Judges 18 - the Levite was a grandson of Moses or Manasseh?
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The correlation of names, the "rasied" nun in some manuscripts, the LXX use of "Moses," these all contribute to speculation about whether someone, at some point, sought to camouflage a blot on the name of Moses; or maybe just assert: "don't confuse this guy with the man who led the people out of Egypt. But the mistake (such as might have been) could have come by someone associating "Gershom" as the known son of Moses, and erroneously dropping a letter.
Assuming "Manasseh" is the original name, clearly there is no bona fide issue of any kind. The importance of relations between people with various common names in Scripture is hard to gauge. But without a doubt, the same name is often given to many people; and this "Manasseh" (a Levite) would be other than the ancient Tribal father. One thing we could be fairly sure of no matter what in this situation: the "priest" was an Israelite, for several generations. This apostasy can't be foisted off on a Gentile.
Suppose he had been a late descendant of THE Moses, by his son Gershom, what then? It is superstition to think the association would damage Moses in any way. It would show that being an honorable father (even the most respected and faithful) was no perfect guarantee he would never have an unfaithful offspring. This is true of Abraham and Isaac (at least). But my expectation is toward "Manasseh" being original.
I don't think it should be a source of a serious textual angst.
Assuming "Manasseh" is the original name, clearly there is no bona fide issue of any kind. The importance of relations between people with various common names in Scripture is hard to gauge. But without a doubt, the same name is often given to many people; and this "Manasseh" (a Levite) would be other than the ancient Tribal father. One thing we could be fairly sure of no matter what in this situation: the "priest" was an Israelite, for several generations. This apostasy can't be foisted off on a Gentile.
Suppose he had been a late descendant of THE Moses, by his son Gershom, what then? It is superstition to think the association would damage Moses in any way. It would show that being an honorable father (even the most respected and faithful) was no perfect guarantee he would never have an unfaithful offspring. This is true of Abraham and Isaac (at least). But my expectation is toward "Manasseh" being original.
I don't think it should be a source of a serious textual angst.
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