Tribe of Manasseh
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The Tribe of Manasseh (Hebrew alphabet מְנַשֶּׁה, Samaritan Hebrew Manatch, Standard Hebrew Mənašše, Tiberian Hebrew Mənaššeh: from נשני naššānî - who makes to forget) was one of the Tribes of Israel; together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also formed the House of Joseph. 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 discontinuous 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.
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[edit] Origin
According to the Torah, the tribe was founded by an individual, Manasseh, a son of Joseph, from whom it took its name[1]; however Biblical scholars view this also as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation[2]. In the Biblical account, Joseph is one of the two children of Rachel and Jacob, a brother to Benjamin, and father to both Manasseh, and his first son, Ephraim.
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[3]. Furthermore, in the Blessing of Jacob, and elsewhere ascribed by textual scholars to a similar or earlier time period[4], Ephraim and Manasseh are treated as a single tribe, with Joseph appearing in their place. From this it is regarded as obvious that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe - that of Joseph [5]. According to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of the house of Joseph, but the biblical account of this became lost[6][7]; Benjamin being differentiated by being that part of Ephraim which joined the Kingdom of Judah rather than that of Israel[8].
A number of biblical scholars suspect that the Joseph tribes (including Benjamin) represent a second migration of Israelites to Israel, later than the main tribes[9], specifically that it was only the Joseph tribes which went to Egypt and returned, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanites and had remained in Canaan throughout[10]; in the narrative in the Book of Joshua, which concerns the the arrival in (and conquest of) Canaan by the Israelites from Egypt, the leader is Joshua, who was a member of the Ephraim tribe. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to Laban to obtain a wife began as a metaphor for the second migration, with Jacob's new family, posessions, and livestock, obtained from Laban, being representations of the new wave of migrants[11]; it is notable that, according to textual scholars, in the Jahwist version of the story it is only the Joseph tribes that are among these migrants, since it only recounts Jacob as having met Rachel, and the matriarchs of the other Israelite tribes - Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah - do not appear[12][13].
In the Biblical passages which textual scholars ascribe to early sources, for example the Song of Deborah, groups named Machir and Gilead are treated with equal status to the other Israelite tribes, while Manasseh and Gad are absent. Traditionally this feature has been explained by the argument that Machir and Gilead are simply synonyms, recounting that in the biblical genealogy, the eponymous Machir and Gilead are descendents of Manasseh; however, in the genealogy, Gilead is Machir's one and only son, yet as tribal groups Machir and Gilead are quite distinct rather than synonyms. Additionally Machir is clearly described as settling on the east of the Jordan only, leaving the absence of the western half of Manasseh in these passages still unaccounted for; further hinting at different origins for these two half tribes is the indication in the Book of Chronicles that the western half tribe and eastern half tribe historically had separate tribal rulers[14].
[edit] 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 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 controversial Law of Return allows them to migrate to Israel, as long as they formally convert to Israel's official form of Judaism.
Considered less plausible by academic and Jewish authorities are the claims of several western Christian and related groups. Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) believe themselves to be descended from Manasseh (in a "grafted in" sense of ancestry), arguing that the lost tribes are being restored in the latter days (meaning now) as prophesied by Isaiah; some believe that this would be the fulfillment of part of the Blessing of Jacob, where it states that Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall[15] with the interpretation that the wall is the ocean. Some adherants of Messianic Judaism also regard themselves as part of Manasseh on the basis that, regardless of any genetic connection which may or may not exist, they observe the Torah and interpret parts of the Tanakh in certain ways.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Genesis 30
- ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ eg. Joshua 17:14-18
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
- ^ ibid
- ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
- ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
- ^ ibid
- ^ ibid
- ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?
- ^ 1 Chronicles 27:20-21
- ^ King James translation, Genesis 49:22
- This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
