The Prayer of Manasseh
What, exactly, was the substance of Manasseh king of Judah’s prayer before YHWH? While many among the people of God have most likely asked this question, someone in antiquity wrote down what they believed the prayer would have been which we now deem the apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh.
The historical Manasseh ben Hezekiah, king of Judah, reigned over Judah for 55 years (ca. 697-643 BCE; 2 Kings 21:1-18, 2 Chronicles 33:1-20). According to the Kings narrative, Manasseh was a most wicked king of Judah, introducing service to foreign gods into the Temple complex in Jerusalem itself; on account of what Manasseh did, YHWH condemned Jerusalem and the Temple to destruction just as He did to Israel (2 Kings 21:1-18).
The Chronicler also bore witness to Manasseh’s many sins, denouncing him as encouraging the Judahites to sin more than the nations which YHWH had destroyed before Israel (2 Chronicles 33:1-9). Yet the Chronicler would also make known how YHWH brought the Assyrians against Manasseh and Judah, and they captured him and carried him away to Babylon (2 Chronicles 33:10-11). The Chronicler then recorded Manasseh’s response:
In his pain Manasseh asked YHWH his God for mercy and truly humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. When he prayed to YHWH, YHWH responded to him and answered favorably his cry for mercy.
YHWH brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh realized that YHWH is the true God (2 Chronicles 33:12-13).
According to the Chronicler, Manasseh returned to Jerusalem, heightened its walls, removed the service to foreign gods from the Temple, and exhorted the Judahites to serve YHWH God of Israel (2 Chronicles 33:14-17). In concluding his account of Manasseh’s reign, the Chronicler spoke of his sources:
The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the prophets spoke to him in the name of YHWH God of Israel, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. The Annals of the Prophets include his prayer, give an account of how YHWH responded to it, record all his sins and unfaithful acts, and identify the sites where he built high places and erected Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself (2 Chronicles 33:18-19).
We might associate the Annals of the Kings of Israel with the Books of Kings, but while 2 Kings 21:1-18 bore witness to Manasseh’s reign and the words the prophets spoke to him, none of our manuscripts preserve his prayer. We are left to believe the Annals of the Kings of Israel, if nothing else, included other information beyond what we can see in 1 and 2 Kings, and has been lost to us. The same would be true for the Annals of the Prophets: anything regarding Manasseh’s sins, his prayer, and YHWH’s response have been lost to us.
The record of Manasseh’s prayer was not just lost to us; it was most likely lost well in antiquity, early in the Second Temple Period. We can perceive this not only because no later source describes anything in the Annals of the Kings of Israel or the Annals of the Prophets, and also because two different prayers purported to be Manasseh’s have come down to us: a prayer in Hebrew as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q381:17), and a Greek text called the Prayer of Manasseh which became part of some forms of the Septuagint. We will consider this latter Prayer of Manasseh in greater detail.
The Prayer of Manasseh has been preserved in Greek, as well as in Syriac, Old Slavonic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Latin translations; many scholars believe it was originally a Greek composition, but some argue for a Hebrew original. All agree the Prayer of Manasseh was certainly written during the Second Temple Period: no later than the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, and most likely between 200-1 BCE.
This is the Prayer of Manasseh as translated in the New Revised Standard Version of the Apocrypha (NRSVA):
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.
The Prayer of Manasseh provided no narrative or editorial introduction; at no point within the text was Manasseh explicitly mentioned. Instead, the Prayer of Manasseh begins by invoking God as the Lord Almighty, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their offspring, praising God as the Creator to whom all things are subject, full of splendor but terrifying with wrath toward sinners, and yet also deeply merciful (Prayer of Manasseh 1:1-6). The Prayer of Manasseh highlighted God’s compassion, longsuffering, and mercy as the Lord Most High, having promised repentance and forgiveness to those who sinned against him (Prayer of Manasseh 1:7). The Prayer of Manasseh would suggest God did not appoint repentance for the righteous, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but repentance for the author, a sinner who sinned profoundly against God; he could not even look up to God on account of all his iniquities; he was weighed down with his sins and provoked God’s wrath against him on account of his idolatry (the strongest point of association between the material in the prayer and Manasseh; Prayer of Manasseh 1:8-10). The Prayer of Manasseh then set forth great contrition: the one praying would bend the knee of his heart, imploring God’s kindness, confessing he had sinned, begging for forgiveness, and asking to avoid destruction, God’s anger, and condemnation (Prayer of Manasseh 1:11-13). The Prayer of Manasseh concluded with the expectation the prayer would be heard and accepted: the one praying confessed the Lord as the God of those who repent, and through him God would manifest His goodness, and would save him despite his unworthiness; the one praying would praise God continually for the rest of his life along with the host of heaven (Prayer of Manasseh 1:13-15).
