King James Bible Dictionary

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 (Exodus 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 (Exodus 16:23; Numbers 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 (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 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" (John 6:31-35; 48-51). He is also the "hidden manna" (Revelation 2:17; comp. John 6:49, 51).

General references
Exodus 16:4-35; Numbers 11:6-10; Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 8:16; Joshua 5:12; Nehemiah 9:20; Psalms 78:24; John 6:31; John 6:49; John 6:58

Preserved in the ark of the testimony
Exodus 16:33; Hebrews 9:4

Figurative
John 6:48-51; 1 Corinthians 10:3; Revelation 2:17

(what is this?) (Heb. man). The most important passages of the Old Testament on this topic are the following: (Exodus 16:14-36; Numbers 11:7-9; 11:5,16; Joshua 5:12; Psalms 78:24; 25) From these passages we learn that the manna came every morning except the Sabbath, in the form of a small round seed resembling the hear frost that it must be gathered early, before the sun became so hot as to melt it; that it must be gathered every day except the Sabbath; that the attempt to lay aside for a succeeding day, except on the clay immediately preceding the Sabbath, failed by the substance becoming wormy and offensive; that it was prepared for food by grinding and baking; that its taste was like fresh oil, and like wafers made with honey, equally agreeable to all palates; that the whole nation, of at least 2,000,000, subsisted upon it for forty years; that it suddenly ceased when they first got the new corn of the land of Canaan; and that it was always regarded as a miraculous gift directly from God, and not as a product of nature. The natural products of the Arabian deserts and other Oriental regions which bear the name of manna have not the qualities or uses ascribed to the manna of Scripture. The latter substance was undoubtedly wholly miraculous, and not in any respect a product of nature, though its name may have come from its resemblance to the natural manna The substance now called manna in the Arabian desert through which the Isr'lites passed is collected in the month of June from the tarfa or tamarisk shrub (Tamarix gallica). According to Burckhardt it drops from the thorns on the sticks and leaves with which the ground is covered, and must be gathered early in the day or it will be melted by the sun. The Arabs cleanse and boil it, strain it through a cloth and put it in leathern bottles; and in this way it can be kept uninjured for several years. They use it like honey or butter with their unleavened bread, but never make it into cakes or eat it by itself. The whole harvest, which amounts to only five or six hundred pounds, is consumed by the Bedouins, "who," says Schaff consider it the greatest dainty their country affords." The manna of European commerce conies mostly from Calabria and Sicily. It's gathered during the months of June and July from some species of ash (Ornus europ'a and O. rotundifolia), from which it drops in consequence of a puncture by an insect resembling the locust, but distinguished from it by having a sting under its body. The substance is fluid at night and resembles the dew but in the morning it begins to harden.

MAN'NA, noun

1. A substance miraculously furnished as food for the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia. Exodus 16:15.

Josephus, Ant.B.3.1. considers the Hebrew word man, to signify what. In conformity with this idea, the seventy translate the passage, Exodus 16:15:15. what is this? which rendering seems to accord with the following words, for they knew not what it was. And in the Encyclopedia, the translators are charged with making Moses fall into a plain contradiction. Art. manna But Christ and his apostles confirm the common version:'Not as your fathers ate manna and are dead.' John 6:58. Hebrews 9:4. And we have other evidence, that the present version is correct; for in the same chapter, Moses directed Aaron to 'take a pot and put a homer full of manna therein.' Now it would be strange language to say, put an homer full of what, or what is it. So also verse 35. 'The children of Israel ate manna forty years, etc.' In both verses, the Hebrew word is the same as in verse 15.

2. In the materia medica, the juice of a certain tree of the ash-kind, the Fraxinus ornus, or flowering ash a native of Sicily, Calabria, and other parts of the south of Europe. It is either naturally concreted, or exsiccated and purified by art. The best manna is in oblong pieces or flakes of a whitish or pale yellow color, light, friable, and somewhat transparent. It is a mild laxative.