Manasseh in Egyptian

Thomas Kelly Cheyne, John Sutherland Black in Encyclopædia Biblica, similarly cite the possibility that the name Manasseh is derived from Menes, a common Egyptian name (Menes is considered to be the first king of a unified Egypt). Thus Manasseh would have had the convenience of having a kosher Hebrew name that happened to also have a meaning in the Egyptian language.

Manasseh, King of Judah

Now let us for a minute turn to a different Manasseh, not Joseph’s son but rather the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah (687-642 BCE). Although he reigned for quite a long time, relatively little information is revealed about him in Tanach. What is clearly apparent from the biblical account, however, is that he was a wicked idolater.

What struck me most about him is the fact that the name Manasseh is a pretty unique name in Tanach. The question is why did Menashe’s righteous father Hezekiah give his son this name? Was it to commemorate forgetting something (as in the case of Joseph) or was it something more significant?

In order to attempt to answer this question, let us take a look for a moment at the Talmud in Brachot 10a (this past week’s Daf Yomi). The Talmud relates that Isaiah the Prophet went to tell Hezekiah that he was going to die (the narrative of Hezekiah’s sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24, and Isaiah 38:1) because he [Hezekiah] deliberately did not sire any progeny. This was on account of the fact that Hezekiah had seen prophetically that his child would be a prolific idolator and therefore he preferred not to have children.

The Prophet Isaiah told him that he was required to fulfill the biblical commandment of “be fruitful and multiply” and not outguess God about what the future would bring. Isaiah then suggested perhaps if his own daughter married Hezekiah, in the merit of righteous parents their children would also be righteous. Hezekiah agreed and Isaiah’s daughter bore him Manasseh who was an idolator (and later murdered his own grandfather Isaiah).

Forgive me if this sounds overly casuistic, but a thought struck me when I read that. Perhaps, as Hezekiah shuddered to bring a child into a world awash in idol worship, he thought back to a time when another Hebrew monarch, at a different time and place, was faced with a similar dilemma. Joseph in Egypt, living in a land full of idol worship, surely had second thoughts about having children. Yet he did have children and not only did they not grow up to become idol worshippers, but they have since become the prototype of “good children.” To this day, fathers bless their sons with the blessing that the Patriarch Jacob gave to the sons of Joseph יְשִׂמְךָ אֱלֹקים כְּאֶפְרַיִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה, “May God make you like Efraim and Menashe” (Genesis 48). Perhaps Hezekiah seized upon the name as a sort of “segula” (lucky charm) that his son may turn out righteous after all. And in fact, we see (in 2 Chr. 33:11-13) that Manasseh did repent during the end of his life. There is even an Apocryphal book called “the Prayer of Manasseh” that commemorates this event.

The Prophet Isaiah’s martyrdom at the hands of Menasseh is referred to in both ancient Jewish and Christian texts. In addition to the account in Brachot, it is also mentioned in a Christian apocryphal work called “Lives of the Prophets” and in “the Martyrdom of Isaiah,” which has been preserved in part in the Christian work “the Ascension of Isaiah.”

I also came across an interesting verse in Judges 18 that seems to link Moses and Manasseh. There we find mention of a priest, closely associated with an idol worshipping cult called “pesel micha.” His name is given as Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Menashe. However, the “נ” in Menashe is superscripted, which does not occur elsewhere in the Tanach. The correct reading is probably ben Moshe and Rashi and other sages suspected as much, arguing that the name was changed to Manasseh in order to avoid embarrassing Yehonatan’s grandfather Moses. So here again we have illustrious ancestors and wayward idol-worshipping children (I would also add that Moshe, like Menashe [the first], is raised in the king’s palace in an atmosphere permeated with idol worship. Yet he too, like Menashe, is steadfast in his monotheism).

The Strange Cases of Menashe in the Bible

While researching the name Manasseh in the Bible, I noticed the strange themes and undercurrents surrounding the name. The scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou in his work “King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice” points out the infrequency of the name Manasseh in the Bible, and also mentions the possibility of an “anti-Manasseh polemic in the Hebrew Bible”; whenever Manasseh is mentioned there is the theme of idol worship or “gentile ways” present. The first would be the idol-worshipping priest Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Menashe (with Menashe substituting for Moshe), the second would be King Menashe, and the third Menashe is mentioned in Ezra as having been chastised by Ezra for marrying foreign wives. The switching of order between the firstborn Manasseh and the younger Ephraim by Jacob is also explained by Stavrakopolou as part of “an anti-Manasseh polemic pervading the Hebrew Bible.” I would also add King Jehu of Israel who is said to be of the tribe of Menashe פסיקתא רבתי פרק ג (probably because of the peculiar name of his father Nimshi, which sounds like a corruption of the name Menashe). Yehu is the only Israelite king who instituted major reforms in the religion of the Northern Kingdom and made an initial effort to stamp out idol worship (מלכים א יט:טז-יז, מלכים ב ט-י, דברי הימים ב כב) before he himself succumbed to it.

Parenthetically, there is also another Menashe mentioned in Jewish Antiquities by Josephus. This Menashe, a kohen (priest), left the Jerusalem Temple, married the daughter of a Samaritan noble, and joined their Temple on Mount Gerizim in Samaria.

Other Opinions as to Why Hezekiah Named his Son Menashe

Some Bible scholars opine that Hezekiah’s naming of his only son Manasseh was meant as a good will gesture toward the northern tribal kingdom (who were ruled chiefly by kings of Manasseh and Ephraim). “What could better show the desire to let all past offenses and discord be forgotten than give the heir to his throne the name in which one of their tribes exulted.” Hezekiah wanted to “take advantage of the overthrow of the rival kingdom by Shalmaneser of Assyria and the anarchy in which the provinces had been left, to gather round him the remnant of the population……It was at least partially successful; divers from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover” (Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature By John McClintock, James Strong).

Incidentally, speaking of the Israelite Northern Kingdom, there are two kings named Yeravam in that kingdom, the second one presumably named after the first. Parenthetically, there are several other names in that line of monarchs that are not unique and are already found earlier in Tanach: Zimri, Yehoram, Amatzya, Zechariah, Hoshea, et al.

The author is an independent researcher of Jewish history and culture. He is also a freelance translator of Hebrew text. He can be reached at [email protected].