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THREE CONTEXTS FOR READING MANASSEH’S PRAYER IN THE DIDASCALIA

JUDITH H. NEWMAN UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

he Prayer of Manasseh is some- was included in the Didascalia in response thing of an orphan in relation to and in reaction to the Jewish-Christian ten- the scripture of contemporary reli- sions of Syria in the early third century. gious communities. It is excluded The Didascalia is a work of twenty- Tfrom the Tanakh as a non-Hebrew work, and seven chapters in length which is addressed the text lies outside of the Protestant and to the entire Christian community including Roman Catholic canons. It is regarded as lay women and men. It treats such topics as authoritative only in certain Orthodox the duties of the bishop, the nature of pen- Churches, but then not in all. Most who en- ance, liturgical worship, the role of widows counter the Prayer of Manasseh do so in the and deaconesses in the Church, the resolu- context of one of the critical editions of the tion of disputes, and the administration of in the or deuterocanonical offerings. section, in which the prayer appears by itself The scholarly consensus holds that the or in worship as a canticle. Yet there is no Didascalia was written in the early third unambiguous evidence for the Jewish litur- century most likely in North Syria, a region gical use of the prayer independent of its in which Jews and Christians struggled and context, and the two contexts in which we competed with each other, and is especially find it, in the early church orders and in a directed against those Christians who still list of Odes appended to the book of observed Jewish law.1 Unlike the Marcio- in three manuscripts of the Greek Bible, are nites, the authors of the Didascalia were suggestive of two different uses. The pur- only selectively anti-nomian. Indeed, they pose of this essay is to illuminate the earliest affirmed the law, but on their own terms, narrative context in which we find the because the Didascalia distinguishes two Prayer of Manasseh, the Didascalia Apostol- parts to the law. The Didascalia contains orum. I would like to argue on that basis lengthy polemic against those who observe that this pseudepigraphic prayer, whoever the “second law.” While embarking on an composed it and whenever it was composed, analysis of the Didascalia in its socio-

______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 3 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______historical setting is beyond our scope, it is THE PRAYER possible to sketch some of the most salient IN ITS IMMEDIATE CONTEXT aspects of the Didascalia so as to begin to understand the nature and function of the We may begin with the prayer’s immediate prayer. context, chapters six and seven of the docu- As I will argue, this strain of anti-Jewish ment. These chapters centrally concern the polemic seems to be the preeminent factor Didascalia’s teaching on repentance and in the choice and use of Manasseh as an ex- forgiveness which involves a penitential emplar of a sinner who offers a confessional process. While the topic is treated elsewhere prayer.2 The Prayer of Manasseh functions in the Didascalia, chapters six and seven especially to rehabilitate Manasseh as a outline in particular the role of bishops in penitent idolater. In the larger context of this regard. Chapter six is titled “Concerning tension between Christians, Jews, and those transgressors and those who repent.” The caught betwixt and between, that is, those bishop is charged at the outset in this way: Jews who desired to join the Christian fold, “Judge therefore O bishop, strictly like God or even more likely, those Christians Almighty, but those who repent receive with whether of Jewish birth or not, who were mercy like God Almighty received. And drawn to the worship and practice of Juda- rebuke and exhort and teach with an oath ism, the successful penitence of an idola- promising forgiveness to those that have trous king would have great significance. sinned as he [God] said in Ezekiel...” The For the latter group, the assured forgiveness chapter then contains a quote from what we of Manasseh’s idolatrous behavior in wor- know in the as Ezek 33:10 ff. shipping other gods would have been a reas- that exhorts Israel to repent: “Turn back, surance to them, who were being exhorted turn back from your evil ways; for why will to turn from Jewish worship and practices. you die, O house of Israel?” There is a long I would like to consider then in turn quote from Ezekiel 18:1-32 with its stress the different contexts in which the Prayer on individual punishment meant to chal- of Manasseh is imbedded: first, within lenge the concept of trans-generational pun- chapters six and seven, which concern ishment. “Son of Man, what do you mean practices of penitence in the early Church by repeating this proverb concerning the and in which we find the scriptural re- land of Israel, ‘The parents have eaten sour counting of Manasseh’s sin and punish- grapes, and the children's teeth are set on ment; second, within the larger frame of edge’? As I live, says the Lord GOD, this the composite Didascalia itself, which will proverb shall no more be used by you in also take us further abroad to consider the Israel.” The message that the sincerely peni- greater Jewish and Christian textual tradi- tent sinner must be mercifully received is tions about Manasseh; and finally, the lar- repeated in different ways throughout chap- ger rhetorical functioning of the discourse ter six. In fact, the emphasis on such neces- of the Didascalia within the warp and woof sary reincorporation of penitents suggests of early third century north Syria, with its that there may have been a practice of exclu- complex interrelationships among Jewish, sion or expulsion of such members from the Christian, and pagan populations. community.

