The Problematic of the Authorship of the Non-canonical Prayer of King Manasseh (2 Par. 36)

Abstract

The purpose of the research of this article is to study domestic and foreign scientists views regarding the problem of authorship of the non–canonical prayer of King Manasseh (2 Par. 36). Since this prayer is a non-canonical insertion at the end of the second book of the Chronicles (2 Par. 36), Russian studies of this prayer are fragmentary. The following methods were used in the course of the study: analysis of domestic and foreign studies, comparative analysis, synthesis. There is no consensus among all researchers regarding the authorship of the prayer of Manasseh. Conventionally, researchers both domestic and foreign are divided into those who believe that its author was a «Jew» and those who believe that its author was a «Christian». Pavel Jungerov and Sergey Averintsev unanimously believe that the author could have been a Jew. Herbert Ryle and James Davila among foreign scientists studied in detail the question of the authorship of the prayer of Manasseh. Meanwhile G. Ryle believes that the author of the prayer is a Jew, J. Davila admits that the author of the prayer could also be a Christian. James Charlesworth and David Flusser believe that the author could only be a Jew. In other words, the historical king Manasseh is not considered by anyone as the author of the work of the same name.