Editing Tribe of Manasseh (section)

==Origin==
[[file:Facial Chronicle - b.02, p.416 - Manasseh's tribe portion of land.jpg|thumb|Lands given to Tribe of Manasseh by Joshua after his wars]]
According to the [[Torah]], the tribe consisted of descendants of [[Manasseh (tribal patriarch)|Manasseh]], a son of [[Joseph (Genesis)|Joseph]], from whom it took its name.<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|30|HE}}</ref> Some [[Biblical criticism|critics]], however, view this as a postdiction, an [[eponym]]ous [[metaphor]] providing an [[aetiology]] of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation<ref>''[[Peake's Commentary on the Bible]]''.</ref> 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, Manasseh; Ephraim received the blessing of the firstborn, although Manasseh was the eldest, because Jacob foresaw that Ephraim's descendants would be greater than his brother's. Here the blessing of the first son was conferred by a grandfather rather than by the father, despite prevailing custom (great patriarchs supersede custom).

Though the biblical descriptions of the geographic boundary of the House of Joseph are fairly consistent, the descriptions of the boundaries between Manasseh and Ephraim are not, and each is portrayed as having [[exclave]]s within the territory of the other.<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia''.</ref> Furthermore, in the [[Blessing of Jacob]], and elsewhere ascribed by [[textual criticism|textual scholars]] to a similar or earlier time period, (e.g., {{bibleverse||Joshua|17:14-18|HE}}) Ephraim and Manasseh are treated as a single tribe, with ''Joseph'' appearing in their place. From this it is regarded that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe—that of ''Joseph''.<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia''</ref>