Manaen

He was one of those with Barnabas and Saul at Antioch, w hen the Holy Ghost sent those servants out to the work of the ministry. (See Acts 13. 1.)

Man´aen, a Christian teacher at Antioch, who had been foster-brother of Herod Antipas (Act 13:1). He is supposed to have been one of the seventy disciples, but this is uncertain, as no particulars of his life are known.

A foster-brother of Herod Antipas, but unlike him in character and end: Manaen was a minister of Christ at Antioch; Herod was guilty of the blood of both Christ and his forerunner, Mal 13:1 . "One shall be taken, and another left."\par

Man’aen. (comforter). Manaen is mentioned in Act 13:1 as one of the teachers and prophets in the church at Antioch, at the time of the appointment of Saul and Barnabas, as missionaries to the heathen. He is said to have been brought up with Herod Antipas. He was probably his foster-brother.

Menahem, consoler (2Ki 15:17). One of the teachers and prophets at Antioch when Saul and Barnabas were "separated" to missionary work, A.D. 44 (Act 13:1-3). Brought up with Herod Antipas, who beheaded John Baptist. Of the six named, four were to stay at Antioch, two to itinerate. Home work is no excuse for neglecting Christ’s missionary command; missionary work is no plea for neglecting home duties. It was common for persons of rank to associate other children with their own, to share their studies and amusements, and thereby to promote emulation. Herod adopted the usage from the Romans, whom he was fond of imitating.

Or the Greek (suntrofos) may mean "foster brother," Mahaen’s mother being thus Herod’s nurse. As Archelaus was brought up with Herod Antipas at Rome, and Mahaen is mentioned in this relation with Antipas alone, perhaps "foster brother" is the true sense; he may have been brought up with Antipas also. Herod the Great favored highly a Manaen an Essene, who in early life foretold Herod’s royal greatness (Josephus, Ant. 15:10, sec. 5); possibly our Mahaen was son of that Manaen and adopted by Herod the Great, and made a companion to one of his sons. Chuza, another connecting link between Christ and Herod Antipas.) (See CHUZA.) Mahaen probably personally knew and was a secret disciple of the Lord. How naturally Herod turned to his "servants" for information as to Christ (Mat 14:1)!

[Man’aen]

One of the prophets or teachers at Antioch who had been ’brought up’ with Herod Antipas, that is, was his foster brother, as in the R.V. Act 13:1.

MANAEN (Μαναήν, Act 13:1 = Menahem, מְנַחֵם, ‘comforter,’ 2Ki 15:14 etc.).—Two facts only are recorded in Scripture concerning Manaen. In his old age he was a Christian minister; in youth he was foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, i.e. Antipas (Act 13:1). But this must be read side by side with a statement of Josephus, who tells us (Ant. xv. x. 5) that, some few years before, another Manaen (or Manaem) had come into touch with another Herod,—the Great. The double parallel appears too striking to be mere coincidence. It seems more reasonable to assume a connexion between the two stories, and from them we may inferentially derive much light.

1. The connexion between the Manaen of Josephus and Herod the Great.—When Herod was yet a schoolboy, he was one day greeted in the street by this Manaen, who patted him on the back, and saluted him as future king of the Jews. As Antipater, Herod’s father, was only a military governor, the prediction seemed absurd. But Manaen was an Essene, one of the stalwart Puritans of that day, who had a reputation not only for austerity but for predictive powers (Josephus BJ ii. viii. 12); and the words induced the lad to make further inquiry. Manaen persisted, adding that the coming dignity would not be accompanied by righteous living, and that God’s punishment would visit his later life. About fifteen years later (b.c. 37), when the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled, Herod sent for the old Essene, and ever after honoured him and his sect. If, as Lightfoot conjectures, he was the same Manaen who, being vice-president of the Sanhedrin under Hillel, led away eighty others to the service of Herod, and inaugurated a system of laxer living, then the connexion did not issue in the moral profit of the older man, and he may have been alluded to (as Plumptre thinks) by our Lord under the figure of the shaken reed (Mat 11:7), and as a soft-clad dweller in royal households. Perhaps, too, this defection was the origin of the sect of the Herodians (Mar 3:6, etc.).

