lying offences. With humble confession he prays or forgiveness and salvation from death, since God is ‘ the God of the penitent,’ and can show all His goodness only toward the unworthy (vv.*"),
This is a fine penitential prayer, deserving its ancient place in the Christian Psalter, casting a favourable light on the age and community that produced it. That it is Jewish there can be no doubt{ but see Swete in Expository Times, xi. (1899) p. 38f.]. But the Greek nowhere requires a Hebrew original, though it cannot be said to exclude its possibility. ‘The belief that through repentance
* The Ὁ is made up about as follows: 2 K 2021-2116, 2Ch 50} addition, $312 198, Pr. Man, add., 3315b, add., 3315. 16. Mac. There follows a Midrashic form of the story of Amon's rch. later references in Fabricius, Biblioth. grave., ed. Larles, Mi 782 f.
| in Mic
MANDRAKE
233
a sinner can gain forgiveness is contained as clearly in the story of Manasseh in Chron. as in the Prayer, and does not point to a time ‘not long before the Christian era’ (Westcott in Smith’s DB). Wt has, indeed, deep roots in the OT. There the hope for forgiveness and grace some- times rests on the forgiving nature of God as Ex 946: 7 proclaims it,* sometimes more directly on the merit of the fathers, or God’s promises to them.t The efticacy for sinners of the merit of the righteous was early disputed (Gn 184, Jer 15}, Ezk 14'*- 30), but the tendency of rabbinical Judaism was to put chief stress upon it (cf. Mt 3°; Weber, Die Lehren αἰ. Talmud, § 63; Ass. Mos. 3° 42-5 1127), while Hellenistic Judaism was less national and more ethical in character.
This suggests a test by which our Prayer may be judged. It is a mistake to find in it an appeal to the merit of the patriarchs. They are simply the righteous, toward whom and toward their righteous seed, God is only just. The sinner cannot appeal to them, but only to that quality of the Divine nature, compassion, which has no application to the righteous. It is only as a repentant sinner, not as a Jew, that the petitioner appeals to God. The only distinction recognized is that between the righteous and sinners, but God is believed to be ‘the God of the penitent’ as
well as ‘the God of the righteous.’ It was Hellenistic Judaism that regarded the patriarchs ‘ac 2217-19
chiefly as examples of righteousness (4 968. 1620-23 - Philo, de Abra. etc.; see also contrast between Sir 44-49 and Wis 10-19). The Book of Wisdom bases forgiveness only on the nature of God (114-122: 1. 1. 15-19) 5 and a book in which rab- binical and Hellenistic elements are united ex- presses just the thought of our Prayer, ‘ because of us sinners thou art called merciful,’ ete. (2 Es 80:88... These considerations favour the view that our book is not a translation of the old Hebrew prayer in the source of Chron., but a Hellenistic composition. The date cannot be determined, but the eschatology of the expressions, ‘Do not con- demn me in the lowest parts of the earth’; ‘I will praise thee always in the days of my life,’ seems early rather than late:
The Prayer was not revised by Jerome, and is not in the Vulgate canon. According to Nestle, it may be said to owe its rank as a semi-biblical book to ae since before him it appears in no list of canonical or apocryphal books, It is not found in many editions of the LXX. Details in regard to texts and editions are given by Nestle. Cf. Apoc- RYPHA.
LiteraTurs.—Tezt.—Fritzsche, Lib, Apocr. VT, and Swete, OT in Greek. See also Nestle, Septuaginta Studien, iii. 1899.
Commentaries.—Fritzsche (1851), Ο. J. Ball (Speaker’s Com. 1888). See also V. Ryssel’s translation of the Prayer (with critical and exegetical notes) in Kautzsch’s Apocryphen u. Pseudepigraphen d. AT, 1899. F. C. PORTER.
MANDRAKE (oxm diidd’im, μῆλα μανδραγορῶν, pay dparyopal, mandragora).—The Heb. word (in Gn 30", Ca7}*) means ‘love-plants.’ Theancient VSS agree in translating the word ‘mandrake.’ Numbers of other plants have been suggested, as bramble- berries, Zizyphus Lotus, L., the sidr of the Arabs, the banana, the lily, the citron, and the fig. But none of these renderings is supported by satis- factory evidence. The mandrake, Mandragora ofcinarum, L., isa plant of the order Solanaceae, called by the Arabs lujfah, or beid el-jinn (i.e. ‘genie’s eggs’). The parsley-shaped root is often
* e.g. Hos 615-68, Jer 187-10, Ezk 18, 8310-20, Is 6567, J] 9151.
Jon 3510, Pg 82. 51. 86 (δ. 15) 1038/5) 180, 1455, Sir 212 1724-29 15}}.}4 232, + After Ex 315, eg. Ex 3211-14, Dt 92-2), 1 K 8#6<3 1853, 9 Ch
207-0, Ps 15, Neh 9, Lik 18% 59. 728, 71520, Dn 93-19,
The two appeals are united
234 MANEH
MANGER
branched. The natives mould this root into a rude cesemblance to the human figure, by pinching a constriction a little below the top, so as to make a kind of head and neck, and twisting off the upper branches except two, which they base as arms, and the lower, except two, which they leave as legs. This root gives off at the surface of the ground arosette of ovate-oblong to ovate, wrinkled, crisp, sinuate-dentate to entire leaves, 6 to 16 in. Jong, somewhat resembling those of the tobacco- plant. There spring from the neck a number of one-flowered nodding peduncles, bearing whitish- green flowers, nearly 2 in. broad, which produce globular, succulent, orange to red berries, resem- bling small tomatoes, which ripen in late spring. The ancients used the mandrake as a love philtre (Gn 308), They believed that he who in- cautiously touched a root of it would certainly die. Josephus (BJ vil. vi. 3) gives the following directions for pulling it up. ‘A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this the root can be handled without fear.’ The ancients also believed that this root gave a demoniacal shriek as it was pulled up. The ‘smell’ of the mandrakes (Ca 71%) is the heavy narcotic odour of the Solanaceous plants. The allusion to it in this connexion doubtless refers to its specific virtues. G. E. Post.