Jonathan

Who is Jonathan?

Jonathan is a figure appearing in the account of Micah's Idol in the Book of Judges, in which he is appointed as the priest of a shrine; since the shrine contained an ephod and teraphim, Jonathan is referred to as an idol-worshipper by traditional Judaism. The text identifies Jonathan as the son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, but there is a scribal oddity in that the verse presents the name of Manasseh as מנשה, with the "נ" superscripted, which does not occur elsewhere in the Bible; the correct reading may be Moses, and Rashi and other sages suspected as much, arguing that the name was changed to Manasseh to avoid scandalising Moses.