2. Connexion between the later Manaen and Herod Antipas.—The facts related above seem to constitute an intelligible foundation for the circumstances of Manaen’s life noted in Act 13:1. Antipas was a son of Herod the Great, and if the old king had an elder Manaen living in his household, nothing would be more natural than that a young Herod and a young Manaen (perhaps a grandson, since Manaen the elder was a man of standing when Herod the Great was a boy) should be brought up together. What this implied it is difficult to determine, since ‘foster-brother’ (σύντροφος) has both a narrower and a wider meaning. It may only indicate that the children were much together. Manaen may well have shared both the home-life and the subsequent education, under a private tutor at Rome, which Antipas and Archelaus enjoyed (Ant. xvii. i. 3). On the other hand, Archelaus is not mentioned here, so perhaps the narrower sense of σύντροφος may be pressed, that Manaen’s mother was also nurse to Antipas. In either case it is suggestive to contemplate the murderer of John the Baptist and paramour of Herodias, side by side with the man of ascetic Essene stock, subsequently a teacher in the Church of Christ.

3. Manaen’s religious development and influence.—One wonders how the companion of Herod became the servant of Christ. His name (‘consoler’) may indicate that his parents were of that spiritually watchful circle who waited for the consolation of Israel (Luk 2:25). According to the Talmud (Jerus. [Note: Jerusalem.] Ber. ii. 4), Menahem was to be one of the titles of the Messiah, and indeed it became so (see 1Jn 2:1 παράκλητος, used in Job 16:2 [Aq. [Note: Aquila.] Theod. [Note: Theodotion.] ] as translation of מְנַחַם). The name was sometimes given to children at this period, with Messianic thoughts and hopes. Manaen is like a ferrychain whose ends are visible and whose centre is submerged. We know of his childhood and old age: his mature manhood we can only conjecture. But we know at least that he passed through the Gospel period of John the Baptist’s preaching and Jesus Christ’s ministry. He may have been amongst the number of those who listened on the Jordan’s banks, and brought tidings to Antipas. At any rate, in Herod’s household he must have heard the stirring words of the rugged prophet of the old Essene type, and if Herod ‘heard gladly,’ how much more Manaen! The twin-texts, ‘Repent ye’ and ‘Behold the Lamb,’ may well have become the head-lights of his course, and the forerunner’s words have led to Christ one more fruitful servant. There is much to indicate that the lonely ministry in the castle of Machaerus was not barren of results. Besides Manaen, we know of spiritual interests kindled in Joanna, wife of Herod’s major-domo (Luk 8:3), in the king’s courtiers (βασιλικός, Joh 4:46), perhaps in Herodion (Rom 16:11), whose name indicates court connexions; we know, further, that there were servants to whom Herod talked on religious topics (Mat 14:1 f.). And among these Manaen may well have been one of those unseen influences for good which alone can account for some of the better impulses of Herod’s inconsistent life. What passed between the foster-brothers after John’s murder? Was Manaen a silent or a protesting spectator when Jesus was mocked? Did the death of Christ complete a work of grace already begun at the death of John? Did the Resurrection of Christ (no rumour this time, Mat 14:2, but a well attested fact) seal for ever the allegiance of a halting disciple? Did he remain in the train of his foster-brother till the latter left for Rome in a.d. 39? If so, he may have gone to Antioch at that date, and been one of the founders of the Church in that city, which comes into view about a.d. 41 (Act 11:19). He would then rank amongst that honoured company whose consistent practice of the faith they professed first won them the name ‘Christian,’ Christ’s man,—honoured since with world-wide acceptance wherever the gospel message has spread. At Antioch, in any case, we find him four years later occupying a position of authority (Act 13:1). If he was a prophet, we have an interesting link with the old Essene foreteller of Herod the Great’s reign. But perhaps the copulative particles, strictly pressed, rank him as teacher and not as prophet. He must by this time have become somewhat advanced in years. If St. Luke also came from Antioch (Euseb. Historia Ecclesiastica 3, 4), it may have been from Manaen that he learned certain details concerning Herod and John which are peculiar to his Gospel. We last catch sight of Manaen in that hallowed gathering when he and his fellows in the ministry willingly surrendered their two ablest men, Barnabas and Saul, for the evangelization of the world. He who was called by his parents ‘the comforter’ cheerfully yielded to the higher voice of the heavenly ‘Comforter’ (Act 13:2), and tarried by the stuff, while others went forth to the fight.

