Manna

(from the Hebrew expression of astonishment, man-hu — “what is this?”) (Exod 16:15-31; John 6:31; Heb 9:4). When the children of Israel first saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” And Moses said unto them, “This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat” (Exod 16:15). Manna was a nourishing substance, miraculously sent down by God from heaven to the children of Israel during their wanderings in the Arabian wilderness, in place of the bread they could not obtain on their long journey.

It is called the bread that fell from heaven like rain (Exod 16:4). “And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night,” it is said of this wondrous food in the book of Numbers, “the manna fell upon it” (11:9). And in another sacred book it is said: “And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground” (Exod 16:14). In appearance it resembled coriander seed, was white, and in taste was like wafers made with honey (v. 31).

It was gathered early in the morning, each according to what he could eat; and when the sun grew hot, it melted (v. 21). The people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it (Num 11:8). If it was left until morning, it bred worms and stank (Exod 16:20). On the day before the Sabbath they gathered it in double portion, since it did not fall on the Sabbath (v. 23). This wondrous food was sent down from heaven daily for 40 years to some 3-4 million of the Hebrew people (Deut 29:5-6).

The falling of the manna from heaven ceased when the children of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, on the day after they had kept the first Passover in the Promised Land (Josh 5:10-12). To perpetuate this miracle, which had continued for so long, Moses commanded Aaron to take a golden vessel and put in it a full omer of manna, to be kept and set before the Ark, or within the Ark itself, so that later generations might see for themselves that wondrous bread with which the Lord fed the Hebrews in the wilderness during their long and perilous journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan (Exod 16:33).

The nourishing substance known today by the name of manna was so named from its supposed resemblance to the manna of the Israelites. But the manna of Israel was essentially different from the ordinary, present-day manna in many respects. True manna cannot be found in the wilderness; it is gathered only in spring, does not melt in the sun, does not breed worms in itself, and does not spoil even if kept for several days; it cannot be ground or pounded in a mortar as the manna of Israel could be.

The Israelites had never seen it before, and after the falling of the manna from heaven ceased, for the last time at Gilgal, it never fell again (cf. Deut 8:3, 16; Exod 16:15, 32). True manna is gathered from the tamarisk shrub, chiefly on the Sinai peninsula. In the month of June it falls in drops in abundance from the needles of the tamarisk onto the branches, leaves, and thorns, which are continually falling and covering the ground beneath this shrub; the manna is gathered before sunrise, when it has thickened.

The Arabs carefully clean away the leaves, dirt, and other impurities that cling to it, boil it, strain it through a clean fine cloth, and put it into leather sacks. In this way the manna keeps well even until the following year, and the Bedouins use it as food, as we use honey, spreading it on their unleavened cakes or dipping their bread into the sweet solution of manna. A considerable portion of the manna is delivered to the monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai. In the Psalter, manna is called the bread of heaven, the bread of angels (Ps 78:24-25), evidently because it descended from heaven in a wondrous manner.

The expression in the book of Revelation, “the hidden manna,” allegorically points to the protection and covering that the Lord bestows on every true believer in Him. But above all, manna was a type of that spiritual, mysterious, heavenly bread which the Lord gives to all true believers for eternal life in the Sacrament of the Eucharist (John 6:31-35, 48-58).