Many writers have seen nothing in this prayer to militate against its being the penitential dirge of the penitent Manasseh ; on the contrary, they think that the simplicity and appropriateness of its style, the ear- nest and touching manner in which it is expressed, go far to show that if it is not literally " his prayer unto his God" rendered into Greek, that prayer formed the basis of the Greek. It is, indeed, certain that the prayer was stiU extant when the Chronicles were compiled, that the chronicler saw it " in the book of the Kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xxxiii, 18), and that later writers, as well as tra- dition, constantly refer to it (compure Sanheclrin, 101, h; lOo, a; Jerusalem Satihedrin xvii; Midi-ash Rabboth on Lev., Parsha xxx, p. 150 ; on Deut., Parsha ii, or ch. iv, 25, p. 216, ed.Sulzbach ; Chaldee Paraphi-ase of 2 Chron. xxxiii, 11, etc. ; Const. Apost.\i,2i). We may more rea- sonably conclude, however, that it is hut the embodi- ment of these traditions. See Manasseh, 3.
The Greek text is undoubtedly original, and not a mere translation from the Hebrew, for even within the small space of fifteen verses some pccidiarities are found {drjTiKTOc. KXivtiv -yoi'v Kapciac, ~npof)yiZfiv -ov Bv- pov, ri^eaBai ptruvoiav Tin). The writer was'well acfiuaiutcd with the Sept. (rci Karwrara tiiq yijc, 70 Tr\))io(; rj/r Yp?j(Tror7;-()f croc, Troca // ccrojuic ruir ov- pai'tui'),hut beyond this there is nothing to determine the date at which he lived. The allusion to the patri- archs (ver. 8, oimioi ; ver. 1, 70 a-rrtpf^a aii-wji to ItKa- lav) appears to fix the authorship on a Jew, but the clear teaching on repentance points to a time certainly not long before the Christian era. There is no indica- tion of the place at which the prayer was written. All that we know is that reference is made to it in a frag- ment of .Julius Africanus (circa A.D. 221), that it is given at length in the Apostolical Constitutions (ii, 22), a work attributed to Clemens Itomanus, but generality believed to be of the 3d or 4th century, and that the whole com- plexion of it shoAvs it to be an ante-Christian produc- tion, coinpiled most probably in the first century B.C. Tlie Latin translation which occurs in Vulgate MSS. is not by the hand of Jerome, and has some remarkable phrases {insustentabilis, importabilis [ o}/!i7r<')(T7a70c J , om- nis virtus ccelorum), but there is no sufficient internal evidence to show whether it is later or earlier than his time. It does not, however, seem to have been used by any Latin writer of the first four centuries, and was not
known to Victor Tunonensis in the sixth (Ambrosius, iv, 989, ed.Migne).
III. Cunouicity. — This prayer was considered by many of the ancients as genuine, and used as such for ecclesias- tical purposes. It is quoted as such by the author of the Sermons on the Pharisee and Publican ; in the sixth vol- ume of Chrysostom's works ; by Anthony the monk (ii, 94) ; Theodore Studita {Serm. Catachet. 93) ; Theopha- nes Ceramajus (Homil. ii and hi) ; by Freculfus, George Syncellus, and George the siinier, in their Chronicles ; by Suidas (Lex. s. v. Maraa<j)~ic) ; and by Anastasius Sina- ita (in Psalm vi) ; and is still placed by the modern Greeks in their Psalter along with the other hymns (Leo Allatilis, JJe lib. Ecclesiust. Grcecorum, p. 62). But the fact of its non-occurrence in the Ileb. text, and its uniform rejection by the Jewish Church, clearly stamp it as apocrj^phal. It was never recognised in the Ro- man Church as canonical, and has, therefore, been omit- ted in the ancient editions of the Sept. For this reason it is also omitted from the Zurich Version, and Cover- dale's Bible, which follows it, as well as from the Geneva Version ; but is retained among the Apocrypha in Lu- ther's translation, Matthew's Bible, and in the Bishop's Bible, and thence passed over into the A.V.
IV. Versions and Exegetical Helps. — Greek and Latin metrical versions of this prayer have been reprinted by Fahricius, in liis edition of //;c boolx:s of Sirach, Wisdom, Judith, and Tobit ( Leipz. 1691). A Hebrew version of it is mentioned by Wolf, Bibliotheca I/ebreea, i, 778 ; a very beautiful Hebrew version, with valuable notes, is firinted in the Hebrew Annual, entitled Bihire ]la-Itim (Vienna, 1824), v, 12 sq. ; important litorarj- notices are given by Fahricius, Coc/ea:; Pseudepigraphiis V. T. i, 1100 sq. ; Bibliotheca Grceca (ed. Harles), iii,732 sq. ; Miiller, Erkldrung des Gebet Manasse (Salzwedel, 1733) ; and es- pecially Fritzsche, Kurz(,efasstcs exegetisches Bandbuch z. d. Apoh-yphen d. A. T. i, 157 sq. (Leips. 1851), See Apockypha.
Manas'site ("'vU3^, Menassi', patronymic from IManasseh, used collectively; Sept. Mai'aum), Auth. Vers. "Manassites," "of Manasseh"), a descendant of Manasseh, or a member of that tribe (Deut. iv, 43; xxix, 8 ; 2 Kings x, 33 ; 1 Chron. xxvi, 32).
Manby, Peter, an Irish theologian, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, became chaplain to Dr. !Mi- chael Boyle, afterwards archbishop of Dublin, and at length dean of Per^A^ In the reign of James II he em- braced the popish religion, in vindication of which he wrote several books ; then removed to France, thence to England, and died at London in 1697. IManb}- pidjlished several controversial tracts in favor of the Itonian Cath- olic religion. — Hook, Eccles. Biog. vii, 214, s. v.