IV. MANASSEH. High-priest of the Jews, Son of John, and Brother of Jaddus. He succeeded Eleazar his great Uncle, and had for his Successor Onias II. his Nephew. Manasseh came to the chief Priesthood in this Manner. He had married Nicaso, Daughter of Sanballat1 Governor of Samaria. The Jews and Priests were much displeased at this Marriage of Manasseh, she being a Woman of another Religion. They declare that he must either quit his Wife, or renounce his Priesthood. The High-priest his Brother joined himself to them, and Manasseh seeing himself become so obnoxious in his own Countrey, withdrew himself to his Father-in-Law, and told him, that though he had a great Affection for Nicaso his Wife, yet it troubled him much that on her Account he saw himself excluded from the Prerogatives of the Priesthood, to which by his Birth he had a Right. Sanballat promised him, that not only he would secure him the Priesthood, but that he would also procure him the chief Priesthood, and the first Place of the whole Province; that he would build him a Temple upon Mount Gerizim, like to that of Jerusalem, and that he should be the first High-priest in it.
Manasseh flattered by these Hopes, settled himself with his Father-in-Law Sanballat; and there being several other Israelites that were engaged in like Marriages, they betook themselves to him, and Sanballat gave them Houses and Lands to secure their Continuance with him. When Alexander the Great came into Syria, and had formed the Siege of Tyre, Sanballat went to meet him with eight Thousand Men, all good Troops, and submitted to his Obedience with the whole Province of Samaria, of which he was Governor. He obtained a Permission from this Prince, to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim, and gave the chief Priesthood of it to his Son-in -Law Manasseh. The same God was worshipped in this Temple, as in that of Jerusalem, and a great Number of those that frequented it were Jews as well as Manasseh. But this Temple was held in great Detestation by the Priests and Jews of Jerusalem, who looked upon those as Schismaticks that worshipped here. Therefore it must needs be, that Manasseh must renounce his Schism, when after the Death of his great Uncle Eleazar, he succeeded in the high Priesthood2. Josephus does not acquaint us how this Change and Succession was brought about, and what he does relate upon this Matter appears very hard to believe, and includes a Contradiction not easy to reconcile.
The Book of Nehemiah mentions SanballatNehem. xiii. 28. the Heronite, who had given his Daughter in Marriage to a Son of the High-priest Joiada, Son of Eliashib; and acquaints us, that Nehemiah was obliged to drive away from Jerusalem this Son-in- Law of Sanballat, because he had taken a strange Woman to Wife. It says not what was his Name, or what became of him; but Josephus calls him Manasses3, and assures us, that he withdrew to his Father-in-Law at Samaria, under the Reign of Darius Codomannus, the last King of Persia. Here is a manifest Anachronism. Nehemiah could not live under Darius Codomannus; he came the second Time into Judæa in the Year of the World 3555, under Artaxerxes Longimanus, and died in the Year 3580. And Darius Codomannus did not come to the Throne till about the Year 3670.
Some learned Men have been of Opinion, that we must admit of two Sanballats and of two Manassehs, of which the first lived under Nehemiah, and the others under Darius Codomannus. Others have thought, that Josephus has perplexed this History, by confounding the Years, and referring Facts to the Time of Alexander the Great, and the latter Darius, which happened a long Time before under Nehemiah. Doctor Prideaux4 is of this last Opinion. He maintains that Josephus has confounded the High-priest Joiada with his Grandson Jaddus, and that what this Author has said about this Matter, ought to be corrected by what we find in Nehemiah. Upon this Footing also it must be allowed, that Manasseh the High-priest, who succeeded Eleazar, was a very different Person from the Son-in-Law of Sanballat, whose Name Nehemiah does not inform us of.
Manasseh is allowed a Pontificate of twenty six Years, from the Year of the World 3745 to 3771, before Jesus Christ 229, before the Vulgar Æra 233.
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