The history of the origin of the expression manna from heaven. What is manna from heaven? What modern science says

The food that God fed Moses and his fellow tribesmen during their 40-year wanderings after the Exodus from Egypt.

When the Jews ran out of all the bread taken from Egypt, God sent them food that looked like small white grains or like small hail. “The manna was like coriander seed, the appearance of bdellium.” (11:7) This bread received the name “manna” because when the Jews saw it for the first time, they asked each other: “Man-gu” (what is this?), Moses replied: “This is the bread that the Lord gave you for food." The Jews called this bread manna. 2013

Manna covered the land around the Jewish camp in the morning throughout their journey every day except the Sabbath.

The collection of manna took place in the morning, since by noon it melted under the rays of the sun.

According to the haggadah, when eating manna, young men felt the taste of bread, old men - the taste of honey, children - the taste of oil.

The manna was kept along with Aaron's staff that blossomed and the Tablets of the Covenant in the Ark of the Covenant, located in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem (9).

Manna is also mentioned in the Quran in Surah Ta Ha.

Origin

Some researchers have tried to find a natural scientific explanation for manna. It is impossible to say unambiguously what kind of substance the Bible is talking about, and the question of the “natural” or “supernatural” origin of manna remains unresolved.

There are several theories about the origin of the manna myth. In particular, the “lichen” version of the origin is very common.

There is also a version that the “manna that melts with the sunrise” is thickened drops of juice secreted by the Tamarix plant and processed by a species of aphid living in Sinai.

Meaning

Benefits received for nothing, as if “fell from the sky.” This expression gave rise to others: “wait like manna from heaven” - expect something with impatience; “wait for manna from heaven” - hope that the matter will happen by itself; “to eat manna from heaven” - to live from hand to mouth, doing odd jobs.

“Manna is from the Hebrew word expressing surprise: man-lu - “what is this?”.” Bible Encyclopedia. According to the biblical legend, the ancient Jews, who wandered through the desert for many years, began to call the food that fell from the sky for them manna.

In modern spoken language the expression “to wait like manna from heaven” means “to wait impatiently” for something good, some kind of profit, and, as a rule, for free, for free.

Bible version

When the prophet Moses, the leader of the Israeli tribes, called by God Yahweh to lead the Israelites out of Pharaoh’s slavery, fulfilled God’s command, then during this difficult and long journey he more than once turned to the Almighty for advice and help. And Yahweh never denied him either one or the other.
IN once again God's help The Jews needed it when they were left completely without food in the endless desert. The Bible clearly and expressively tells how and what kind of food the Lord sent to the suffering, and how they received and consumed it.

“And the Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and let the people go out and collect daily, as much as is needed for the day... ...in the morning there was dew around the camp; the dew rose, and behold, on the surface of the desert there was something small, grainy, fine, like frost on the ground. And the children of Israel saw and said to one another; What is this? Because they didn’t know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”
This is what the Lord commanded: everyone gather as much of it as he can eat; Collect according to the number of souls (about 2.4 liters - Ed.) per person, according to the number of souls, how many are in each tent. And they gathered it early in the morning, each one as much as he could eat...” (Bible, Exodus, chapter XVI, 4:13-16).

“The manna was like coriander seed...
The people went and collected it, and ground it in millstones or pound it in a mortar, and boiled it in a cauldron, and made cakes from it; its taste was like the taste of cakes with oil” (Bible, Numbers, chapter XI, 7-8).

Scientists are trying to figure it out

What really happened there in the desert? In the mid-1970s, George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, English scientists from Cambridge, decided to find the answer to this question. During their search, they carefully analyzed a number of ancient manuscript sources, including the Bible and one of the main Kabbalistic books of the 13th century, Sefer Hazohar, after which they came up with the following hypothesis.

The manna from heaven, on which the children of Israel ate, was produced complex and very perfect, even in modern concepts, car. Of course, no one could have built such a machine on Earth 3500 years ago, at the time of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. But such a unit could be on board an alien spaceship, providing its crew with food as well as oxygen.

If you carefully read the place in the Bible where the story of the appearance of manna from heaven is described, and if you accept that this story really happened - and most modern scientists agree with this - it becomes obvious that the starting material for manna could not have been the tamarisk fruit ( as was believed at one time), nor any other plant. In order for all members of six hundred traveling families to receive their daily ration of food regularly in the morning, it was necessary to produce about two tons of manna per day.

This quantity food product During the entire period of the Jews’ wanderings (about forty years!), only a very perfect and reliable installation, with high performance. At the same time, as follows from the texts of Sefer Hazohar and the Bible, she also dosed this product in such a way that on Fridays the portion per family was doubled, since, according to the canons of Judaism, any productive activity is on Saturdays. is strictly prohibited. Here's what the Bible says about it:

“And Moses said, Gather it six days; and the seventh day is Saturday; he will not be there on this day.
Look, the Lord gave you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you two days’ worth of bread on the sixth day: each one of you shall remain in your own place, and no one shall go out from his place on the seventh day” (Exodus, chapter XVI, 25-26, 29).

