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Tribe of Manasseh
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The Tribe of Menasheh was one of the Tribes of Israel. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Menasheh 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.
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The Tribe of Menasheh was one of the Tribes of Israel. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Menasheh 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, Menasheh's geographic situation enabled it to defend two important mountain passes - Esdraelon on the west of the Jordan and Hauran on the east.
In the Torah
According to the Torah, the tribe was founded by an individual, Menasheh, a son of Joseph, from whom it took its name. Some Biblical scholars, however, view this as a postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation In the Biblical account, Joseph is one of the two children of Rachel and Jacob, a brother to Benjamin, and father to both Ephraim, and his first son, Menasheh; Ephraim received the blessing of the firstborn, although Menasheh was the eldest, because Jacob foresaw that Ephraim's descendants would be greater than his brother's.
Though the biblical descriptions of the geographic boundary of the House of Joseph are fairly consistent, the descriptions of the boundaries between Menasheh and Ephraim are not, and each is portrayed as having exclaves within the territory of the other. Furthermore, in the Blessing of Jacob, and elsewhere ascribed by textual scholars to a similar or earlier time period, (eg., Joshua 17:14-18) Ephraim and Menasheh are treated as a single tribe, with Joseph appearing in their place. From this it is regarded as obvious that originally Ephraim and Menasheh were considered one tribe - that of Joseph.
Fate
As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Menasheh 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 Kuki-Chin-Mizo Jews claim descent from Menasheh, 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.
According to Biblical criticism
Although Machir and Gilead, as individuals, are described in biblical genealogies as father and son, and as son and grandson of Manasseh, in the view of some critical scholars Machir and Gilead are treated as the names of tribes which are different from one another in the Song of Deborah. (Tradition regards these as region names with the region Gilead being named so, long before the grandson of Manasseh.) and Additionally, Manasseh is absent from the poem; in the Elohist and Jahwist texts Manasseh is also frequently absent, while Machir is mentioned. Additionally Machir is described as settling on the east of the Jordan, leaving the absence of the western half of Menasheh in these passages still unaccounted for. Critical scholars argue that the two halfs had different origins noting that in the Book of Chronicles that the western half tribe and eastern half tribe historically had separate tribal rulers.
See also
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