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The Prayer of Manasseh in 4Q381 and the Account of Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33

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The Prayer of Manasseh in 4Q381 and the Account of Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33 THE PRAYER OF MANASSEH IN 4Q381 AND THE ACCOUNT OF MANASSEH IN 2 CHRONICLES 33 Mika S. Pajunen There is a penitential prayer in the psalm collection 4QNon-Canonical Psalms B (4Q381) that the superscription ascribes to: “Manasseh king of Judah, when the King of Assyria imprisoned him” (frg. 33 8). This prayer plausibly has some connection with the tradition of Manasseh’s prayer mentioned in 2 Chr 33 (vv. 12–13, 18–19), but the extent of the connection with the narrative about Manasseh’s reign and the direction of the influ- ence have thus far been evaluated in various ways. William Schniedewind has claimed that the prayer in 4Q381 is a pre-exilic composition that the Chronicler(s) may have used as a source,1 and Eileen Schuller, the editor of 4Q381, has stated that it is difficult to suggest that the psalm in 4Q381 is directly dependant on the account of Chronicles, but equally difficult to suggest the influence going the other way around.2 Schuller’s further pro- posal that the superscription ascribing the prayer to King Manasseh might have been secondarily attached to a general psalm of a repentant indi- vidual makes this question even more complex.3 These issues have larger ramifications because if the 4Q381 prayer had been used as a source by the Chronicler(s), it would have consequences for understanding the textual 1 William M. Schniedewind, “A Qumran Fragment of the Ancient ‘Prayer of Manasseh’?” ZAW 108 (1996): 105–7. 2 Eileen M. Schuller, “4QNon-Canonical Psalms B,” in Qumran Cave Four IV Poetical and Liturgical Texts, part 1 (ed. Carol Newsom and Eileen Schuller; DJD 11; Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 87–173 at 123. For a fuller discussion on the topic see, eadem, Non-Canonical Psalms from Qumran: A Pseudepigraphic Collection (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986), 31–32. 3 Schuller, Non-Canonical, 32, 162. Moshe J. Bernstein, “Pseudepigraphy in the Qumran Scrolls: Categories and Functions,” in Pseudepigraphic Perspectives: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Proceedings of the International Sympo- sium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 12–14 January, 1997 (ed. Esther G. Chazon and Michael E. Stone; STDJ 31; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 1–26, designates the secondary attribution of compositions to biblical figures as decorative pseudepigraphy. This kind of pseudepigraphy is only external, and is in contrast to works that are wholly pseudepigraphic both externally and internally. Whether the 4Q381 prayer of Manasseh is to be placed in the category of decorative pseudepigraphy as Schuller’s argument would indicate or is a “genuine” pseudepigraphic prayer depends on whether firm links between the text of the prayer and traditions of Manasseh found elsewhere can be established. 144 mika s. pajunen history of the Chronicles account of Manasseh, and if the influence goes the other way, it gives a glimpse into the use and interpretation of the older tradition(s) at a relatively early stage. Therefore, in order to situate the 4Q381 prayer in the correct discussion the relative chronology of these two texts has to be established. Through analysis of the connecting details between the texts and taking their particular characteristics into account, it will be argued that the passage in Chronicles represents the earlier text and was used as a source by the author(s) of the prayer in 4Q381.4 1. Traditions about King Manasseh In order to fully appreciate the nuances of the textual connection between 2 Chr 33 and the 4Q381 prayer of Manasseh, it is imperative to have a general knowledge about the different traditions relating to King Manasseh. The traditions of Manasseh now found in the Hebrew Bible and the problems they present are well known to scholars and need not be fully discussed here, and consequently they are only briefly outlined in the following presentation. There are two distinctly different strands of tradition about King Manasseh in the Hebrew Bible. One is represented by 2 Kgs 21 (and Jer 15:4) and the other by 2 Chr 33. According to the tradi- tion represented by 2 Kgs 21:1–18, Manasseh is perhaps the most heinous king in the history of Judah. His list of sins (vv. 2–9, 16) is worse than the sins of most of the other kings put together. These sins are deemed ter- rible enough that even King Josiah’s later reform is not enough to absolve them (23:26). Instead they are given as the main reason for God’s final judgment of his chosen nation and its subsequent exile (24:3–4). Surpris- ingly enough Manasseh himself does not suffer any consequences for his sins,5 but rather enjoys the longest reign in the history of Judah and dies peacefully in the end (21:1, 18). The account of Manasseh’s reign in 2 Chr 33:1–20 is significantly differ- ent. It starts in the same way (vv. 1–10) following the account of 2 Kings 4 A similar view of the chronology between these texts has been expressed by Flo- rentino García Martínez in his review of Eileen Schuller’s preliminary edition of 4Q381. See Florentino García Martínez, “Estudios Qumranicos 1975–1985: Panorama Critico (V),” EstBíb 47 (1989): 93–118 at 99. 5 Although, note the suggestion by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice: Biblical Distortions of Historical Realities (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2004), 44–45, that the writer of Kings might have meted out a measure of narrative justice to Manasseh by placing his burial place in the Garden of Uzza instead of the ancestral tombs in the City of David..
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