Manasseh (tribal patriarch)
Encyclopedia
Manasseh or Menashe was, according to the Book of Genesis, the first son of Joseph
and Asenath
. Asenath was an Egyptian
woman whom Pharaoh
gave to Joseph as wife, and the daughter of Potipherah
, a priest of On
. Manasseh was born in Egypt before the arrival of the children of Israel from Canaan
.
, to share in Jacob's inheritance equally with Jacob's own sons. He is counted as the founder of the Israelite
Tribe of Manasseh
, one of the twelve Israelite tribes. Jacob also blessed Ephraim over his older brother. "Manasseh" in Hebrew means "forgetful."
Manasseh had a son, Asriel, with his wife; and Machir
with his Aramean concubine.
view this as postdiction, an eponym
ous metaphor
providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. The text of the Torah
argues that the name of Manasseh is etymologically
derived from the root נשה naah, which means to forget, and goes on to argue that it refers to Joseph forgetting his troubles and his father's household, on account of the actions of God
. Other scholars maintain that the name is of Egyptian rather than Hebrew origin.
In the Biblical account, Joseph's other son is Ephraim
, and Joseph himself is one of the two children of Rachel
and Jacob
, the other being Benjamin
. Biblical scholars regard it as obvious, from their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that originally Manasseh and Ephraim were considered one tribe - that of Joseph ; according to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost. A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of the Joseph tribes (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went to Egypt
and returned
, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaan
ites and had remained in Canaan
throughout. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to Laban
to obtain a wife originated as a metaphor
for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt; according to textual scholars, the Jahwist
version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes, and Rachel, and doesn't mention the other tribal matriarchs whatsoever.
In the Torah, the eventual precedence of the tribe of Ephraim is argued to derive from Joseph tricking Jacob, blind and on his deathbed, into blessing Ephraim before Manessah. The text describing this blessing features a hapax legomenon
- the word שכל (sh-k-l) - which classical rabbinical literature has interpreted in esoteric manners; some rabbinical sources connect the term with sekel, meaning mind/wisdom, and view it as indicating that Jacob was entirely aware of who he was actually blessing; other rabbinical sources connect the term with shikkel, viewing it as signifying that Jacob was despoiling Manasseh in favour of Ephraim; yet other rabbinical sources argue that it refers to the power of Jacob to instruct and guide the holy spirit
.
The Book of Chronicles states that Manasseh was married to an Aramean concubine, and that they had two sons, named Asriel and Machir
; in the Torah's genealogy of Manasseh's family, which textual scholars ascribe to the earlier priestly source
, Asriel instead appears to be the son of Gilead, the son of Machir. Near the end of the book of Genesis, according to some English translations of the Bible
(such as the King James Version), Manasseh's grandchildren are described as having been brought up upon Joseph's knees, while other English translations (such as the Revised Version
) render the same text as born upon Joseph's knees; the gloss
for this passage given by some English translations (such as the New International Version
) is that the grandchildren were adopted by Joseph as his own children, at the moment they were born. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
argues that Manasseh had been a steward in Joseph's household, and had acted as an interpreter between Joseph and his other brothers; this targum also mentions that Manasseh had unusually large strength.
of the Worldwide Church of God (1940s to 1980s), in a book called The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, claimed the United States was a ruminate of the Tribe of Manasseh. He gave as evidence the blessings from Jacob to Ephraim and Manasseh, and a princess of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who fled to the Isles of the north with two tribesmen of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Joseph (Hebrew Bible)
Joseph is an important character in the Hebrew bible, where he connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt....
and Asenath
Asenath
Asenath or Asenith is a figure in the Book of Genesis , an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph son of Jacob to be his wife...
. Asenath was an Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
woman whom Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
gave to Joseph as wife, and the daughter of Potipherah
Potipherah
Potipherah was a priest of the ancient Egypt town of On, mentioned in the and of the Hebrew Bible.He was the father of Asenath, who was given to Joseph as his wife by Pharaoh, and who bore Joseph two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim....
, a priest of On
Heliopolis (ancient)
Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
. Manasseh was born in Egypt before the arrival of the children of Israel from Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
.
Personal history
Jacob, Joseph's father, adopted Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and EphraimEphraim
Ephraim ; was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph and Asenath. Asenath was an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph as wife, and the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On. Ephraim was born in Egypt before the arrival of the children of Israel from Canaan...
, to share in Jacob's inheritance equally with Jacob's own sons. He is counted as the founder of the Israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
Tribe of Manasseh
Tribe of Manasseh
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Manasseh was one of the Tribes of Israel. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also formed the House of Joseph....
, one of the twelve Israelite tribes. Jacob also blessed Ephraim over his older brother. "Manasseh" in Hebrew means "forgetful."