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Chapter six also outlines the process by rebuke, and loose by forgiveness. And know which the sinner is to be treated and ulti- your place, that it is that of God Almighty, mately reincorporated into the community. and that you have received authority to for- The bishop should admonish the transgres- give sins.” The chapter goes on to consider sor, prevent the individual from entering the the great responsibility invested in bishops Church, and allow others to intercede with as a result. The bishop himself should take the bishop on his or her behalf. The bishop care not to warrant reproach, even while is then to talk to the sinner to see if she is acknowledging that all are subject to sin. sufficiently repentant and worthy to con- Like the sixth chapter, chapter seven tinue the process. Then the offender is contains copious use of scripture, especially charged with fasting as penance, for a period long passages from Ezekiel. For example, in ranging from two to seven weeks. After that reference to the bishop’s authority, we find affliction, the bishop is to receive the sinner, interpolated a section from Ezekiel, equiva- if sufficiently penitent, back into the lent to what appears now in the Hebrew Church. It is interesting to note that as one Masoretic text (MT) as Ezek 34. The pas- scriptural precedent for the practice of put- sage concerns the responsibility of shep- ting someone outside of the church, the Di- herds for the flock. The shepherds are refer- dascalia refers to the episode in the book of ences to Israel’s kings in the original con- Numbers, in which Miriam and Aaron have text, but here are understood as referring to challenged Moses’s leadership. Miriam (not the role of bishops. “For the Lord spoke thus Aaron!) is placed outside the camp for seven in Ezekiel concerning those bishops who days. The Didascalia states that Miriam’s neglect their people: ‘And the word of the repentance caused her to be brought back Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, within the camp, yet Miriam’s “repentance” prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, is a narrative detail absent from the biblical and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: text of Numbers. Here is but one example of Woe unto the shepherds of Israel, who feed the phenomenon that we see throughout the themselves, and my sheep the shepherds Didascalia; there is no sense of a fixed ca- have not fed.” I note the use of Ezekiel here nonical text, no clear distinction made be- and in chapter six, because we will return tween scripture and tradition, but rather tra- below to the significance of the use of Eze- ditions of scripture are garnered in order to kiel in discussion of the “second law.” make the rhetorical case of the authors/ First let us attend to the inclusion of compilers. Didascalia 6 ends with a verse Manasseh as exemplar in this chapter. The from Isaiah (58: 36) “Loose every bond of immediate context of the story of Manasseh sin, and sever all bands of violence and ex- exhorts the bishops to learn from ancient tortion;” which is understood as the respon- days “...that from them you may make com- sibility of the bishop toward the people who parison and learn the care of souls, and the have sincerely repented. admonition and reproof and intercession of The same theme continues in Didascalia those who repent and have need of interces- chapter seven in which we find the Prayer of sion.”3 Manasseh, which is also addressed directly The tale of Manasseh is then introduced to bishops. “Therefore, O bishop, teach and as if taken directly from the text of scripture:

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“Hear therefore, O bishops, regarding these as a means of conveying its contemporane- things as an example that is fitting and help- ous relevance for the third-century Syrian ful. It is written in the fourth Book of King- audience. doms and likewise in the second Book of After this account of Manasseh’s idola- Chronicles, thus: ...” Yet the tale does not trous malefactions, the text in the Didas- accord with any single tradition, either the calia relates God’s condemnation of Manas- Hebrew or Greek of 2 Kgdms 21 or 2 Chr seh. But whereas the biblical account in 33, but rather represents a paraphrastic ac- Kings and Chronicles has God speaking di- count that draws on traditions found in the rectly to Manasseh, the Didascalia incorpo- and shared by Samaritan and Greek rates the targumic tradition that God spoke sources.4 Thus, “It is written” may be a tech- to Manasseh, not directly, but through the nically correct statement on the part of the hand of the prophets. Manasseh’s lack of author, but what is left unsaid is that the tra- remorse calls down divine wrath and pun- ditions about Manasseh were written in ishment, so that Manasseh is carried off by many places, and not simply in one book. the Assyrians in chains to Babylon. Up to It is worth pointing out some interesting this point, these features of the story corre- differences both between the parallel ac- spond more or less to a combined account of counts we know in Hebrew and differences Kings/Chronicles. Didascalia includes an from the biblical account: many of Manas- additional account of Manasseh’s treatment seh’s “crimes” mentioned are the same in in Babylon, how he was fed with a small both MT Kings and Chronicles, such as ration of bread and water mixed with gall to building shrines and setting up pillars to afflict him. It was only after this point of Baal. Manasseh made his sons pass through affliction in the story that Manasseh shows the fire, that is death through immolation, contrition, entreats God, and offers his presumably as part of the cult of Molech, prayer. While the prayer is mentioned in 2 and he is generally blamed for shedding Chronicles, the text of the prayer does not much innocent blood in Jerusalem. One dif- appear. Rather the editors of Chronicles re- ference between Kings and Chronicles: fer their readers to two different sources for whereas 2 Kings 21 narrates that among this information: “The Annals of the Kings Manasseh’s sins he placed an image of of Israel,” and the “records of the seers.” Asherah in the Temple, Chronicles mentions The summary point to be made about -a sculpted this conflation of scriptural sources and tra ,(פסל הסמל ) only a pesel hassemel image that Manasseh had made, rather than ditions in chapter seven of the Didascalia is specifying that which was no longer likely a that in its overall shape the story of Manas- threat in post-exilic , the worship of seh matches in broad terms the actions ex- Asherah. The Greek translation of 2 Chr pected of a bishop in the restoration of a 33:7 states that Manasseh placed a carved sinner. It includes admonition by God (or as and molten image (ὁ γλυπτὸν καὶ τὸ in Chronicles, the prophets) whose role will χωνευτόν εἰκόνα) in the Temple. The Didas- be played by the bishop; it includes exhorta- calia also adopts the more general term for tion, banishment from the temple and land, idol rather than specifying the name of an reread as the Church, and affliction by idolatrous god that was worshipped, likely means of fasting, all this before conversion,