Literature.—Lightfoot, Pitman’s ed. iii. 211; Josephus Ant. xv. x. 5, BJ ii. viii.; Plumptre, Bib. Educ. ii. 29, 82; art. in Smith’s, ‘Hastings’, and Fairbairn’s DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] (by Hackett, Cowan, and Dickson respectively), and in Eneyc. Bibl. (by Cheyne).

H. C. Lees.

MANAEN (= Menahem).—One of the Christian prophets and teachers at Antioch, and ‘foster-brother’ of Herod Antipas (Act 13:1). Although individual non-official Christians prophesied (Act 2:17 f., Act 21:9, 1Co 14:31), yet there was in NT a class of official prophets (Eph 2:20; Eph 3:5, Rev 18:20, perhaps 1Th 2:15); and so in the Didache (c [Note: circa, about.] . a.d. 120?) the prophets formed an official class above the local ministry. Manaen was clearly an official at Antioch. The phrase ‘foster-brother of Herod’ is thought by Deissmann to be a mere title of honour, like ‘the king’s friend’ in 1Ch 27:33, but more probably represents a literal fact. An older Manaen had been befriended by Herod the Great as having foretold his advancement; this one might be his grandson, brought up with Antipas. Another instance of the circle of Herod being reached by Christianity is Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward (Luk 8:3); and Antipas himself was touched by the Baptist’s preaching (Mar 6:20).

A. J. Maclean.

man´a-en (Μαναήν, Manaḗn, Greek form of Hebrew name “Menahem,” meaning “consoler”): Manaen is mentioned, with Barnabas, Saul and others, in Act 13:1, as one of the “prophets and teachers” in the recently rounded Gentile church at Antioch, at the time when Barnabas and Saul were “separated” by Divine call for their missionary service. He is further described as “the foster-brother (súntrophos) of Herod the tetrarch” (i.e. HEROD ANTIPAS (which see)). He was probably brought up and educated with this Herod and his brother Archelaus. An earlier glimpse of Christian influence in Herod’s court is afforded by Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuzas, among the holy women who ministered to Jesus (Luk 8:3). Manaen may have been related to the older Manaen, the Essene, who, Josephus tells us, foretold the greatness of Herod the Great, and was afterward treated by Herod as his friend (Ant., XV, x, 5). His position in the church at Antioch was evidently an influential one, whether he himself ranked among the “prophets,” or perhaps only among the “teachers.”

(Heb. Menaḥçm)

As St. Luke prefaces his account of the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 1-5) by giving a list of the apostles who were its chiefs and leaders (1:23), so he prefaces his account of the Church of Antioch, and the missionary activity of which it was the centre, by a list of the most noted prophets and teachers who were connected with it: they were Barnabas, and Symeon called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul (13:1). What brought Manaen to Antioch we do not know. As foster-brother or playmate of Herod Antipas (for the Greek term bears either meaning) he must have been brought up mainly at Jerusalem. The connexion between Manaen and the Herod family seems to have been hereditary. Josephus tells (Ant. XV. x. 5) the story of an elder Manaen, father or uncle of the present one, a noted Essene, who made a prophecy to Herod the Great that he would become king of Judaea ; and when the prophecy was fulfilled Herod treated Manaen, and the Essene sect to which he belonged, with great consideration. If, as tradition asserts, St. Luke was a native of Antioch and a resident there, he may well have known Manaen personally and have learnt from him the many details respecting the Herod family which he has introduced into both his Gospel and the Acts. Of Manaen’s subsequent career we know nothing.

W. A. Spooner.

(Acts 13)

- As a foster-brother, he would have been brought up with Herod - the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who was banished in AD39. Luke’s Gospel also reports that Jesus’ women followers included a member of this same Herod’s household - Joanna the wife of Chuza, his agent (Luke 8:3).