Manna

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

Heb. man-hu, “What is that?” the name given by the Israelites to the food miraculously supplied to them during their wanderings in the wilderness (Ex. 16:15-35). The name is commonly taken as derived from man, an expression of surprise, “What is it?” but more probably it is derived from manan, meaning “to allot,” and hence denoting an “allotment” or a “gift.” This “gift” from God is described as “a small round thing,” like the “hoar-frost on the ground,” and “like coriander seed,” “of the colour of bdellium,” and in taste “like wafers made with honey.” It was capable of being baked and boiled, ground in mills, or beaten in a mortar (Exo_16:23; Num_11:7). If any was kept over till the following morning, it became corrupt with worms; but as on the Sabbath none fell, on the preceding day a double portion was given, and that could be kept over to supply the wants of the Sabbath without becoming corrupt. Directions concerning the gathering of it are fully given (Exo_16:16-18, Exo_16:33; Deu_8:3 16). It fell for the first time after the eighth encampment in the desert of Sin, and was daily furnished, except on the Sabbath, for all the years of the wanderings, till they encamped at Gilgal, after crossing the Jordan, when it suddenly ceased, and where they “did eat of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more” (Jos_5:12). They now no longer needed the “bread of the wilderness.”

This manna was evidently altogether a miraculous gift, wholly different from any natural product with which we are acquainted, and which bears this name. The manna of European commerce comes chiefly from Calabria and Sicily. It drops from the twigs of a species of ash during the months of June and July. At night it is fluid and resembles dew, but in the morning it begins to harden. The manna of the Sinaitic peninsula is an exudation from the “manna-tamarisk” tree (Tamarix mannifera), the el-tarfah of the Arabs. This tree is found at the present day in certain well-watered valleys in the peninsula of Sinai. The manna with which the people of Israel were fed for forty years differs in many particulars from all these natural products.

Our Lord refers to the manna when he calls himself the “true bread from heaven” (Joh_6:31-35, Joh_6:48-51). He is also the “hidden manna” (Rev_2:17; compare Joh_6:49, Joh_6:51).

man´a (מן, mān; μάννα, mánna):

The Hebrew man is probably derived, as Ebers suggests, from the Egyptian mennu, “food.” In Exo_16:15, we have a suggested source of the name, “They said one to another, What is it?” i.e. manhu, which also means, “It is manna” (see margin).

1. Old Testament References:

This substance is described as occurring in flakes or small round grains, literally, “hoax frost”; it fell with the dew (Num_11:9) and appeared when the dew left the ground (Exo_16:14); “It was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey” (Exo_16:31). In Num_11:8, its taste is described “as the taste of fresh oil,” margin “cakes baked with oil.” “And the children of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came ... unto the borders of the land of Canaan” (Exo_16:35). It ceased the day after they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain, in the plains of Jericho (Jos_5:10-12). Although an important article of diet, it was by no means the sole one as seems implied in Num_21:15; there are plenty of references (e.g. Exo_17:3; Exo_24:5; Exo_34:3; Lev_8:2, Lev_8:26, Lev_8:31; Lev_9:4; Lev_10:12; Lev_24:5; Num_7:13, Num_7:19 f, etc.) which show that they had other food besides. The food was gathered every morning, “every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted” (Exo_16:21); a portion of the previous day's gathering bred worms and stank if kept (Exo_16:20); on the 6th day a double amount was gathered, the Sabbath portion being miraculously preserved (Exo_16:22-27). A pot - a golden one (Heb_9:4) - with an omer of manna was “laid up before Yahweh” in the tabernacle (Exo_16:33). Manna is referred to in Neh_9:20. It is described poetically as “food from heaven” and “bread of the mighty” (Psa_78:24 f); as “bread of heaven” (Psa_105:40); and as “angels' bread” (2 Esdras 1:19; The Wisdom of Solomon 16:20).

2. New Testament References:

In Jn 6:31-63, our Lord frequently refers to “the manna” or “bread from heaven” as typical of Himself. Paul (1Co_10:3) refers to it as “spiritual food,” and in Rev_2:17 we read, “To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna.”

Manna, as might be expected, figures largely in rabbinical literature. It was, it is said, adapted to the taste of each individual who could by wishing taste in the manna anything he desired (compare The Wisdom of Solomon 16:21). Manna is reserved as the future food of the righteous (compare Rev_2:17), for which purpose it is ground in a mill situated in the third heaven (Chag 12b; Tan. Beshallach 22).

3. Natural Explanations:

No substance is known which in any degree satisfies all the requirements of the Scriptural references, but several travelers in the wilderness have reported phenomena which suggest some of the features of the miraculous manna.

(1) In the Peninsula of Sinai, on the route of the children of Israel, a species of tamarisk, named in consequence by Ebers Tammaris mannifera, is found to exude a sweet, honey-like substance where its bark is pierced by an insect, Gossyparia mannifera. It collects upon the twigs and falls to the ground. The Arabs who gather it to sell to pilgrims call it mann-es-samā, “heavenly manna”; it is white at first but turns yellow; in the early morning it is of the consistency of wax but when the sun is hot it disappears. This substance occurs only after mid-summer and for a month or two at most.

(2) A second proposal is to identify manna with a lichen - Lecanora esculenta and allied species - which grows in the Arabian and other deserts upon the limestone. The older masses become detached and are rolled about by the wind. When swept together by sudden rain storms in the rainy season they may collect in large heaps. This lichen has been used by the Arabs in time of need for making bread. It is a quite reasonable form of nourishment in the desert, especially when eaten with the sugary manna from the trees.