Prayer of Manasseh

According to the biblical history books 1–2 Kings, Manasseh, the son of

Hezekiah, was one of the most evil and corrupt kings in all Jewish history.

Many evil Kings are compared to him in the Bible, and he seems to have set

the standard for despotic, pagan rule. Still, a tradition arose that Manasseh

eventually repented of his evil deeds — and the Prayer of Manasseh is the

prayer of that confession.

This prayer from the second century BCE to first century CE is found in many

older Greek manuscripts but isn’t considered a legitimate part of the older

biblical traditions. It’s widely noted that the Prayer borrows many lines from

Psalm 51 and thus is pretty clearly a derived tradition. However, one could

possibly argue that this prayer form is found in somewhat older biblical books;

such “prayers of confession” became more widely used in the centuries after

the destruction of Babylon in 587 BCE (see, for example, Daniel 9, Ezra 9, and

Nehemiah 9), and this prayer shows some resemblance to that tradition.

It seems clear that the prayer arose because of concern on the part of latter

readers that the Bible never “resolved” the issue of evil kings of ancient Israel.

Thus, prayers of confession like the Prayer of Manasseh attempt to “clean up”

some religious loose ends that are perceived in the biblical traditions.

I (coauthor Daniel) would suggest that such literary editing and additions

made to the older tradition are entirely harmless, even if they come rather

late in the game. The sentiment behind the prayers — that people come to

see the error of their ways — obviously is rather nice and reassuring!