The machine itself, which Sassoon and Dale identify with the Ark of the Covenant, was housed in a sacred tent, or tabernacle. Both during transitions and at stops, the tabernacle was always at a considerable distance from the people. Only priests had access to the machine, that is, those who were familiar with the structure and principle of its operation. For everyone else, approaching, much less touching, the Ark of the Covenant was threatened with illness and even death, as is repeatedly mentioned in the Bible.

Sassoon and Dale believe that the machine was given to Moses during the episode known as the Mount Sinai vision:

“Mount Sinai was all smoking because the Lord had descended on it in fire; and smoke rose from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook greatly. And the sound of the trumpet became stronger and stronger. Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice” (Exodus, chapter XIX, 18-19).

Scientists see in this episode a description of the landing (or launch) space rocket, and their assumption looks quite plausible.

As one of the arguments in defense of their hypothesis, its authors cite the following story. After the end of World War II, when American soldiers flew home from one of the islands of New Guinea, its inhabitants built a kind of airplane out of straw. The natives prayed to him, in the hope that the Americans, who had left a good memory of themselves, would return to them again. These straw objects became objects of worship and unique ritual ceremonies for the islanders.

According to Sassoon and Dale, events developed in approximately the same pattern in the Sinai Desert. The machine, left on Earth by representatives of a certain highly developed extraterrestrial community, also became the subject of a religious cult, on the basis of which a certain liturgical rite arose, common to both the religion of Moses and Christianity.

According to scientists from Cambridge, the starting product for the production of manna from heaven was a type of green algae such as chlorella, which, under the influence of light, is capable of multiplying very intensively: in 24 hours at favorable conditions its mass increases eightfold. The introduction of additives in the form of appropriate enzymes and mineral salts could transform final product into “something... grain-like, fine, like frost on the ground... but tastes like a cake with honey” (Exodus, chapter XVI, 14-31).

It is known that at dawn space age Research into the possibility of using chlorella to obtain food during long-term space flights was also carried out in our country. The program of these studies was coded BIOS-3.

To understand all the nuances of the content and meaning of the book “Sefer Ha-Zohar”, Sassoon and Dale had to learn two languages: Aramaic - the book is written in it - and Hebrew. The description of the machine compiled by scientists based on information gleaned from this book looks very plausible.

Proposed design of a "macrogenerator"

Such a machine was probably structured as follows. Her upper part was a cylindrical bioreactor, or fermenter, in which chlorella was located and its reproduction occurred. Inside the bioreactor, where a source of light and heat was placed, solutions of mineral salts, water and air enriched carbon dioxide. Below, around the bioreactor, there were containers ovoid, containing solutions of enzymes and mineral salts, and outside it was surrounded by a condenser, which ensured the production required quantity water from atmospheric moisture.

The autoclave, in which the chlorella was converted into the finished product - manna, was located at the bottom of the machine. From the autoclave, the manna flowed into two spherical collections, from where hungry wanderers received strictly dosed portions. On the opposite side of the collectors there was a small nuclear reactor, which served as a source of energy, and there was also a control system unit and a manipulator that performed programmed routine maintenance of the nuclear reactor.

The arguments put forward by scientists from Cambridge are also supported by the fact that he published an article on the first results of their research on the origin of manna from heaven in 1977 English magazine Science is a very serious and authoritative publication in scientific circles around the world.

The Russian language is rich in various set expressions. If you're wondering how the phrase "manna from heaven" came about, you should know that there are at least two versions of the origin of this phrase.

Biblical interpretation

According to the Bible, “manna from heaven” is food, or rather bread, that the Lord sent for 40 years to the starving Jews expelled from Egypt. The manna looked like small white grains. Typically, biblical Jews collected manna in the morning (it disappeared under the rays of the sun). Old people tasted it like honey, children tasted it like butter, and young people tasted it like bread.

Another look at the origin of "manna"

Biologists believe that perhaps manna meant the congealed juice of a certain type of lichen or tree, which was released in the morning. So, it is possible that the origin of the concept of manna may be quite natural.

The meaning of this phraseological unit is to receive some kind of gift, benefit, as if “falling from the sky,” for nothing.

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Every person at least once in his life has heard such an expression as “manna from heaven.” But few people thought about what it means, and this despite the fact that sometimes they themselves used this expression. In this article we will try to understand the origin and meaning of manna from heaven.

What is manna from heaven from the Bible

Many people associate this expression with the metaphor of a heavenly and carefree life, when without any effort a person gets everything he wants. Most believers think so, but this is not correct. According to the legend of manna from heaven, this is not such a simple life, rather, on the contrary, a difficult fate of persecution and difficult trials, which taught people a lot.

And so, the legend says that during the 40 years of their wandering through the Desert, the Jews ate what the Lord God sent them. Everyone knows that the desert has barren soil. At that time, the Jews fled Egypt in a hurry because they were being pursued by an army.

