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What is the literal translation of the word "manna", the bread the Israelites ate while wandering in the wilderness?

Question #66611. Asked by cherryontop416.
Last updated Jun 02 2021.

Related Trivia Topics: World   Linguistics   Vocabulary  
peasypod
Answer has 9 votes
Currently Best Answer
peasypod
21 year member
3273 replies

Answer has 9 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
This site says it literally means "What is it?"

link https://bibleview.org/en/bible/moses/manna/

Response last updated by satguru on Jun 02 2021.
Jun 05 2006, 9:57 PM
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elburcher
Answer has 8 votes
elburcher
24 year member
1533 replies avatar

Answer has 8 votes.
Manna ceased to appear when the Israelites first harvested their crops in their new homeland. "Man hu", or "manna" in the Hebrew language is translated as "what is it". George Ebers (Durch Gosen zum Sinai, 1881, p. 236), derived "manna" from the Egyptian mennu, "food" (JE "Manna").

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna

Jun 05 2006, 10:02 PM
Arpeggionist
Answer has 0 votes
Arpeggionist
21 year member
2173 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
One of the best and most untranslatable verses in the great Book.
"The people of Israel saw and they said to one another 'what is it?' (Heb. 'man hu?') since they did not know what it was, and Moses said: 'It is the bread that the Lord gave you to eat... The people of Israel called it 'what' ('man', mannah)..."
---Exodus 16:15,31.
A better translation might be "the whatsh'macallit"., another great verse associated with it is from Deuteronomy, 8:3 to be precise: "He tortured you, he starved you, he fed you the whatsh'macallit (the mannah) which you didn't know, and which your ancestors didn't know, so he could teach you that it is not by bread alone that man can live, but that by anything whose source is in the Lord will man live."

It must be added, though, that while "man" in Hebrew is the ancient word for "whatsh'macallit", "mannah" in Hebrew means "portion". While the Israelites did have their daily portion in the desert, there is a difference between the two concepts.

Jun 06 2006, 12:57 AM
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