📖 Biblical Definition
Manna was the bread from heaven by which God fed Israel forty years in the wilderness (Exodus 16). It appeared each morning as a small round substance like coriander seed, was gathered before the sun grew hot, and did not keep overnight except on the sixth day — when a double portion fell, and the kept portion did not spoil (the Sabbath miracle). The manna ceased the very day Israel ate the produce of Canaan (Joshua 5:12). Christ identifies Himself as the true and greater manna: "I am the bread of life... Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven... he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever" (John 6:48-51).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Manna — the bread of heaven; God's daily provision in the wilderness.
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Each morning a fine flake-like substance covered the dew, gathered an omer per person and double on the sixth day, ceasing on the seventh. It taught daily dependence, Sabbath rest, and divine provision — lessons fulfilled in Christ, the bread of life.
📖 Key Scripture
Exodus 16:4 — "I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day."
Exodus 16:15 — "They said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was."
Deuteronomy 8:3 — "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live."
John 6:51 — "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Manna is rationalized as natural tamarisk secretion or treated as bare metaphor, severed from Christ.
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Naturalistic readings reduce manna to insect honeydew on tamarisk shrubs. Liberal preaching drops the typology and treats the wilderness narrative as folklore.
Scripture treats manna as miracle and type. The daily measure taught dependence; the Sabbath pattern taught rest; the omer in the ark taught memorial. Christ in John 6 says plainly: their fathers ate manna and died — He is the true bread, eternal in effect.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Lechem (bread) and shamayim (heaven) frame the gift.
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H4478 — man — manna — what is it?
H3899 — lechem — bread, food
G740 — artos — bread — bread of life in John 6
Usage
"The question 'what is it?' became the name — manna."
"A daily measure for daily dependence, no hoarding allowed."
"They ate the bread of angels and died; we eat the bread of life and live."