What is manna in the Bible?

Manna was the supernatural food that God gave to the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. The word manna means "what is it?" in Hebrew. The manna is also known in the Bible as "bread from heaven", "corn from heaven", "food from the angel" and "spiritual flesh".

What is manna? Biblical descriptions
Exodus 16:14 - "When the dew evaporated, a fine wobbly substance like frost covered the ground."
Exodus 16:31 - “The Israelites called the manna of food. It was white as coriander seed and tasted like honey wafers. ”
Numbers 11: 7 - "The manna looked like small coriander seeds and was pale yellow in color like rubber resin."
History and origin of the manna
Not long after the Jewish people had fled Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they had run out of food they had brought with them. They began to grumble, remembering the tasty meals they had enjoyed when they were slaves.

God told Moses that it would rain the bread from heaven for the people. That evening the quails came and covered the field. People killed the birds and ate their meat. The next morning, when the dew evaporated, a white substance covered the ground. The Bible describes manna as a fine and flaky substance, white as coriander seed and with a flavor similar to wafers made with honey.

Moses ordered the people to gather an omer, or about two quarters of value, for each person every day. When some people tried to save extra money, he became worm and spoiled.

Manna appeared for six straight days. On Friday, the Jews had to gather a double portion, because it did not appear the following day, Saturday. Still, the part they saved for the Saturday didn't ruin.

After the people collected the manna, they turned it into flour by grinding it with hand mills or crushing it with mortars. Then they boiled the manna in pots and turned it into flat cakes. These cakes had the flavor of pastries cooked with olive oil. (Numbers 11: 8)

Skeptics have tried to explain manna as a natural substance, such as a resin left by insects or a product of the tamarisk tree. However, the tamarisk substance appears only in June and July and does not spoil overnight.

God told Moses to save a manna can so that future generations could see how the Lord provided for his people in the desert. Aaron filled a jar with a maner omer and placed it in the Ark of the Covenant, opposite the tables of the Ten Commandments.

Exodus claims that Jews have eaten manna every day for 40 years. Miraculously, when Joshua and the people arrived at the border of Canaan and ate the food of the Promised Land, the heavenly manna stopped the next day and was never seen again.

Bread in the Bible
In one form or another, bread is a recurring symbol of life in the Bible because it was the staple food of ancient times. Ground manna could be cooked in bread; it was also called the bread of heaven.

More than 1.000 years later, Jesus Christ repeated the miracle of manna in the Food of the 5.000. The crowd following him was in the "desert" and multiplied some loaves of bread until everyone ate.

Some scholars believe that the phrase of Jesus, "Give us our daily bread today" in the Lord's prayer, is a reference to manna, in the sense that we must trust God to satisfy our physical needs one day at a time, as the Jews did in the desert.

Christ often referred to himself as bread: "the true Bread from heaven" (John 6:32), "the Bread of God" (John 6:33), "the Bread of life" (John 6:35, 48 ), and John 6:51:

“I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, they will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. " (NIV)
Today, most Christian churches celebrate a communion service or Lord's Supper, in which participants eat some form of bread, as Jesus commanded his followers to do during the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26).

The final mention of manna occurs in Revelation 2:17, "To the one who wins, I will give part of the hidden manna ..." An interpretation of this verse is that Christ provides spiritual nourishment (hidden manna) as we wander in the desert of this world.

References to Manna in the Bible
Exodus 16: 31-35; Numbers 11: 6-9; Deuteronomy 8: 3, 16; Joshua 5:12; Nehemiah 9:20; Psalm 78:24; John 6:31, 49, 58; Hebrews 9: 4; Revelation 2:17.