MANNA (Heb. mān; Septuagint μάννα). — Food with which the Hebrew people were nourished for 40 years in the desert (Ex. 16:35). The Bible presents the m. as something minute, granular, fine as frost, resembling white coriander seed and tasting like a wafer with honey (Ex. 16:14, 31). “The people scattered to gather it and, grinding it into flour at the mill or pounding it in a mortar, cooked it in a pot and made cakes of it” (Num. 11:8). It fell during the night and was gathered every morning, except on the Sabbath, for which it was gathered on the preceding day. The m. gathered beyond what was needed spoiled and became wormy, except for that preserved in the ark as a testimony to the goodness of the Lord (Ex. 16:9-36).
There exists in the Sinai Peninsula a m. originating from certain insects, especially those of the species nebutina mannipara and nasacoccus serpentinus, which produce it by a process similar to that of bees. The plant on which they deposit the m. is classified as tamarix mannifera and is called tarfa by the Arabs. This m. possesses more or less the qualities described in the Bible, but with various differences: it is produced only during a short period of the year, from the end of May to July, in very limited quantities; it does not spoil when preserved, although it is infested by certain ants. If, for these reasons, this Sinai m. is to be identified with the biblical one, one must admit the intervention of the Lord, especially with regard to the manner in which it was given to the Israelites. Supporters of this identification point out that m. was not the Hebrews’ only food and that production may have been greater in the past than it is today; moreover, the disappearance of the m. can be described by the Bible only because it appeared in that way. This theory seems to be supported by ancient authorities such as Fl. Josephus (Antiq. Ind., III, 1, 6), Origen (Selecta in Numero: PG 12, 576), and St. Ambrose (Epist., 64: PL 16, 1271).
At present, the name m. refers to the juice that issues from incisions made in the bark of the “fraxinus ornus”; it consists of approximately 50% mannite (a hexahydric alcohol), and for the remainder of various sugars, water, and a small quantity of other substances. It serves as a mild purgative and for extracting mannite, which has the same use.
pp. 45-89; B. Ubach, L'Exode-El Levite (La Biblia ilustrada, 14, II), Montserrat 1934, pp. 92-100. For the identification (sustained), cf. A. De Guglielmo, What was the M.?, in Catholic biblical quarterly, 2 (1940), pp. 112-29. Bellarmino Bagatti
ARCHEOLOGY. – Only once in the cemetery frescoes (in S. Lorenzo on the Tiburtina) is the scene of the manna’s falling in the desert represented.
Four Israelites, two men and two women, gather in the hollow of their travelling garment (penula) the manna descending from heaven (4th century, reproduced in Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 242, 2). The same episode was later painted in a basilica in Spain (Zaragoza), illustrated by a couplet of the poet Prudentius (Dittochaeon, no. 11). G. B. De Rossi (Altri monumenti di sacro vergini nell'Agro Verano, in Bull. arch. crist., 1863, pp. 76 and 80) and R. Garrucci (Storia dell'arte cristiana, II, Prato 1873–80, p. 64) held that the manna was a symbol of the Eucharist; Wilpert preferred to interpret it in the sense expressed in a pseudo-Cyprianic prayer: “protect, O Lord, the soul of the deceased, just as you delivered the Israelites in the desert from death by hunger.”