569b Who was Manasseh?

And Mary’s or Manasseh’s stains

569b Sacred Throne

Manasseh in the Bible refers to: 1) Joseph's eldest son, 2) to his descendants - the tribe of Manasseh, and 3) to King Manasseh. It is this third reference that we see in this song.

King Manasseh ruled the southern kingdom, Judah, from about 686 to 642 BCE (This is well after the northern kingdom has been overrun and annexed into Assyria.) The writer(s) of 2nd Kings clearly consider him the most evil in the line of kings of Judah.

2 Kings 21:9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

Among the evils mentioned in 2 Kings 21 are: worship of other gods, e.g. of Baal and Asherah -- erecting altars and sacred poles (phallic symbols - these are fertility cults) and statues (graven images - forbidden in 10 commandments), putting these even in the courtyards of the Temple built as a house of God by Solomon. He "made his son pass through fire" apparently a reference to worship rites associated with Moloch, rites which included child sacrifice. He "practiced soothsaying and augury and dealt with mediums and with wizards." (all of these are forbidden) And "Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another."

Quite a collection of stains.

I would guess that the Mary refered to is Mary Magdalene, who in the west is seen in a conflation of three Biblical characters (recognized as separate individuals in the Eastern Christian churches): 1) Mary from the village of Magdala (Luke 8 tells us Jesus drove seven devils out of her; Matthew 15 puts her as one of the witnesses of the cruxifiction; John 20 presents her as the first witness to the resurrected Jesus); 2) Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus; and 3) the woman, "a sinner," who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair (Luke 7) of whom Jesus said, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much."


***
Manesseh, Joseph's eldest son, e.g.
Genesis 41:51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.

Manasseh, the tribe, e.g.
Numbers 1:35 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.


Thanks Dorothy for the question.

26, (& 107) Isaac Watts / Where is Samaria?

My spirit looks to God alone	26 Samaria
	107 Russia

These words are by Isaac Watts. Samaria's two verses appear to encompass four original verses; Russia only uses the first two.

I've been singing hymns by Isaac Watts as long as I can remember. His words are found in many (possibly all) protestant hymnals. (Our current UCC hymnal has 14 Watts pieces. The Pilgrim Hymnal I grew up with had 18, the just published Lutheran (ELCA) hymnal has 10).

Unless I lost count, the 1991 Edition has Watts words to 144 tunes -- I have no idea how many of these are separate hymns and how many are multiple uses of the same words.

Isaac Watts
English Nonconformist pastor and hymnwriter
Born	July 17,1674 Southampton, England
Died	November 25,1748

"Samaria" So far, Google has led me to four or five towns named Samaria. Perhaps others existed in the past, or perhaps the name refers directly to the Biblical Samaria.

Samaria is the region that was the Northern Kingdom of Israel (after the reign of king Solomon the Israelites divided into two kingdoms.) When that kingdom was overrun (721 BCE), many of the people were deported, and Assyrians settled there, but they continued a form of worship based on the Torah (the first five books of the bible) as their sacred text. Over time their religion became more and more separated from that of Judah, the southern kingdom (itself overrun 135 years later.) So the Samaritans and the Jews in the time of Jesus had a mutual dislike -- the intense bad feelings that only estranged family can create. The point of the parable of the "Good Samaritan" is not that we should be helpful people, but that the Samaritan is neighbor and "Love your neighbor as yourself" applies even to those you despise. (Luke 10.25-37)

Commending the section "MUSIC" pg.9

Not yet being flooded with questions, I thought I'd start looking from the front of the book. Doing that, I realized I'd never read Ruth Denson Edwards comments on Music (page 9 counting back from the Rudiments on page 13, the first numbered page in the 1991 edition.)

I recommend it to you. She offers a number of scripture citations conveying the long-standing importance of music, and a lovely reflection on music in nature.

The dating of Jubal to 3875 BCE I believe is based on Bishop Usher's chronology of the Bible that puts creation at 4004 before Christ -- though I think the dating of Jubal must rely on some general notion of years per generation. Jubal is one of the great, great, great, great grandsons of Cain. I'm not seeing a setting out of the years and generation of this line such as Genesis 5 gives for the descendants of Seth (Adam and Eve's third son -- good crossword name.)

