What is manna anyway?

Quote: Wizard

Wouldn't you be the resident expert on Judaism?

I hope not.

Quote: FrGamble

I have heard a few attempts to try to attribute natural phenomenon to the presence of manna, but none have ever been convincing to me.

It depends: do you consider making stuff up a natural phenomenon?

Quote: FrGamble

The coolest thing is that the Hebrew word can be literally translated as, "What is it?"

I see no relationship to the Spanish verb.

While the Father is correct, and that translation corresponds to what I was told in Sunday school. I think you forgot to include the option "no one knows". An interesting question is why wouldn't God give them bread? Bread is of core significance in most of the Bible. If he was going to feed them in the wilderness the most obvious thing would be bread.

There is another possible translation of the word: "substance exuded by the tamarisk tree". It's an interesting translation because a tamarisk produces nothing edible.

Tamarisk trees are very pretty but are possibly the toughest species of tree from the Middle East. They sink roots incredibly deep and drink in a huge amount of water. They spread a salty substance on the ground which poisons any other plant trying to grow near it. The salty substance catches fire easily, which doesn't destroy the hardy tree, but spreads it's seeds to germinate other tamarisk trees.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called on God, just before God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac to him.

Quote: Nareed

As far as I know, the whole hike through the desert was made up, as was the manna, the golden calf, the parting of the Red Sea, the fall of Jericho's walls, the light show at Mount Sinai, etc, etc.

We have talked about this before. Even leaving aside the miracles, such as manna and parting of the Red Sea, the Exodus is an eye popping story. The Egyptian population in 1250 BCE was around 3 to 3.5 million, and fewer than 50 million in the world.

According to Exodus 12:37–38, the Israelites numbered "about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children," plus many non-Israelites and livestock. Numbers 1:46 gives a more precise total of 603,550 men aged 20 and up. The 600,000, plus wives, children, the elderly, and the "mixed multitude" of non-Israelites would have numbered some 2 million people.

So the Exodus over a 40 year period would have been possibly the greatest single migration of human species up to that time.

Quote: Pacomartin

According to Exodus 12:37–38, the Israelites numbered "about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children," plus many non-Israelites and livestock.

Good point. The numbers are ludicrous. To this I'd add if you feed a number of people nothing but bread daily for weeks, never mind years, they'd die of malnutrition.

Quote:

..and the "mixed multitude" of non-Israelites would have numbered some 2 million people.

I didn't think Edward G. Robinson looked that big, see? ;)

Quote: Pacomartin

Tamarisk trees are very pretty ...

We find nothing pretty about them here in southern Nevada. As you pointed out, they are huge water hogs. I hear that tamarisks along the Colorado River consume more water than the entire city of Las Vegas.

To me they look like a big bush and you get scratched up if you have to try to pass through them, which you often do in the canyons by the Colorado River.

Quote: Nareed

Good point. The numbers are ludicrous.

Most put the number under 100K,
probably closer to 20K. The route
they took would never support many
more people and livestock than that,
and there's no archeological evidence.

"A century of research by archaeologists and Egyptologists has found no evidence which can be directly related to the Exodus captivity and the escape and travels through the wilderness,[3] and most archaeologists have abandoned the archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus as "a fruitless pursuit"

Probably a couple thousand people, and
it got blown up in urban legends.

Manna is a supernatural substance which fed the Israelites for 40 years. According to classical rabbinic tradition, the Israelites had not reason to defecate while eating manna, and that it fell in layers hundreds of feet high. It dissolved when gentiles tried to touch it.

The etymology of the word is really only theoretical. It may or may not be associated with the tamarisk tree.

13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. 14 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. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another,It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. 17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. 19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. 20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. 21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

Quote: Pacomartin

According to classical rabbinic tradition, the Israelites had not reason to defecate while eating manna,

Where was manna my last trip to Costa Rica?

Seriously, I think most of these stories have some basis in fact and got exaggerated through the centuries. What do you think is really at the core of the manna story?

God's loving care for his wayward people.