There is no evidence the Prayer of Manasseh was a seventh century composition by Manasseh ben Hezekiah, king of Judah, or recorded as part of the Annals of the Kings of Israel or the Annals of the Prophets. Instead, in Jewish and all Christian traditions, the Prayer of Manasseh is reckoned as apocryphal and pseudepigraphal: not actually written by Manasseh ben Hezekiah, but by someone later imagining what Manasseh might have prayed, and preserved as part of some editions of the Greek Septuagint.
While most believe the author of the Prayer of Manasseh was most likely a Jewish person of the later Second Temple Period, Jewish tradition overall did not make much of the Prayer of Manasseh, although a copy of it in Hebrew was found as part of the Cairo Genizah. The Prayer of Manasseh would feature more prominently in many Christian traditions. In the Ethiopian Bible and some of the earliest editions of the Latin Vulgate, the Prayer of Manasseh was placed either within or at the end of 2 Chronicles. More often, the Prayer of Manasseh would be placed among other apocryphal or deuterocanonical works, as in the Greek Septuagint, later editions of the Vulgate, Luther’s translation of the Bible in German, and some of the earliest English Bible translations, including the Apocrypha of the 1611 King James Version. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches consider the Prayer of Manasseh to be deuterocanonical; the Roman Catholic Church did not include the Prayer of Manasseh among the deuterocanonical works it considered part of the canon of Scripture, but may consider it profitable for devotional purposes.
What should we make of the Prayer of Manasseh? We have every reason to believe Manasseh ben Hezekiah, king of Judah, prayed a prayer before YHWH in contrition and repentance for all the abominations, idolatry, and immorality he himself perpetrated and also encouraged the Judahites to perpetrate. We also have every reason to believe the prayer Manasseh ben Hezekiah prayed was preserved, along with other details and information surrounding his life and the prayer, as part of the Annals of the Kings of Israel and the Annals of the Prophets.
But we have no manuscripts of, or even other texts referencing, the Annals of the Kings of Israel or the Annals of the Prophets. Since two very different prayers have come down to us purporting to be what Manasseh ben Hezekiah prayed, it proves challenging to even entertain the possibility one of them might preserve the prayer from either source mentioned by the Chronicler. It would make more sense to believe both prayers were written by later Jewish people who were imagining what Manasseh ben Hezekiah would have prayed in that situation.
Therefore, while no doubt some sincere and faithful Christians have believed the Prayer of Manasseh represents the prayer Manasseh ben Hezekiah actually prayed, it is more likely a later Greek apocryphal composition. The overall theological framework and expressions within the prayer prove far more aligned with the later Second Temple Period than the days of the Davidic kings.
So if the Prayer of Manasseh was not what Manasseh ben Hezekiah actually prayed, why should we give it any regard? For generations, Christians have appreciated the Prayer of Manasseh for devotional purposes: just as its author imagined himself as giving voice to what Manasseh ben Hezekiah would have prayed, so we all likewise can consider the Prayer of Manasseh in giving voice to us to ask God for forgiveness. The vast majority of the Prayer of Manasseh presents solid theology and provides compelling expressions of contrition before God. The only troublesome premises within the Prayer of Manasseh would involve the suggestion the righteous would never need repentance, or that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not sin (cf. Prayer of Manasseh 1:8): the Scriptures appropriately understand all people, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and thus even the “righteous” will at times need to repent of sin (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:7-10).
The Prayer of Manasseh, therefore, was not actually spoken by Manasseh ben Hezekiah, and was not what was recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel or the Annals of the Prophets. The Prayer of Manasseh should not be considered canonical or inspired Scripture. But the Prayer of Manasseh remains a devotional composition of the Second Temple Period which can provide benefit to Christians to this day. Christians can appropriate many aspects of the Prayer of Manasseh in their prayers of contrition and repentance before God. The Prayer of Manasseh expertly framed the appeal for contrition and repentance within a framework which established God’s great majesty, compassion, kindness, grace, and mercy, along with expressions anticipating the acceptance of the prayer and the desire to continue praising God among His people and the host of heaven. After all, who among us could not speak out the vast majority of the Prayer of Manasseh in good conscience as an appeal to God to be forgiven of our sins? May we well consider the Prayer of Manasseh as an exemplar of expressing contrition, repentance, and asking God for the forgiveness of our sins, appropriate it appropriately, and continue to seek to serve God in Christ through the Spirit!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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