The Apocrypha’s “The Prayer of Manasseh”: The Right Prayer for the Right Occasion

Posted on August 20, 2014 by virgowriter

The Apocrypha’s “The Prayer of Manasseh”: The Right Prayer for the Right Occasion

I have deep appreciation for ceremony, like the singing of the Star Spangled Banner before sporting events. This particular song was a mystery to me for years, in part because I didn’t know the words, and, as my third grade teacher Mrs. Matthews discovered, utterly appalling that I didn’t know them (nor, to be fair, did anyone else in the class when she asked). I eventually learned the words—frequent Flyers games will drill this song into you—and, when I did, felt like certain mysteries had been revealed, like learning what some of the words actually were, like a rampart.

I imagine this song gets played because it galvanizes the audience by hitting that patriotic note. Prayers have a similar effect, though different purpose, depending on the context. For example, at some point, perhaps to ensure that children sleep well under the watchful eye of God—or at least put religiously-inclined people at ease with this notion, Children were taught the familiar bedtime prayer that begins with: “Now I lay me down to sleep….” I, however, know this best when it’s used in Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”

Alcoholics have their chosen Serenity prayer, which apparently lends them mental strength in their struggle for sobriety: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…” I know this from countless movies and TV shows.

I also learned of Psalm 23:4, recited for comfort when someone is dying: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” The first time I read the Bible, I was excited: finally, something I recognize!

Given the ubiquity of these particular prayers matched with particular uses, it’s clear that people do best with fewer options: at some point, a person mined the Bible for the best, most well-suited prayer for an occasion, and by selecting one, people seem to take comfort the moment the prayer begins. This perhaps explains why other prayers have been cut, and The Apocrypha’s “The Prayer of Mannasseh,” cut from the Old Testament, is an example of why.

Apparently, this is the prayer referred to in 2 Chronicles 33:18. Basically, the prayer praises God, admits the faults of the speaker, provides a brief history lesson to demonstrate that the speaker understands those who have come before (such as Abraham), and ends by stating that the speaker would like not be destroyed when he sins and will constantly praise God.

The prayer is nice—it carries a lot of appropriate, seemingly genuine religious sentiment, but unlike other popular prayers, it doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, which probably explains why it was cut from the Old Testament: you wouldn’t want to confuse the audience when it comes time to praise God and acknowledge your short comings. I’m no expert, so I can’t tell you which prayer/Bible excerpt best accomplishes that task, but it’s clear that this one is not it—why else would it have been cut?

Posted in The Apocrypha, The Prayer of Manasseh | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Apocrypha’s “The Story of Bel and the Dragon”: Being Open Minded Enough to Accept that Your Beliefs Were False

Posted on August 15, 2014 by virgowriter

The Apocrypha’s “The Story of Bel and the Dragon”: Being Open Minded Enough to Accept that Your Beliefs Were False

Gays and lesbians—at least every one that I have met—has faced some criticism in their lives because of their sexuality. Part of this criticism believes that our “lifestyle” is a choice; therefore, I can choose to be otherwise. No, the only choice involved is choosing to accept who I was born to be. Sexuality isn’t a choice; your body and heart react to your attractions.

If you ask a straight person when they chose to be straight, they shake their head, because it never happened, but they can tell you whom they fell for first. They never end their story with: and that’s when I knew I was straight.

Why would gay people be any different in this respect? Yet you can’t convince most people who believe they know the truth, even in the face of contradictory evidence. Some, however, can be swayed to reconsider their beliefs, and The Apocrypha’s “The Story of Bel and the Dragon” discusses a few of these moments. Why this book was cut from the Book of Daniel is strange.

The first part of this book’s story handles Bel, a god worshipped in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. When Daniel is asked why he won’t worship Bel, he asserts that this false idol is no living God, that he doesn’t drink any of the food or wine left daily at his altar. The king disagrees, stating as evidence that it disappears daily, therefore the god MUST consume it. Daniel offers a challenge.

One night, with the temple cleared after the offerings provided, he sprinkles ash all around the altars (unbeknownst to the 70 priests, who Daniel knows take the food). These priests (and their wives and children) fall for the trap, leaving their footprints in the Ash, which, the next day, are discovered by the king. Enraged, he orders ALL of them (wives and kids too) slaughtered and the idols and temple destroyed.

But Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t give up all the idols he worshipped, and the other half of the book covers the one of these, the dragon, which is actually a serpent. (I’m unclear why a few of the Apocrypha books have such trouble with certain details, like children being men, dragons being serpents, etc.) Anyway, the king commands Daniel to worship this great serpent and, sticking to his guns, declines, going a step further to say he can even kill this serpent without a stick or a sword (1:26). Ever industrious, Daniel cooks a concoction, which he feeds to the snake and kills it. Victorious, he points out how awful these false idols are. The king seems happy to have been shown the errors in his beliefs.

The other Babylonians are not so open minded. They become enraged for Daniel’s discrediting of Bel and the slaying of the serpent and the priests. They demand his head; the king agrees to imprison Daniel in a lion’s den. There for seven days, Daniel is aided by God, who transports the prophet Habakkuk to feed Daniel, and, when the den is inspected after seven days and Daniel walks out, he is exalted. The king then throws those who conspired against Daniel into the den, where they are eaten alive.

This story contains lot of fascinating details that would work well in the Old Testament, for the moral is all about knowing whom to worship, the proper things to believe, being open minded in order to be turned from false beliefs, and what happens when you don’t let go of these false beliefs. Perhaps the issue people have had with this message is worrying about people not recognizing the difference between a truth and a false belief. Perhaps that’s what makes this selection “dangerous” and worth removing from the Old Testament.

Posted in The Apocrypha, The Story of Bel and the Dragon | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Apocrypha’s “The Song of Three Children”: Trimming Some of the Bible’s Fat

Posted on August 10, 2014 by virgowriter

The Apocrypha’s “The Song of Three Children”: Trimming Some of the Bible’s Fat

The last server job I had was at an upscale Nuevo Latino restaurant in Philadelphia. Like most waiters, we tried to maximize our money each night, which included knowing our menu, cocktail and wine list backwards and forwards in order to steer customers to the best options. Like most restaurants, we had expensive entrees ($31) and cheaper ones ($18). One of these cheaper entrees was the lechon asado, and although it was one of the chef’s signature dishes we steered tables away from it, towards slightly more expensive (and, in my opinion, better) entrees.

Of course, you can’t tell a table not to order a particular menu item, especially when the restaurant was famous for it. No, we had to find different methods. One way was to play up one of the downsides of the dish—it had a lot of gristle. So, table-side, my description went like this: the lechon asado is pork shank, slow roasted for seven hours, which gives the fat time to render down.

Most tables stopped you when you said fat and render down, which was the goal, but some customers started salivating. Sounds great, they’d say, handing their menu over. And when it was time to clear the plates, they’d inhale every bite of that fat and said to pass compliments on to the chef.

If I enjoyed fat (or gristle), I might have felt differently, but I like my meat lean. That’s where the flavor is, some contend, in disbelief when I express my preference. Turns out, I also like my prose equally lean—with all the padding, bloating, unnecessary clutter trimmed. As The Apocrypha’s “The Song of Three Children,” certain “editors” felt the same way about Bible books, which explains why this excised book was cut.

This short Bible book adds little to what exists in The Old Testament’s Book of Daniel. The only really curious things about this book is that the story is not about three children; rather, it’s about three men.

In Daniel, those three men are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and, when brought before king Nebuchadnezzar and ordered to praise his God, they decline, accepting instead to be placed in a furnace, where, they say, their God will protect them. “The Song of Three Children” provides details about what happens in that furnace—and provides different names for the men—Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. For the first 25 lines of this book, the men pray to God, expressing their sorrow for their sins, etc. An angel of the Lord enters the furnace and turns its center into a cool place. While this climate change happens, the men begin their song/blessing of the Lord. These blessings last 28 lines until the book ends.

Although you can understand men in this situation would bless the lord so profusely, you can understand why the story is fine without all of them. Included, all they offer is repetition, and unless you like here these repeated prayers, they detract from the story. The ones who prefer the prayers probably object to having something they enjoying chewing on being cut out.

The story doesn’t end here, for in the Book of Daniel, the men are retrieved by the king, who marvels at their survival. This is the real meat of the story, not this padding that was, thankfully, trimmed.

Posted in The Apocrypha, The Song of Three Children | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment