Tribe of Manasseh

Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Manasseh Ephraim Benjamin
Related topics Israelites Tribal allotments Ten Lost Tribes
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Manasseh (Hebrew: מְנַשֶּׁה, Modern Menashe Tiberian Mənaššé ; "who makes to forget") was one of the Tribes of Israel. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also formed the House of Joseph.

From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BC, the Tribe of Manasseh was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. (see the Book of Judges) With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge, and the Tribe of Manasseh joined the new kingdom with Saul as the first king. After the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, but after the death of Ish-bosheth, Saul's son and successor to the throne of Israel, the Tribe of Manasseh joined the other northern Israelite tribes in making David, who was then the king of Judah, king of a re-united Kingdom of Israel. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, David's grandson, in c. 930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Manasseh was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c. 723 BC and the population deported.

From that time, the Tribe of Manasseh has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, though some groups claim descent from the tribe.

Tribal territory

Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE,^[1] Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. At its height, the territory it occupied spanned the Jordan River, forming two "half-tribes", one on each side; the eastern half-tribe was almost entirely discontiguous with the western half-tribe, only slightly touching at one corner - the south west of the eastern half-tribe and north east of the western half-tribe.

The western half-tribe occupied the land to the immediate north of Ephraim, in the centre of western Canaan, between the Jordan and the coast, with the Tribe of Issachar to the north, the north west corner being at Mount Carmel; the eastern half-tribe was the northernmost Israelite group on the east of the Jordan, occupying the land north of the tribe of Gad, extending from the Mahanaim in the south to Mount Hermon in the north, and including within it the whole of Bashan. These territories abounded in water, a precious commodity in Canaan, and thus constituted one of the most valuable parts of the country; additionally, Manasseh's geographic situation enabled it to defend two important mountain passes - Esdraelon on the west of the Jordan and Hauran on the east.

In c. 732 BCE, Pekah, king of Israel allied with Rezin, king of Aram, and threatened Jerusalem. Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser^[2] Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram^[3] and territory of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in Gilead (east of the Jordan River) including the desert outposts of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. The population of these territories were taken captive and resettled in Assyria, in the region of the Khabur River system. (2 Kings 16:9 and 15:29) The diminished kingdom of Israel was again invaded by Assyria in 723 BCE and the rest of the population deported.

Origin

According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Manasseh, a son of Joseph, from whom it took its name.^[4] Some critics, however, view this as a postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation^[5] In the Biblical account, Joseph is one of the two children of Rachel and Jacob, a brother to Benjamin, and father to both Ephraim, and his first son, Manasseh; Ephraim received the blessing of the firstborn, although Manasseh was the eldest, because Jacob foresaw that Ephraim's descendants would be greater than his brother's.

Though the biblical descriptions of the geographic boundary of the House of Joseph are fairly consistent, the descriptions of the boundaries between Manasseh and Ephraim are not, and each is portrayed as having exclaves within the territory of the other.^[6] Furthermore, in the Blessing of Jacob, and elsewhere ascribed by textual scholars to a similar or earlier time period, (e.g., Joshua 17:14-18) Ephraim and Manasseh are treated as a single tribe, with Joseph appearing in their place. From this it is regarded that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe - that of Joseph.^[7]

Fate

As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Manasseh was conquered by the Assyrians, and the tribe exiled; the manner of their exile lead to their further history being lost. However, several modern day groups claim descent, with varying levels of academic and rabbinical support. The Samaritans claims that some of their adherents are descended from this tribe. Further afield, in northeast India, the Kuki-Chin-Mizo Jews claim descent from Manasseh, and call themselves Bnei Menashe; in 2005 Shlomo Amar, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, announced that he regarded this claim to be true, which under the Law of Return allows them to migrate to Israel, as long as they formally convert to Judaism in accordance with halachic standards.^{[citation needed]}

According to Biblical criticism

Although Machir and Gilead, as individuals, are described in biblical genealogies as father and son, and as son and grandson of Manasseh, in the view of some critical scholars Machir and Gilead are treated as the names of tribes which are different from one another in the Song of Deborah. (Tradition regards these as region names with the region Gilead being named so, long before the grandson of Manasseh.) and Additionally, Manasseh is absent from the poem; in the Elohist and Jahwist texts Manasseh is also frequently absent, while Machir is mentioned. Additionally Machir is described as settling on the east of the Jordan, leaving the absence of the western half of Manasseh in these passages still unaccounted for. Critical scholars argue that the two halves had different origins noting that in the Book of Chronicles that the western half tribe and eastern half tribe historically had separate tribal rulers.^[8]

See also

• Joseph
• Two House Movement

References

1. ^ Kitchen, Kenneth A. (2003), "On the Reliability of the Old Testament" (Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)(ISBN 0-8028-4960-1)
2. ^ 2 Kings 16:7-9
3. ^ Lester L. Grabbe, Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? (New York: T&T Clark, 2007): 134
4. ^ Genesis 30
5. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible.
6. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia.
7. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
8. ^ 1 Chronicles 27:20-21

• This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.

External links