______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 6 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______repentance, and restoration can occur. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, At this point in the narrative of the Di- who did not sin against you, dascalia, the Prayer of Manasseh is incorpo- but you have constituted repentance for me, who am a sinner. rated. The text of the prayer is preceded by a 9 superscription, “Prayer of Manasseh” which For the sins I have committed are more in number than the sand of interrupts the flow of the narrative. The Di- the sea; dascalia reads: “and he prayed before the my transgressions are multiplied, O Lord God and said: Prayer of Manasseh. O Lord, they are multiplied! Lord God of my fathers, …” The Prayer of I am not worthy to look up and see Manasseh seems therefore to be an inser- the height of heaven because of tion, not an original part of the composition. the multitude of my iniquities. 10 I am weighted down with many an Prayer of Manasseh5 iron shackle, so that I am rejected 1:1 O Lord Almighty, God of our ances- because of my sins, and I have no tors, relief; of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and for I have provoked your wrath and of their righteous offspring; have done what is evil in your 2 you who made heaven and earth with sight, setting up desecrations and multiplying abominations. all their order; 11 3 who shackled the sea by your word And now I bend the knee of my of command, heart, begging you for your kind- ness. who closed the abyss and sealed it 12 with your terrifying and glorious I have sinned, O Lord, I have name; sinned, and I acknowledge my 4 transgressions. at whom all shudder, and tremble 13 before your power, I earnestly beg you, forgive me, O 5 for the magnificence of your glory Lord, forgive me! cannot be endured, Do not destroy me with my trans- and the wrath of your threat to sin- gressions! ners is intolerable; Do not be angry with me forever or 6 yet immeasurable and unfathomable store up evil for me; is your promised mercy, Do not condemn me to the depths of 7 for you are the Lord Most High, of the earth. great compassion, patient, and mer- For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, ciful, and relenting at human evil. 14 aO Lord, according to your great and in me you will manifest your kindness you have promised re- goodness; pentance and forgiveness to those for, unworthy as I am, you will who have sinned against you, and save me according to your great mercy, in the multitude of your mercies 15 you have constituted repentance and I will praise you continually all for sinners, for salvation. a the days of my life. 8 Therefore you, O Lord, God of the For all the host of heaven sings righteous, have not constituted your praise and yours is the glory repentance for the righteous, for forever. Amen.

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The prayer has three main sections: sion of this prayer in relation to the Didas- 1-7: an invocation in which God is in- calia’s greater rhetoric against observing the voked as the ancestral God of Abraham, “second law.” Isaac and Jacob, and extolled as the creator A second observation concerns the one of the cosmos (1-4) and as the righteous yet verse that appears here in the Syriac Prayer merciful judge of sinners who institutes re- of Manasseh, and that is also contained in pentance (5-7). the Greek version in the fourth century Ap- 8-13a: an acknowledgement and confes- ostolic Constitutions but does not appear in sion of sin and petition for forgiveness. the two earliest Greek Manuscripts of the 13b-15: a third section in which the peti- Odes, Alexandrinus and Turinses: tioner acknowledges the goodness and mercy of God and pledges to praise God 7b O Lord, according to your great forever just as the angels sing God’s praise. kindness you have promised repen- tance and forgiveness to those who Two observations about the prayer are have sinned against you, and in the worth comment before continuing with our multitude of your mercies you have discussion of its contexts. The first is to note constituted repentance for sinners, for one of the interesting ways in which the salvation. prayer breathes interpretive scripturaliza- tion. In verse 7, we see a clear reference to While we cannot know if this verse the liturgical divine attribute formula of appeared in the prayer before its inclu- Exod 34:6-7. It begins in Exod 34:6: “The sion in the Didascalia, it is certainly the LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, case that it accords well with the exhorta- “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and tion to the bishops to bring penitent gracious, patient, and abounding in steadfast sheep back into the fold. And so, accord- love and faithfulness,” and continues in ing to the Didascalia, after the prayer is Exod 34:7 to enumerate the divine traits of offered, Manasseh is duly heard and ab- covenant loyalty and justice over genera- solved by God. Manasseh’s rescue and tions. In the formula’s reuse in later texts, return to the land is decidedly more dra- particularly in penitential contexts, just the matic than in Chronicles, with flames of first clause or an adaptation of it normally fire dissolving the brass case and chains appears.6 So indeed in the Didascalia the in which he was secured, perhaps bor- form is closer to the modified form found in rowed from the account of the three the post-exilic contexts of Jonah 4:21 and youths in the . The Didas- Joel 2:13 in which divine mercy is stressed calia’s editorial comment after this long over the retributive aspect of divine justice. scriptural account of Manasseh’s reign The verb “relent” also recalls God’s willing- and repentance brings the point home: ness to change course in Exod 32:14 and not “You have heard, beloved children, how to destroy the people as God had first in- Manasseh served idols evilly and bitterly, tended as punishment for their . and slew righteous men; yet when he re- Thus the hearkening back to the Mosaic pented God forgave him, albeit there is law-giving at Sinai, here after the breach no sin worse than idolatry, which is why, with the golden calf, is a significant dimen- there is granted a place for repentance.”7

