The Biblical Manna

Abstract

THERE has always existed among scientific workers a wide divergence of opinion as to the true nature and origin of the manna, believed to have fallen from heaven to provide food for the Israelites in the Sinai desert during the Exodus from Egypt. Some authors considered the manna to be a desert lichen, Lecanora esculenta Nees, while others connected it with desert shrubs of the genus Tamarix and considered it to be either a physiological secretion of the plant, or its sap flowing from the wounds caused by insects. In order to solve this problem, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem organised in 1927 a small expedition to the Sinai Peninsula, and the leaders of that expedition, Dr. F. S. Bodenheimer and Dr. 0. Theodor, have just published avery interesting account of their investigations.