Manna: Lichen Rain or Insect Droppings—What Really Fed the Israelites During the Exodus?
Moses is leading his people, the Israelites, towards the land promised by God. To reach it, however, scorching deserts and dusty mountainous lands must be crossed.
This journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan, according to the Bible, will cause the Israelites to wander for 40 years in desolate lands and will involve the displacement of 2 million people, plus their livestock; all sustained and nourished with provisions from God, particularly with "manna," a bread-like food that, according to the Bible, fell daily from the sky, becoming the main component of their diet (Exodus 16:4).
As per the biblical account:
Manna appears in the morning with the dew (Exodus 16:13-14).
It is a white flake-like substance, comparable in size to coriander seeds, but tasting like wafers made with honey (Exodus 16:31, Numbers 11:7).
Manna spoils if kept overnight, becoming foul and breeding worms (Exodus 16:20).
For this reason, the Israelites were instructed to gather manna daily, as the manna was said to "melt" as the sun progressively heated the day (Exodus 16:21).
Each person was to gather an omer of manna per day, which is approximately 1.8 kg or 4 lbs (Exodus 16:16).
On the sixth day, however, they were to gather twice the amount to prepare for the day of rest, the Sabbath, because manna would not appear that day (Exodus 16:22-26).
Finally, manna could be ground in mills, pounded in mortars, boiled in pots, and used as flour to make bread and cakes. When processed for cooking, to the eyes of the Israelites, it appeared as a resin, specifically like the resin called bdellium (Numbers 11:8).
The modern academic consensus largely dismisses the biblical account of the Exodus as a real historical event. The few scholars who accept it, though, postulate that it likely occurred on a much smaller scale, lasting from only a few weeks to a few months, and involving as few as 5,000 to a maximum of 140,000 people, with 20,000 being the most generally accepted number.
Despite doubts surrounding the story of the Exodus being historical, the characteristics of manna, as described in the Bible, have sparked great interest among researchers and historians over the centuries. This has led to intense research and speculation to determine if manna truly existed and if it is a natural phenomenon that still occurs to this day.
And this…
is what was discovered.
MAIN SOURCES:
THE MANNA OF SINAI, by F.S. Bodenheimer, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Feb., 1947), pp. 1-6
THE "MANNA LICHEN": Lecanora Esculenta, by R.A. Donkin, Anthropos, Bd. 76, H. 3./4. (1981), pp. 562-576
MANNA AND ITS SOURCES, by S.G. Harrison, Kew Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1950), pp. 407-417
WHAT WAS THE MANNA?, by Antonine De Guglielmo, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Apr., 1940), pp. 112-129
Sicilian Manna: A Sweet Gift of Nature, by Anna Tasca Lanza, Gastronomica Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 38-40
Exodus, The Book of People (2020), by William W. Hallo, Brown Judaic Studies pp. 45-60
VETUS TESTAMENTUM, by Colin J. Humphreys, Vol. 48, Fasc. 2 (Apr., 1998), pp. 196-213
NIV BIBLE TRANSLATION, Exodus 16:1–36; Numbers 11:1–9, Quran 2:57, 7:160, and 20:80
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Manna, What is Manna, Origins of Manna, Israelite Manna, Manna Exodus, Exodus, Moses, Israelite culture, Israel, Canaan, History of Israel, Bible, Biblical studies, Old Testament, Yahweh, God, Israelite history, history of the Bible, History of the Old Testament, Manna lichen hypothesis, Manna honeydew aphid theory, honeydew, honeydew of aphids, Tamarisk trees, tarfa'