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THE PRAYER OF MANASSEH IN was vilified in most post-exilic Jewish lit- ITS LARGER CONTEXT erature as an idolater who shed innocent blood, a portrait that stands closer to his In order to shift from consideration of the negative profile in the Deuteronomistic his- prayer in its immediate literary context to its torian’s book of 2 Kings than that in 2 broader context both within the Didascalia Chronicles.9 While the tale of his repentance and the discursive world of Jewish and Chris- is included in a few texts, in most of the ac- tian texts, we might begin by asking the ques- counts, Manasseh was the perpetrator of tion, why is King Manasseh singled out for murder resulting in a prophet’s martyrdom. use as an exemplar of penitence? Scripture His chief crime according to many of the has a perfect penitent it would seem in the sources was his murder of Isaiah by sawing person of King David, reflected both in story him in two. Though not explicit, we see a and in prayer. The superscription of hint of this in Heb 11: 37, the catalogue of in the book of Psalms offers King David as a faithful heroes including the prophets, some singularly penitent David in the face of his of whom were “sawn in two.” We see the double sin of adultery with Bathsheba and story of Isaiah’s murder explicitly in the murder of Uriah, a contravention of two of the first verse of the first century CE “Lives of great ten commandments. Moreover, the nar- the Prophets,” which reads: “Isaiah, from rative recounting both David’s episode with Jerusalem, died under Manasseh by being Bathsheba and Nathan’s subsequent accusa- sawn in two, and was buried underneath the tion of him in 2 Sam 11-12 would have been Oak of Rogel, near the place where the path ideal texts to draw upon for an ideal penitent. crosses the aqueduct whose water Hezekiah In the Bible, David is depicted as the most shut off by blocking its sources.”10 So, too pious of kings in the DtrH, who offers more in the oldest part of the Martyrdom and As- prayers than any other character. Moreover, cension of Isaiah, Isaiah in fact prophesies confronted with his misdoing, David ac- his own death at Manasseh’s hands during knowledges his wrongdoing forthrightly, “I the reign of Manasseh’s father, King Heze- have sinned,” and accepts his due punishment. kiah.11 Ascen. Isa. 5: 1-5 recounts in rather So why Manasseh instead of David? A more gruesome detail Isaiah’s death by partial answer was provided above. Manasseh woodsaw at the hand of Manasseh, who was was an idolater and as such could serve as a said to be inspired by the evil spirit of Beliar reassurance to errant Christ-followers who rooted in his heart. Both Babylonian and had strayed from the path in observing Jewish Jerusalem Talmuds preserve similar depic- practices. To put the case more strongly, Ma- tions of Manasseh. Manasseh’s list of sins nasseh’s rehabilitation along with the peniten- are expanded in which recounts tial practices described served as a kind of Israel’s history in terms of contrasting virtu- counter-discourse to his general reputation in ous and wicked leaders. While 2 Bar. 64-65 other Jewish tradition of the time.8 mentions Manasseh’s prayer, the passage asserts that God did not listen to his prayer, MANASSEH because Manasseh’s fate was already cast. IN THE In the rejection of Manasseh’s prayer, 2 Ba- Manasseh was not, shall we say, embraced ruch is in accord with the to 2 in the bosom of Jewish tradition. Manasseh Chronicles 33, in which the angels are said

______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 9 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______to have tried to prevent God from hearing bonds, as they were deserving. But do Manasseh’s prayer, so incensed were they at not therefore lay them upon yourself; his behavior. Josephus’ Antiquities is one of for our Savior came for no other cause the few Jewish accounts that draws a more but to fulfil the Law and to set us sympathetic portrait of Manasseh in drawing loose from the bonds of the Second Law. from both accounts in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, but in the main, the consensus There is another such clear statement of verdict in Jewish tradition was that Manas- supercessionism in chapter 26 of the Didas- seh was an anti-exemplar, distinctly not calia, a chapter titled, “On the bonds of the worthy of emulation. Second Law of God,” which states even more explicitly that “[Jesus] renewed, ful- THE PRAYER IN THE CONTEXT filled, and affirmed the Law; but the Second OF THE DIDASCALIA: Legislation he did away with and abolished. THE “SECOND LAW” For indeed it was to this end that he came, that he might affirm the Law and abolish the With this suggested notion of “counter- Second Legislation and fulfill the power of discourse” in mind, let us consider now the human free will, and show forth the resurrec- “Second Law” also called “Deuterosis” in tion of the dead.”12 If these descriptions of the Greek text of the Apostolic Constitu- anti-nomianism are not sufficient to convey tions, referred to in the Syriac of the Didas- the anti-Jewish position of the author, it is calia by tenyān nāmōsā. In considering the also evident in the designation used for Jews. idea of the “second law” we must take into The point to be made is that the term “the account not only its use in the Didascalia, Jews” or “Israel” is never used outside of but also the resonance of this term in Jewish scriptural quotations. Rather, there are singu- and Christian discourse generally of this era. lar references to the “former people” as in Given the name of the fifth book of the Pen- this verse from the beginning of Chapter 9: tateuch, one might expect the “Second Law” “Hear these things then, you laity also, the to refer to the contents of Deuteronomy in elect Church of God. For the former people which Moses recounts the Sinai law-giving was also called a church, but you are the to the next generation of Israelites on the , holy and perfect, ‘a royal plains of Moab. This is not so. Within the priesthood, a holy assembly, a people for Didascalia itself, the “Second Law” is un- inheritance, the great church, the bride derstood as that part of the law delivered adorned for the Lord God.” The chapter con- after the idolatrous episode of the worship tinues in that vein, stressing the newly elect of the golden calf in Exodus 32. The second status of the church in its replacement of Is- chapter of the Didascalia includes the fol- rael’s institutions with its own. lowing exhortation: This is not to say that there was a single

