Scriptures & Texts - Canonical Status - Deuterocanonical - Prayer of Manasseh

Facts

Origins

Era of Composition

200 BCE to 1 BCE 1

Language

Koine Greek 1

Attributed Author / Compiler

An anonymous penitential prayer, c. 2nd-1st c. BCE (critical) 1

Attributed Author / Compiler

King Manasseh of Judah (traditional) 1

Status

Canonical Statusthe subject's own account

Deuterocanonical 2Eastern Orthodoxy

Canonical Status

Non-canonical 1Judaism

Canonical Status

Non-canonical 1Roman Catholicism

Text

Literary Form

Liturgical / prayer 1

Structure

A single penitential prayer (15 verses) 1

Structure

Attributed to the repentant King Manasseh 1

Learn More

A Penitent King's Prayer

The Prayer of Manasseh is a short penitential psalm, only fifteen verses long, placed in the mouth of Manasseh, king of Judah, one of the most notoriously wicked kings in the biblical history. According to 2 Chronicles, Manasseh filled Jerusalem with idolatry and bloodshed, was carried in chains to Babylon by the Assyrians, and there humbled himself and repented, whereupon God restored him to his kingdom; the same passage notes that his prayer was recorded in certain court chronicles.

The Prayer of Manasseh is a later composition that supplies the text of that lost prayer. It is a model of contrition: the penitent extols the mercy and patience of God, confesses that his sins outnumber the sands of the sea, declares himself unworthy to lift his eyes to heaven, and casts himself entirely on the divine compassion, "for you are the God of those who repent." Composed probably in the last two centuries BCE, in Greek (though perhaps from a Hebrew or Aramaic original), it is one of the most moving expressions of repentance in the whole body of biblical and para-biblical literature.

Canon and Use

The canonical position of the Prayer of Manasseh is marginal. It was not defined as deuterocanonical by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, and in the Vulgate it was placed, with the extra books of Esdras, in an appendix after the New Testament rather than in the body of Scripture. The Eastern Orthodox churches accord it a higher standing, printing it among the canonical or readable books, and it appears in the Greek Bible.

Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha print it under its own name. Despite this uncertain status the prayer has had a rich liturgical life: it is used as a canticle in Orthodox and, latterly, in some Western services, prized for its concentrated expression of penitence, and it has been set to music and drawn upon in devotion across the traditions. Scholars value it as a fine example of Second Temple Jewish prayer, and as a case of the impulse to fill a gap left in the biblical narrative, here, the missing text of a famous penitent's prayer, with a fitting new composition faithful to the spirit of the story.

Connections

Attributed To

Manasseh of Judah

Source Prayer of Manasseh (Wikipedia)

Authored By

Manasseh of Judah

Source Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent): Manasses

Held Differently

Anglican Communion

Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.

Source The Thirty-Nine Articles of ReligionChurch of Englandthe holders' own account

Anglicanism

Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571 (as "the Prayer of Manasses"), among the books the Church of England reads for example of life and instruction of manners, but does not apply to establish doctrine.

Source The Thirty-Nine Articles of ReligionChurch of Englandthe holders' own account

Church of England

Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.

Source The Thirty-Nine Articles of ReligionChurch of Englandthe holders' own account

Church of Ireland

Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.

Source The Thirty-Nine Articles of ReligionChurch of Englandthe holders' own account

The Episcopal Church

Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.

Source The Thirty-Nine Articles of ReligionChurch of Englandthe holders' own account

Church of Sweden

Not canonized, but retained. Luther gathered the deuterocanonical books into a separate Apocrypha section of his 1534 Bible, headed as not equal to Holy Scripture yet good and useful to read, and Lutheran Bibles have printed and read them there since.

Source An Introduction to the ApocryphaBruce M. Metzger

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Not canonized, but retained. Luther gathered the deuterocanonical books into a separate Apocrypha section of his 1534 Bible, headed as not equal to Holy Scripture yet good and useful to read, and Lutheran Bibles have printed and read them there since.

Source An Introduction to the ApocryphaBruce M. Metzger

Lutheranism

Lutheranism does not canonize Prayer of Manasseh. Luther placed the deuterocanonical books in a separate section of his 1534 Bible as good and useful to read, but not equal to scripture.

Source An Introduction to the ApocryphaBruce M. Metzger

Belongs to Tradition

Church of Cyprus

Included in the wider Eastern Orthodox Old Testament canon beyond the Trent-era Roman Catholic deuterocanon, affirmed at the Synod of Jerusalem, 1672.