MANASSES, THE PRAYER OF, though want ing in the early printed editions of the Sept., must have been included in the ancient Codd. 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 Stephen's edition of the Bib/ia Latina, Paris 154o, 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 Polyglott, with the various readings of the Codex Alexandrinus ; in the Apostolical Fathers of Cotelerius in 1672 ; in the Libri apoer. V. T., Francof. ad M. 1694, Halle 1749 ; in the editions of the Apocrypha by Rei neccius, 173o, Michaelis 1741 ; and after the text of the Cod. Alexandrinus in the editions of the Sept. by Grabe and Breitinger.
1. Title and Position. —This apocryphal pro duction is called the prayer of Afanasses po acux32 Mavaac6), or hymn of prayer (rpocrevX410 rig 05110, because it purports to be the supplica tions which this monarch offered to God when captive in Babylon, mentioned in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 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 men tioned by Fritzsche, and in the Ethiopic Psalter, published by Ludolf (Frankfort-on-the-Maine 1701) ; in the three Latin MS. used by Sabatier it is placed at the end of 2 Chron. (Sabat. Lat., iii. 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., whilst 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.
2. Contents, Author, Date, Original Language, etc. —It opens with an appeal to the God of the faith ful 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 (1-8). Whereupon the repentant king confesses his sins, humbles himself on account of them, prays for pardon, and pro mises to lead a life of gratitude and praise (9-15). There is nothing in this prayer to militate against its being the penitential dirge of the penitent Manasseh ; on the contrary, the simplicity and appropriateness of its style, the earnest and touch ing manner in which it is expressed, go far to show that if it is not literally 'his prayer unto his God' rendered into Greek, it forms the basis of the Greek. This is, moreover, corroborated by the fact 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 Chron.
xxxiii. i8), and that later writers, as well as tradi tion, constantly refer to it (comp. Sanhedrin, tol , b ; 103, a ; yerusalem Sanhedrin xvii. ; Alidrash Rabboth on Lev., Parsha xxx., p. 15o ; on Dent., Parsha ii., or ch. iv. 25, p. 216, ed. Sulzbach ; Chaldee Paraphrase cf 2 Chron. xxxiii. II, etc. ; Cont. Apart. ii. 22). When the present Greek form of it, or rather excerpt from it, first came into vogue, it is impossible to say. All that we know is, that it existed before Jerome revised the old Latin version, that reference is made to it in a frag ment of Julius Africanus (circa 221 A. D.), that it is _given at length in the Apostolical Constitutions (ii. 22), a work attributed to Clemens Romanus, but 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 pro bably in the 1st century B. C.
3. Canonicity.—This prayer was considered by 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 (ii. 94) ; Theodore Studita (Serm. Calacket. 93); Theophanes Cera maeus (Hontil. ii. and lvi.) ; by Freculfus, George Syncellus, and George the sinner, in their Chroni Wes ; Suidas (Lex., s. v. Maracraijs) ; and by Anas tasius Sinaita (in Psalm vi.) ; and is still placed by the modern Greeks in their Psalter along with the other hymns (Leo Allatius, De lib. Ecelesiast. Gra _corum, p. 62). It was, however, never recognised in the Roman Church as canonical, and has, there fore, 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 fol lows it, as well as from the Geneva Version ; but is retained among the Apocrypha in Luther's trans lation, Matthew's Bible, and in the Bishop's Bible, and thence passed over into the A. V.
4. Versions and Exegetical and Latin metrical versions of this prayer have been reprinted by Fabricius in his edition of the books of Strach, Wisdom, yua'ith, and Tobit, Leipzig 1691. A Hebrew version of it is mentioned by Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebrew, i. 778; a very beautiful He brew version with valuable notes is printed in the Hebrew Annual, entitled Bikure Ha.ltim, vol. v., p. 12, ff., Vienna 1824 ; important literary notices are given by Fabricius, Codex Pseudeptgraphus V. T., vol. i., p. ttoo, ff. ; Bibliotheca Greco, vol. iii., ed. Harles, p. 732, ff. ; Muller, Erkliirung -des Gebet Manasse, Salzwede] 1733 ; and especially Fritzsche, Altrzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch z. d. .-Ipocryphen d. A. T., vol. p. 157, ff., Leipzig 'Sp.—C. D. G.