So the first law is that which the Lord mind in early Christianity about the role of God spoke before the people had the law in the life of Judaism and Christian- made the calf and served idols, which ity. The Didascalia’s understanding of the consists of the Ten words and the law as comprising two separate and distinct Judgements. But after they had served parts of the Sinai legislation stands in con- idols, he justly laid upon them the trast with other early Christian understand- ______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 10 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______ings of the law. In Gal 3:24-25, we see ob- utes that were not good and ordinances by servance of as a custodian or helpful which they could not live.” He does not discipline until the advent of Christ makes mention the subsequent verse in Ezekiel, its practice no longer necessary. This per- which as we will see, is relevant to our dis- spective is later echoed in the writing of cussion of Manasseh who was said to have Irenaeus. Or to take another perspective, in sacrificed his sons by immolating them. the of Barnabas, the nature of the Ezek 20:26 reads: “I defiled them through whole law is asserted to be misunderstood their very gifts, in their offering up all their by the Jews. Barnabas makes no division firstborn, in order that I might horrify them, within the narrative frame of scripture itself, so that they might know that I am the Lord.” but holds only that the true meaning of the The “laws that were not good” were law is its spiritual or allegorical sense. The understood to be the “second law”, that is, letter of James, dismissed by the law given to Moses after his second trip as that “most strawy epistle,” offers yet an- up Mt. Sinai. Van der Horst argues that such other view, the most law-affirming of all. an anti-Jewish reading of Ezekiel 20: 25 had But we are still left wondering how such already begun in the final decades of the an understanding of a dual Sinai legislation second century in which the stakes were should develop. A straight narrative reading high for claiming the position of the Jews as of Exodus 32 and following does not sup- the covenanted people of God. Irenaeus is port such a reading, because in fact, the re- the first to draw such an interpretation in his newed covenant that God makes with Israel Adversus Haereses (4.15.1). Quoting not in Exodus 34 on the second set of tablets only Ezek 20:25, but a long passage from includes not only the “ten words” or the dea- Acts 7: 38-43, in which Israel’s worship of calogue but much more legislation. There is the golden calf is portrayed as a spiritual no indication whatsoever that God imposes return to Egypt, Irenaeus depicts the com- the renewed covenant with its gift of law as mandments as an intentional punishment for a punishment for idolatry, but rather, God their sins. While Irenaeus’s interpretation seems to have been softened by the pro- may have predated the Didascalia, our au- phetic intercession of Moses in this regard thor pressed the “second law” concept to his and restores the law tablets as a gift to the full advantage in making his rhetorical case. people. We should now return to a point made The origins and evolution of the Didas- earlier in the paper, which was to note the calia’s construal of the “second law” are not extensive use of Ezekiel in chapters six and completely clear and a thorough considera- seven of the Didascalia. There is also a quo- tion is not possible here, but Pieter van der tation of Ezek 20:25 in the twenty-sixth Horst has drawn attention to a verse in Eze- chapter of the Didascalia with its condem- kiel 20 that helps to understand its origins. nation of the second law. In contrast to the According to van der Horst, the “second Christian deployment of the prophet Eze- law” is rooted in a reading of the account of kiel, Pieter van der Horst has pointed out the the apostasy of the golden calf in Exod 32 significance of the spare use in general of coupled with the exilic prophetic text from Ezekiel in Jewish texts among the rabbis.13 Ezekiel 20:25: “Moreover I gave them stat- Although Ezekiel 1 and 10 were drawn upon

