 19, and is abbreviated 10tI.</ref><ref>Ariel Gutman and Wido van Peursen. ''The Two Syriac Versions of the Prayer of Manasseh''. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.</ref> [[Old Slavonic]], [[Ethiopic]], and [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenian]] translations.<ref name="NET Bible"/><ref>''The shorter books of the Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, Rest of Esther, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, additions to Daniel and Prayer of Manasseh.'' Commentary by J. C. Dancy, with contributions by W. J. Fuerst and R. J. Hammer. Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1972. {{ISBN|978-0-521-09729-1}}</ref> In the [[Ethiopian Biblical canon|Ethiopian Bible]], the prayer is found in [[2 Chronicles]]. The earliest Greek text is the fifth-century ''[[Codex Alexandrinus]]''.<ref name="J. H. Charlesworth">J. H. Charlesworth, ''The Prayer of Manasseh (Second Century B.C.-First Century A.D.). A New Translation and Introduction'', in [[James H. Charlesworth]] (1985), ''The Old Testament Pseudoepigrapha'', Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc., Volume 2, {{ISBN|0-385-09630-5}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|0-385-18813-7}} (Vol. 2), p. 625.</ref> A Hebrew manuscript of the prayer was found in [[Cairo Geniza]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=A Newly Discovered Hebrew Version of the Apocryphal "Prayer of Manasseh" |journal=Jewish Studies Quarterly |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40753171 |last=Leicht |first=Reimund |year=1996 |issue=4 |volume=3 |pages=359–373 |issn=0944-5706}}</ref> It is considered [[apocrypha]]l by [[Judaism|Jews]], [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and [[Protestantism|Protestants]]. It was placed at the end of [[2 Chronicles]] in the late 4th-century [[Vulgate]]. Over a millennium later, [[Martin Luther]] included the prayer in his 74-book [[Luther Bible|translation of the Bible into German]]. It was part of the 1537 [[Matthew Bible]], and the 1599 [[Geneva Bible]]. It also appears in the [[Biblical apocrypha#Apocrypha of the King James Version|Apocrypha]] of the 1611 [[King James Bible]] and of the original 1609/1610 [[Douay–Rheims Bible|Douai-Rheims Bible]]. [[Pope Clement VIII]] included the prayer in an appendix to the Vulgate.

The prayer is included in some editions of the Greek [[Septuagint]]. For example, the 5th century [[Codex Alexandrinus]] includes the prayer among fourteen [[Book of Odes (Bible)|Odes]] appearing just after the [[Psalms]].<ref name="NET Bible">[http://www.bible.org/netbible/prm1_notes.htm NET Bible]</ref>  It is accepted as a [[deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical book]] by [[Orthodoxy#Christianity|Orthodox Christians]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=|title=The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version: An Ecumenical Study Bible|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-19-027605-8|editor-first=Michael D.|editor-last=Coogan|edition=5th|location=New York|pages=1839, 1841|chapter=The Canons of the Bible|oclc=1032375119|display-editors=etal}}</ref>

==Liturgical use==

The prayer is chanted during the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] Christian and [[Byzantine Catholic]] service of [[Compline#Great Compline|Great Compline]]. It is used in the [[Roman Rite]] as part of the [[Responsory]] after the first reading in the [[Office of Readings]] on the 14th Sunday in [[Ordinary Time]] (along with [[Psalm 51]]). In the Extraordinary Form, in the Roman Rite Breviary; in the corpus of responsories sung with the readings from the books of Kings between Trinity Sunday and August, the seventh cites the Prayer of Manasseh, together with verses of Psalm 51, the penitential Psalm par excellence.<ref>Gregory Dipipo (2017). "[http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2017/01/actual-apocrypha-in-liturgy.html Actual Apocrypha in the Liturgy]" ''New Liturgical Movement'' (blog).</ref> It is used also as a canticle in the [[Daily Office]] of the [[Book of Common Prayer#1906 - 2000|1979 U.S. Book of Common Prayer]] used by the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church in the United States of America]], and as Canticle 52 in Common Worship: Daily Prayer of the [[Church of England]], particularly used during Lent.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
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*{{Wikisource-inline|Prayer of Manasses (Bible)|Prayer of Manasses}}
*[http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/manasseh.html Complete translations of Prayer of Manasseh] from earlyjewishwritings.com
*[http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/and-now-i-bend-the-knee-of-my-heart/ Another translation, with notes] from bombaxo.com
*[http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611_Prayer-of-Manasseh-Chapter-1/ 1611 King James Bible] from kingjamesbibleonline.org
* [https://www.bible.com/bible/416/MAN.1.GNBDC Good News Bible (Anglicised) at Bible.com]
* [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prayer+of+Manasseh&version=NRSV New Revised Standard Version at Bible Gateway]
* [https://librivox.org/the-prayer-of-manasses-kjv/ ''Prayer of Manasses''] at [[LibriVox]] (public domain audiobooks)
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[[Category:2nd-century BC books]]
[[Category:1st-century BC books]]
[[Category:Old Testament pseudepigrapha]]
[[Category:Anagignoskomena]]
[[Category:Jewish prayer and ritual texts]]
[[Category:Texts in the Septuagint]]
[[Category:Jewish apocrypha]]