Manasseh had a son, Asriel, with his wife; and Machir
Machir
Machir/Makir - meaning bartered - was the name of two figures in the Bible.1. Machir, the son of Manasseh, and father of Gilead....
with his Aramean concubine.
Biblical criticism
Some biblical scholarsBiblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
view this as postdiction, an eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ous metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. The text of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
argues that the name of Manasseh is etymologically
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
derived from the root נשה naah, which means to forget, and goes on to argue that it refers to Joseph forgetting his troubles and his father's household, on account of the actions of God
El (god)
is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "deity", cognate to Akkadian and then to Hebrew : Eli and Arabic )....
. Other scholars maintain that the name is of Egyptian rather than Hebrew origin.
In the Biblical account, Joseph's other son is Ephraim
Ephraim
Ephraim ; was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph and Asenath. Asenath was an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph as wife, and the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On. Ephraim was born in Egypt before the arrival of the children of Israel from Canaan...
, and Joseph himself is one of the two children of Rachel
Rachel
Rachel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife...
and Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
, the other being Benjamin
Benjamin
Benjamin was the last-born of Jacob's twelve sons, and the second and last son of Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. In the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan. He died in Egypt on...
. Biblical scholars regard it as obvious, from their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that originally Manasseh and Ephraim were considered one tribe - that of Joseph ; according to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost. A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of the Joseph tribes (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and returned
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ites and had remained in Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
throughout. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to Laban
Laban (Bible)
Laban is the son of Bethuel, brother of Rebekah and the father of Leah and Rachel and Bilhah and Zilpah as described in the Book of Genesis. As such he is brother-in-law to Isaac and both father-in-law and uncle to Jacob...
to obtain a wife originated as a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt; according to textual scholars, the Jahwist
Jahwist
The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...
version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes, and Rachel, and doesn't mention the other tribal matriarchs whatsoever.
In the Torah, the eventual precedence of the tribe of Ephraim is argued to derive from Joseph tricking Jacob, blind and on his deathbed, into blessing Ephraim before Manessah. The text describing this blessing features a hapax legomenon
Hapax legomenon
A hapax legomenon is a word which occurs only once within a context, either in the written record of an entire language, in the works of an author, or just in a single text. The term is sometimes used incorrectly to describe a word that occurs in just one of an author's works, even though it...
- the word שכל (sh-k-l) - which classical rabbinical literature has interpreted in esoteric manners; some rabbinical sources connect the term with sekel, meaning mind/wisdom, and view it as indicating that Jacob was entirely aware of who he was actually blessing; other rabbinical sources connect the term with shikkel, viewing it as signifying that Jacob was despoiling Manasseh in favour of Ephraim; yet other rabbinical sources argue that it refers to the power of Jacob to instruct and guide the holy spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
.
The Book of Chronicles states that Manasseh was married to an Aramean concubine, and that they had two sons, named Asriel and Machir
Machir
Machir/Makir - meaning bartered - was the name of two figures in the Bible.1. Machir, the son of Manasseh, and father of Gilead....
; in the Torah's genealogy of Manasseh's family, which textual scholars ascribe to the earlier priestly source
Priestly source
The Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire , P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel...
, Asriel instead appears to be the son of Gilead, the son of Machir. Near the end of the book of Genesis, according to some English translations of the Bible
English translations of the Bible
The efforts of translating the Bible from its original languages into over 2,000 others have spanned more than two millennia. Partial translations of the Bible into languages of the English people can be traced back to the end of the 7th century, including translations into Old English and Middle...
(such as the King James Version), Manasseh's grandchildren are described as having been brought up upon Joseph's knees, while other English translations (such as the Revised Version
Revised Version
The Revised Version of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. The work was entrusted to over 50 scholars from various denominations in Britain...
) render the same text as born upon Joseph's knees; the gloss
Gloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....
for this passage given by some English translations (such as the New International Version
New International Version
The New International Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible. Published by Zondervan in the United States and by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, it has become one of the most popular modern translations in history.-History:...
) is that the grandchildren were adopted by Joseph as his own children, at the moment they were born. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is a western targum of the Torah from the land of Israel . Its correct title is Targum Yerushalmi , which is how it was known in medieval times...
argues that Manasseh had been a steward in Joseph's household, and had acted as an interpreter between Joseph and his other brothers; this targum also mentions that Manasseh had unusually large strength.
Bible scholarship
British Israelite Herbert W. ArmstrongHerbert W. Armstrong
Herbert W. Armstrong founded the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1930s, as well as Ambassador College in 1946, and was an early pioneer of radio and tele-evangelism, originally taking to the airwaves in the 1930s from Eugene, Oregon...
of the Worldwide Church of God (1940s to 1980s), in a book called The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, claimed the United States was a ruminate of the Tribe of Manasseh. He gave as evidence the blessings from Jacob to Ephraim and Manasseh, and a princess of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who fled to the Isles of the north with two tribesmen of Ephraim and Manasseh.