What was Manna in the Bible?

Jane Isley
Aug 8
3 min read

Updated: Sep 2

Good question, happy you asked.

According to the book of Exodus, manna was provided by God to the Israelites as they wandered in the desert after getting the heck out of Egypt.

The Israelites were hungry and complained to Moses about their lack of food. In response, God promised to rain down bread from heaven for them to eat.

But what exactly was it, though?

Well, no one knows 100%, but I can tell you what we do know and a couple of theories. If you need a refresher on the story, click here.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, 'I will rain down bread from heaven for you.”

People in robes gather white objects in baskets in a desert landscape. Warm earth tones and a serene mood prevail. — ChatGPT

First, I looked up the word bread, and it actually does mean bread — lechem is the Hebrew word, if you want to check it out.

I also know in Psalms 78:24 the word grain was used, so I looked that up for more context. The Hebrew word used there is dagan, which does, in fact, mean grain and corn.

So, we have some type of grain-like substance that rained down from Heaven, which can also mean the sky btw, that the Israelites used to make bread or cooked in a pot, maybe like a porridge we would prepare now? (2)

From Scripture, we know:

“The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin” (2), and “thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor,” it was sweet, “ and tasted like wafers made with honey.” (1) also, they didn’t recognize it. (new to them)
It was good for a day, but when some tried to keep extra, it rotted.
On the sixth day, God laid His hand on the manna, and it kept it from rotting. (can’t tell me that wasn’t a miracle, this may have been a natural substance, but this shows God’s hand behind it)
God also provided quail at one point, so we know God can and does use the natural world.

Here’s a condensed bullet point list of a few possibilities.

The digestive byproduct of insects that feed on the sap of the Haloxylon salicornicum plant. (yup, you read that right) (3)
Substance from the Tamarisk tree. (3) (4)
This one sounds like a species name for a werewolf if I’m honest — Lecanora esculenta Nees (desert lichen) (4)
It was literally grain, one never rained down again.

Everything I’ve run across either involves bugs, sap, or trees, which makes sense given the environment they were in, and I learned that manna is still well-known in some areas and used in cooking.

Amazing conclusion:

I don’t doubt God was behind this miracle. A day, a week, a month, I could see as a natural event blip, but this event went on for forty whole years! He rained something down for them, literal grain or not.

We honestly don’t know for sure which plant, bug, or combo of, or if it was something completely different that God put His hands on to produce that much manna for 600,000 people, for 40 years, without fail.

And it doesn’t matter because you know why?

Nothing affected this miracle for 40 years, and science still can’t explain the one day of the week that the manna did not rot.

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