What is…
manna

also known as: mān, mana, manu

Hebrew: מָן —transliteration: man

Greek: μάννα

Latin Romanization: mān

This is the name given by the Israelites to the unique, supernatural food supplied by God during their wanderings in the wilderness (Exodus 16:15-35) for 40 years. According to the Hebrew Bible and Jesus Christ himself, manna was miraculously provided from Heaven.

The name is commonly taken as derived from man (Hebrew: מָן), 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 color of בְּדֹלח (transliteration: bedolach) (possibly bdellium, and in taste “like wafers made with honey.”

Wondrouly, it was capable of being either baked, boiled, ground in mills, or ground in a mortar (Exodus 16:23; Numbers 11:7).

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people would go about and gather it and grind it between two millstones or beat it in the mortar, and boil it in the pot and make cakes with it; and its taste was as the taste of cakes baked with oil. And when the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it. —Num. 11:7-9

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 (Exodus 16:16-18, 33; Deuteronomy 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” (Joshua 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 40 years differs in many details from all these natural products.

Manna stored in the Ark of the Covenant

…the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tablets of the covenant. —Hebrews 9:4 excerpt

Bread of angels / angels’ food

When the Psalmist called manna “angels’ food” or “bread of angels,” this is merely to describe its heavenly excellence (Psalm 78:25 KJV; Psa. 78:25 NASB). Angels are spirit beings, having no requirement of food.

Jesus as manna

Our Lord refers to the manna when he calls himself the “true bread from heaven” (John 6:31-35; 48-51). He is also the “hidden manna” (Rev. 2:17; compare John 6:49, 51).

More information

Article Version: September 25, 2024