______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 11 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______for apocalyptic and esoteric writings, Eze- dascalia, so too, an important living dimen- kiel does not figure prominently in rabbinic sion of the “law” as practiced in the Jewish writings. Van der Horst also suggests the community is effaced by the author of the rabbinic dispute over Ezekiel’s inclusion in Didascalia. No mention is made of the de- the Bible. What was, if not anathema, then velopment of the legal tradition, the ongo- questionable scripture, among the Jewish ing mishnah authorized by the learned lead- community, became an important source for ers of the Jewish community. It is likely the the aims of this Christian or Jewish- rabbis as the bearers of the halakhic tradi- Christian author of the Didascalia in repudi- tion would possess a similar status and level ating Judaism. Whether the status of Ezekiel of authority within their community as the in rabbinic Judaism was actually a result of bishops in the Christian community who are this Christian polemic, is a question we will addressed in the document. Thus what is leave unanswered for now. left unstated about the “second law” may be But whereas we have one construal of as important as understanding what is ex- the “second law” or Deuterosis, that obtains plicitly said about it in the Didascalia in in the Didascalia, we must consider the terms of understanding its rhetorical force resonance of this legal language in the lar- among culturally literate Jews, Christians, ger Jewish discursive context. Up to this and Jewish-Christians. In its rhetoric, the point, we have been using the Greek term Didascalia thus suggests both that the post- “Deuterosis” or an English translation golden calf Sinai legislation is null and “second law.” Connolly suggests that the void, but also that the oral halakhic tradition notion of the Greek Deuterosis is derived of the rabbis which would about this time from the shanah, the repetition of the law come to roost in writing in the Mishnah was understood to be part and parcel of the oral similarly obsolete. tradition of reciting the law in Jewish tradi- tion.14 The Syriac translator of the original THE USE OF THE PRAYER OF MANASSEH WITHIN THE Greek used the term tenyān nāmōsā, or CONTEXT OF THE DIDASCALIA “repetition (or double) of the Law,” which in fact is the Syriac title of the book of In establishing contexts for the Prayer of Deuteronomy, taken from the Greek Manasseh, we have now reviewed the role δευτερονοµιον. The contrast to “mishnah”, of the Prayer in its more immediate literary that which is repeated orally, the tradition context in chapters six and seven of the Di- of the rabbis, then, would be “miqra’”, that dascalia, its larger context with the church which is read aloud from what is written. If document as a whole, and the broader liter- we are to understand the Syriac use of the ary contextual environment which it inhab- term tenyān nāmōsā, as actually rendering ited as part of traditional Jewish and Chris- the usual sense of “mishnah” in Jewish tra- tian scriptural interpretations such as we dition, then what we see in the Didascalia reviewed in the pseudepigrapha, targums, may be a usurpation of that halakhic prac- and . It remains to make tice in the Syriac Jewish community.15 some tentative suggestions about the Didas- Just as “Israel” or the Jews as a living calia’s social context and function in the life community of people is effaced in the Di- of the early Syriac Christian community.

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Perhaps because it seems self-evident, to as a bema in one of Ephrem’s works little has been said in scholarship about how (eighth memra on Nicomedia) and corrobo- the Didascalia was actually used in antiq- rated by later sources making the North Syr- uity. In his introductory essay on the Prayer ian churches distinct from the churches of of Manasseh, James Charlesworth says only mainland Syria in which the ambo was the this: “Its appearance in the Didascalia (3rd central feature of the church. He suggests a cent. A.D.) and especially in the Apostolic relationship between the plan of these North Constitutions (4th cent. A.D.), a manual for Syrian Churches and that of the synagogues instruction in the post-Nicene Church, re- as they existed in Palestine and the Diaspora: veals that the Prayer of Manasseh was from “At least from the second-third century C.E. early times used ecclesiastically.”16 some synagogues were provided with plat- Charlesworth’s statement is doubtless true, forms that were intended for the reading and but not helpful in its vague generalization the explanation of the Scriptures, i.e., the because it isolates the Christian community Torah and the Prophets, and what is still from its pagan and Jewish surroundings and more striking they were called bemas.”18 influences. Questions remain about how We know from later commentaries on exactly the Didascalia was read, who heard the liturgy that the first part of the Eucharist, it, how frequently and how it thus shaped that is, the liturgy of the word, the reading, (or did not) those who heard its rhetoric. preaching and singing of scripture in psalms, Without overt description of the Didas- was offered on the bema, before the clergy calia’s use in any of our sources from antiq- descended to the altar for the liturgy of the uity, the answers to these questions must sacrament. While the Didascalia makes no remain tentative. In any case, it is possible reference to the actual building in which to proffer one suggestion rooted in the ob- worship took place, in chapter 10 there is servations by Gerard Rouwhorst about Jew- clear reference to two parts of the service, ish liturgical traditions in early Syriac Chris- the first referred to as “the word” and the tianity.17 Although we cannot pinpoint either second referred to as “the prayer” in which the geographical provenance of the Didas- communion is offered. Didascalia chapter calia or its subsequent circulation after com- 10 makes clear that unrepentant sinners position, the general consensus would have might participate in the first part of the ser- it in northern Syria, in which region lived a vice, the liturgy of the word, but only repen- sizable Jewish community, a community tance, confession, and conversion could al- moreover that may have been bilingual, us- low entrance into the Eucharistic assembly. ing both Greek and Syriac. A second point of significance is the Rouwhorst points out two features of lectionary tradition among Syriac-speaking Jewish influence on early Syriac Christian- Christians which from the majority of ac- ity. One is in the architecture of churches in counts included two readings from the Old north Syria. In these, he notes the absence of Testament, and two from Christian writings. the usual seats for clergy in the apses of the Drawing from several Syriac sources, the building. Rather, seats for clergy are found so-called Doctrine of the Apostles, the Apos- in the middle of the nave, which contained a tolic Constitutions, as well as the Doctrine large, walled-in platform, which is referred of Addai, we learn of the following four dis-