They fled the country with nothing, taking neither food nor clothing with them. What did the Almighty send them? It was manna that he sent them. And she only fell from the sky. This is where the story of the origin of the expression “manna from heaven” comes from. The spiritual concept of all this is lost and forgotten. Therefore, people pursue the wrong concept and interpretation of the expression.

Apart from the fact that manna fell from heaven, nothing else is known. No details are mentioned in the Bible or church history. It is also known that manna was spiritual food and had a spiritual nature. Therefore, it was completely absorbed by the body, and there was no waste. Moreover, such food had the ability to take on absolutely any taste that a particular person wanted at that time.

The story of manna from heaven with Christ says that such food fell to the Jews every day, certain time- in the morning. They collected it in such quantities that it was enough for exactly one day. Stockpiling was strictly forbidden by Moses. One of the reasons for this ban was that the product spoiled very quickly. On Friday a double dose of manna fell, since Saturday was always considered a day off. On this day the believers:

• offered their prayers to the Almighty;
• read spiritual literature.

On the one hand, despite all his omnipotence, the Lord made people dependent on himself, He placed them in difficult situation. But on the other hand, having lived such a harsh fate, people learned to live and enjoy simple things.

Interpretation of phraseological units

In Christianity, the interpretation of the phraseological unit manna from heaven suggests that this is grace sent by the Lord to the people in the name of salvation. A lot of Orthodox vegetarians use this expression to confirm his theory of avoiding food of animal origin. After all, from the very beginning the Almighty ordered the worldly people not to eat meat. This theory is actually a bit controversial. Since it has no confirmation in church literature.

Orthodox believers very often use the expression to denote some very important spiritual food.

It should be noted that today many Orthodox Christians who are not confident in their faith use such a verbal expression, giving it a completely different meaning. If you analyze the legend and think about its meaning, applying it to behavior modern people, we can draw the following conclusions - “manna” resembles money, which is never in sufficient quantity. They are eaten up by inflation and various financial risks. Therefore, very often it is simply not possible to store them. If a person earned them to buy bread, then he did this not because the Lord gave him health, but because this is food necessary for life.

God sent them food that looked like small white grains or like small hail.

“The manna was like coriander seed, the appearance of bdellium.” (Numbers 11:7)

This bread received the name “manna” because when the Jews saw it for the first time, they asked each other: “Man-hu” (what is this?), Moses answered: “This is the bread that the Lord gave you to eat.” The Jews called this bread manna. Manna covered the land around the Jewish camp in the morning throughout their journey, every day except .

The collection of manna took place in the morning, since by noon it melted under the rays of the sun. According to the haggadah, when eating manna, young men felt the taste of bread, old people - the taste of honey, children - the taste of oil.

The manna was kept together with the blossoming and in, which was in (Heb. 9).

Manna is also mentioned in the Quran in Surah Ta Ha.

Origin

Some researchers have tried to find a natural scientific explanation for manna. It is impossible to say unambiguously what kind of substance the Bible is talking about, and the question of the “natural” or “supernatural” origin of manna remains unresolved.

There are several theories about the origin of the manna myth. In particular, the “lichen” version of the origin is very common.

Aerophytes (from ancient Greek ἀήρ (aеr) - air and φυτόν (phyton) - plant) - in a narrow sense: a category of plants in which all organs are in the air and receive moisture and necessary for life nutrients from the air.<…>Among aerophytic lichens, the so-called “lichen manna” (species of the genus Aspicilia) is notable: its thalli are edible; not secured to anything, they can be carried by the wind for many kilometers. Perhaps it served as the basis for the biblical legend about manna from heaven.

Aerophytes

There is also a version that the “manna that melts with the sunrise” is thickened drops of juice secreted by the Tamarix plant and processed by a species of aphid living in Sinai.

In 1823, the German botanist G. Ehrenberg published an article “Symbolae Physicae”, which even his colleagues perceived with distrust. His explanations seemed to ask too much of people, namely, to believe that this notorious manna was nothing more than a secretion secreted by tamarisk trees and bushes when they were attacked by a certain species of aphid found in Sinai.<…>These small insects live mainly on tamarisk, a native tree species in Sinai. They secrete a special resinous secretion, which, according to Bodenheimer, resembles a coriander seed in shape and size. When she falls to the ground, she has white, which after some time changes to yellow-brown.<…>According to Bodenheimer, “These crystalline manna grains have a specifically sweet taste. Most of all, it resembles the taste of honey when it has already been candied after long storage». <…>And now, in exactly the same way, the Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula are rushing to collect this “Mann es-Sama” - “manna from heaven” in the mornings as early as possible, in a hurry to get ahead of their fierce competitors, the ants. The expedition report states: “They begin collecting manna when the soil temperature reaches 21 degrees Celsius - this occurs around 8-30 am. Until this time, insects are inactive.” As soon as the ants begin to perk up, the manna disappears. This must be what was meant when the Bible says that the manna “melted.” Bedouins prudently do not forget to carefully cover the pots in which they collect manna so that ants do not attack it. It was exactly the same in the days of Moses during the time the Israelites were in the desert: “But they did not listen to Moses, and left some of it until the morning, and worms bred...”