μάννα

mavnna mavnna,
tov, indeclinable; (also)
hJ
mavnna in Josephus (Antiquities 3, 13, 1 (etc.;
hJ
mannh, Sibylline Oracles 7,149)); the Septuagint
tov
man (also
tov
mavnna, a, ) for Hebrew @m; (from the unused @n"m;, Arabic [?], to be kind, beneficent, to bestow liberally; whence the substantive [?] properly, a gift (others prefer the derivation given, ,; Josephus, Antiquities 3, 1, 6. The word mannu is said to be found also in the old Egyptian; Ebers, Durch Gosen as above with, p. 226; cf. Speaker's Commentary note)); manna (Vulgate in N. T. manna indeclinable; in O. T. man; yet manna, genitive -ae, is used by Pliny (12, 14, 32, etc.) and Vegetius (Vet. 2, 39) of the grains of certain plants); according to the accounts of travellers a very sweet dew-like juice, which in Arabia and other oriental countries exudes from the leaves (according to others only from the twigs and branches; cf. Robinson, Pal. ) of certain trees and shrubs, particularly in the summer of rainy years. It hardens into little white pellucid grains, and is collected before sunrise by the inhabitants of those countries and used as an article of food very sweet like honey. The Israelites in their journey through the wilderness met with a great quantity of food of this kind; and tradition, which the biblical writers follow, regarded it as bread sent down in profusion from heaven, and in various ways gave the occurrence the dignity of an illustrious miracle (ff; (); (); Sap. ); cf. Winer's RWB, under the word Manna; Knobel on Exodus, p. 171ff; Furrer in Schenkel iv. 109f; (Robinson as above, and, p. 590; Tischendorf, Aus dem heil. Lande, pp. 54ff (where on, p. vi. an analysis of different species of natural manna is given after Berthelot (Comptes rendus hebdom. d. seances de l'acad. des sciences. Paris 1861, 2de semestre (30 the Septuagint), p. 583ff); especially Ritter, Erdkunde Part xiv. pp. 665-695 (Gage's translation, vol. i., pp. 271-292, where a full list of references is given); especially E. Renaud and E. Lacour, De la manne du desert etc. (1881). Against the indentification of the natural manna with the miraculous, see BB. DD., under the word; especially Riehm in his HWB; Carruthers in the Bible Educator ii. 174ff). In the N. T. mention is made of a. that manna with which the Israelites of old were nourished: , , and R L in 58; b. that which was kept in the ark of the covenant: (); c. that which in the symbolic language of is spoken of as kept in the heavenly temple for the food of angels and the blessed; (see
divdwmi, B. I., p. 146a).*