______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 13 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______tinct readings: “the Torah, or (Old Testa- few ways. First, in its immediate context of ment), the Prophets, the , and the chapters six and seven, the Prayer and the .” What is intriguing is story of Manasseh serve as a model for the that specific books are not specified but the penitent sinner for even the worst sins imag- authors are presumed, the Torah inable. The Didascalia offers Manasseh to (presumably issuing from Moses), the the bishops as an example of the efficacy of Prophets with their unique authority, the repentance as part of a penitential process, which are each attributed to one of even to those convicted of the worst sin, four disciples of Jesus, and the apostolic idolatry. As part of a tale of “olden days” witnesses. the Prayer of Manasseh is not overtly litur- It seems plausible that the fourth source gical, though the puzzling inclusion of the mentioned, “the Acts of the Apostles,” superscription strongly hints at another life might also include readings from such so- outside the Didascalia. As these chapters called “pseudo-apostolic” “church teaching are addressed to bishops, we might venture documents” as the Didascalia Apostolorum to say as well that the prayer was employed or the Apostolic Tradition or the Apostolic in penitential practices at that time within Constitutions. In this way, the Syriac the church, and depending on its first com- Church would be in continuity with reading poser, perhaps it was used in Jewish pen- the letters of Paul in the Churches, letters titential practice prior to that. Yet the docu- that dealt with concrete problems that vari- ment as a whole, or in chapters, may well ous congregations were having. If such sup- have been read regularly as part of the lit- positions are correct, then portions of the urgy of the word, the first half of the weekly Didascalia, including polemic against the worship gathering in the churches. Because “second law” and exhortations to penitence the Didascalia is addressed to the entire akin to that of King Manasseh, would have Christian community, its exhortatory role been heard regularly in the churches in order would extend not just to the leaders, but to to safeguard their membership and to build those in the congregation who were tempted walls between competing Jewish communi- to continue their Jewish practice and partici- ties in hopes of solidifying a contested Chris- pation in the Jewish community. The Didas- tian identity through counter-discursive texts calia relies heavily on the positive portrait and practices. of Manasseh in Chronicles’ counter- discourse as fully redeemed sinner, rather CONCLUSION than on the traditional Jewish view of Ma- nasseh as idolatrous prophet-slayer. The Having ventured a bit far afield and on less practice of penitence, which as rituals nor- firm ground in order to contextualize the mally do, likely preceded its justification Prayer of Manasseh within its broadest con- through written text, also shaped the way in text, it is necessary to bring together a few which the story of Manasseh was appropri- threads of the argument in summary. The ated from the various scriptural traditions use of the Prayer of Manasseh in the Didas- available to the author of the Didascalia. calia sheds light on inter-religious polemic We thus see the fluidity of “” as a counter-discourse that functions in a still in the third century.

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Within the context of the Didascalia thor/compiler of the Didascalia would not itself, we hear the Prayer of Manasseh in let such individuals have it both ways. The relation to the condemnation of the so-called closeness of the communities of Jews and “second law” of the Jews. If we can assume Christians, their shared use of some texts and that the Didascalia Apostolorum was regu- traditions, and contested identities, also larly read in churches as part of the liturgy of caused a threat. In the face of such perceived the word, part of the “Acts of the Apostles,” danger to community cohesion, it was we can also hear the Prayer of Manasseh as “either/or” never “both/and” among some of part of the larger rhetorical world of Judaism the leadership. There is no effacing the leg- and Christianity in antique Syria, in which acy for Jewish-Christian relations in subse- leaders of the Church were working hard to quent centuries of such stark rhetoric and retain members in the face of competing antagonism so clearly inscribed in the third temptations for Judaizers attracted to the century, but continued critical examination worship life of synagogues as well as contin- of such sources may help to shape a future of ued participation in other aspects of Jewish clearer mutual understanding for those community life of northern Syria. The au- standing in such living streams of tradition.

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NOTES

1 This is reflected in the Didascalia’s admo- (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). nitions to believers not to follow the “second 3 Translations from the Didascalia in the law.” The Didascalia contains a conception of article, except where noted, are adapted from two givings of the law: the first was the Deca- Arthur Vööbus, The Didascalia Apostolorum in logue; the second contained the cultic and ritual Syriac I (CSCO 401/402; Leuven: Peeters: 1979) legislation that was given as punishment after with occasional consultation for felicitous style the incident with the Golden Calf. For a discus- to the edition of R. Hugh Connolly, Didascalia sion of the “second law,” see Pieter van der Apostolorum: the Syriac version translated and Horst, “I Gave Them Laws that Were not Good: accompanied by the Verona Latin fragments Ezekiel 20:25 in Ancient Judaism and Early (Oxford: Clarendon, 1929; repr. 1969) on whom Christianity,” in Hellenism, Judaism, Christian- Vööbus too was reliant. ity: Essays on their Interaction (Kampen: Kok 4 Vööbus, Didascalia, 50-51 Pharos, 1994), 122-145, esp. 138-40. For the 5 There are few textual variants among the evidence on dating the Didascalia, see F.X. major Syriac and Greek manuscripts. The most Funk, Die Apostolische Konstitutionen, Didas- significant occurs in verse 7. The earliest calia et Constitutiones Apostolorum (2 vols.; manuscript dates from the ninth century Paterdorn: Schoeningh, 1905) 1:50-54. and preserves a form only slightly different from 2 The work of Hindy Najman has caused me the Syriac of the Didascalia; for a review of the to reflect in greater depth on the role of exemplars Syriac manuscripts of Pr Man, see the introduc- in early Judaism; see her “How Should We Con- tion to the “Prayer of Manasseh” in The Old Tes- textualize Pseudepigrapha? Imitation and Emula- tament in Syriac According to the Peshitta Ver- tion in 4 Ezra,” in Flores Florentino: Dead Sea sion Part 4/fasc. 6 (ed. W. Baars and H. Schnei- Scrolls and Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour der; Leiden: Brill, 1972), ii-vii. of Florentino García Martínez (ed. A. Hilhorst, E. 6 For discussions of the use of this formula Puech, E. Tigchelaar; JSJSup, Leiden: Brill, forth- within the Bible, see J. Scharbert, coming). From a different perspective, the work “Formgeschichte und Exegese von Ex 34:6-7 of Adolf Lumpe remains a touchstone, und seiner Pallelism,” Biblica 38 (1957) 130- “Exemplum” RAC 6.1229-1257 and informed my 150; Robert C. Dentan, “The Literary Affinities earlier work on positive and negative exempla of Exodus XXXIV 6f.” VT 13 (1963) 34-51; and found abundantly in early Jewish literature, par- Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in An- ticularly in prayers; see J.H. Newman, Praying by cient Israel (New York: Oxford University Press, the Book: The Scripturalization of Prayer in Sec- 1985), 335-350. For a discussion of its early ond Temple Judaism (SBLEJL 14, Atlanta: Schol- interpretation, see James L. Kugel, Traditions of ars Press, 1999), esp. 159-172. There has been the Bible (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University much scholarship in recent years on the role of Press, 1998), 721-727. saints, hagiography, and other ritual practices in 7 The assertion that idolatry is the worst of forming Christians in late antiquity; an influential sins is not a unanimous perspective in Christian- work in this regard is Peter Brown’s “The Saint as ity or Judaism. We might contrast this view with Exemplar in Late Antiquity,” in Saints and Vir- the author of Jubilees, in which it is intermar- tues (ed. J. Hawley; Berkeley: University of Cali- riage. In Jub. 33:20 such a high degree of value fornia Press, 1987), 1-14; and a more recent study, is placed on preservation of the people of Israel Georgia Frank, The Memory of the Eyes: Pilgrims as a holy seed that intermarriage is considered to Living Saints in Christian Late Antiquity the worst pollution, “because Israel is a holy

______Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 7 (2007) - Page 16 Three Contexts for Reading Manasseh’s Prayer in the Didascalia ______nation to the Lord his God, and a nation of in- 1133-1149. “Laws that were not good,” 99. heritance, and a nation of priests, and a royal 14 See the discussion of Connolly, Didas- nation and a special possession. And there is calia, lvii-lxix. nothing which appears which is as defiled as this 15 In a related vein, Charlotte Fonrobert has among the holy people.” referred to the Didascalia as a “counter-Mishnah” 8 I use the idea of counter-discourse as em- for the followers of Jesus. She argues the case that ployed by Carol Newsom in her work on the the Didascalia itself represents “one of the voices Community Rule (1QS) and the Hodayot from of Judaism” at a time when the construction of Qumran. The term discourse, following Fou- Christian and Jewish identities were still in flux. cault, comprises the intermeshed world of text She argues cogently that the spectrum of Jews and and social, or in the case of Pr Man, ritual, prac- Christians inhabit the same “discursive space” tices; see her The Self as Symbolic Space: Con- desiring to claim the authority of the scriptural structing Identity and Community at Qumran tradition to support their rival claims to ortho- (STDJ 52; Leiden: Brill, 2004), esp. 23-76. praxis or orthodoxy. Less convincing is her argu- 9 See y. Sanh. 10 (28c.37); b.Yebam. 49b, ment that the compilers of the Didascalia knew of Apoc. Ab. 25, Jos. Ant. 10.3.2. a compiled Mishnah and were consciously writing 10 The passage about Isaiah is concerned not in order to counter its role in a Jewish community so much with Manasseh’s treatment of the given the considerable differences in genre be- prophet as with the connection of Isaiah to the tween the two. Whereas she rightly suggests a miracle of the ever-flowing Siloam spring and degree of fluid community identity, she wrongly Isaiah’s role in safeguarding Jerusalem and its assumes a degree of stability and canonicity with water source through prayer during the reign of scriptural texts than was the case, given our as- Hezekiah and the Assyrian onslaught. The al- sessment of the non-“biblical” story of Manasseh most off-handed mention of Isaiah’s death at in chapters six to seven. She does not consider the Manasseh’s hands may well suggest its already issue of the Didascalia’s composition but ana- secure position in Jewish tradition by this point. lyzes it as a unified composition, nor more signifi- 11 By Michael Knibb’s assessment, Ascen. cantly from the perspective of understanding the Isa. 1:1-3:12 and 5:1-16 comprise the oldest origins of the Prayer of Manasseh, does she ad- parts of the work which are no later than the first dress the notion of the independent circulation of century CE but probably earlier; “Martyrdom parts of the Didascalia prior to its redaction; and ,” OTP 2:149-150. Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, “The Didascalia 12 In Connolly’s words, “To the author of Apostolorium: A Mishnah for the Disciples of the Didascalia, the Deuterosis was something of Jesus,” JECS 9 (2001) 483-509. which the only fulfillment lay in its complete 16 “Prayer of Manasseh,” OTP 2:632. abrogation. He definitely excludes it from fulfill- 17 Gerard Rouwhorst, “Jewish Liturgical ment;” Didascalia, lxii. Traditions in Early ,” VC 51 13 Van der Horst cites E. Dassmann’s work (1997) 72-93. “Hesekiel,” RAC 14 (1988) 1132-1191, especially 18 Ibid., 76.

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