Oh, anyone out there getting worried that I'm going to be terribly literal about everything in the Bible? Don't worry. Actually, no one is a literalist -- I've never heard anyone suggest that when Jesus says he is the door he's telling us he's made of wood with a brass knob (or glass and metal with a crashbar for that matter.) We all recognize some things as metaphor, mostly a question of which things and how much of the Bible we read that way. In this instance, for example, my own faith does not compel me to accept a literalist understanding of the creation stories in the Bible -- quite the contrary in fact. But it may often be easier in talking about the words of Sacred Harp to not be hedging things around with qualifications and caveats all the time. If you're curious about my understanding of some particular point, feel free to ask.

155, 299 What is "the third heaven"

From the third heaven, where God resides

155 Northfield

299 New Jerusalem

The only biblical reference I'm finding is from Paul, speaking third person about himself (a not uncommon literary device.)
2 Corinthians 12:4 (KJV)
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

I suspect that somewhere out there one might find some esoteric cosmology connected with this, but in my limited library I'm just seeing the pretty plain sense of the words. And I think this is what would have been evident and important to the hymn writer also.

One standard commentary (Barclay) says of the third heaven "He simply means that his spirit rose to an unsurpassable ecstasy in its nearness to God."

My study bible notes that according to vs. 4, the "third heaven" is where paradise is located. (It goes on to note that heavenly journeys were a popular means of claiming divine authentication and were apparently used by Paul's opponents for this purpose.)

All of this suggests that the hymn writer got it right:
From the third heaven where God resides, that holy happy place
The new Jerusalem comes down adorned with shining grace.

The "new Jerusalem" coming down takes us back to Revelation 21:2 (KJV)
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.


Thank you Mary Mac for this question (and I'm not forgetting your second question about nature imagery)

Call for Questions

So Sacred Harp Singers, please think of this blog as a resource for you. Next time you're singing and are puzzled or curious about something in the words, make a note of it, get to a computer, and respond to this post to let me know your question. I'll see what I can do.

In the meantime, unless I'm flooded with questions, I may just start working my way through the book looking for something of interest in every song.

179 Who was (is/will be?) "Apollyon"?

Apollyon, with all his powerful forces, In Thy name and Thy strength shall soon put to flight.

179 The Christian Warfare

This is the name that launched the idea for this blog. I've lost count of how many times when we've sung 179 someone will ask "Who was Apollyon?" So here it is:

The reference is to Revelation 9:11
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. (KJV)

The "they" over whom he is king is a vast horde of supernaturally nasty locusts (see the description Rev.9:3-10) With the opening of the 5th seal the bottomless pit is opened and they are released to torment people for 5 months.

So this is a good occasion to make a few very short observations about the book of Revelation, perhaps the most misunderstood and misused book of the Bible.

First: Don't read it as a code to reveal events of the end times. Folks have been trying this for about 1900 years now, with predictions of the date of the second coming beyond counting. No one's been right yet. This is not what it's given to us for.

Second: It is full of dazzling, splendid poetic imagery. Let yourself be carried away by both the terrifying and beautiful pictures it paints. If your life is pretty good, pretty easy, you might as well just stop here with Revelation, because...

Third: It was written by and for people who were struggling just to survive under terrible persecution. The existing order (the Roman Empire) was crushing them. Justice and hope looked to them like standing the existing order on its head. Revelation depicts this on a cosmic scale. Perhap, perhaps, try reading it in this light when you've lost your job, when your family turns against you, when you deeply come to grips with our complicity in war in Iraq, genocide in Darfur, ecological catastrophe around the world.

Okay, out of the pulpit.

Getting started: what this is all about

This is my first entry into blogging, so your patience will be appreciated.

I often hear questions raised about some of the more or less obscure names and references in the texts of the Sacred Harp. Those questions tend to get directed to me because I'm an ordained minister (in the United Church of Christ -- ucc.org), seminary trained, and I guess I'm supposed to know this stuff.

So I hope to use this blog to explain and offer my own commentary on some aspects of the texts found in the Sacred Harp (primarily 1991 Edition - Denson Revision).

I expect soon I'll put up a post explaining the name of this blog. And I expect I'll also formally solicit questions you'd like me to try answering. Right now I believe I have this set up to accept moderated comments.

Glad you're here. Check back soon.