Exodus 16:15

It is manna. The two Hebrew words man hu’, thus translated, were long a puzzle to scholars. The word man could hardly be translated as the name of the heavenly bread, which appears first in v. 31. Some therefore translated the expression, “It is a gift,” but this again is far from convincing. The most probable interpretation is that of the LXX, “What is this?” a rendering supported by the words immediately following, “for they wist not what it was.” But since the Hebrew for “what” is mah and not man, it was suggested that Aramaic usage had influenced the text; yet the Aramaic man does not mean “what” but “who.” F. M. Th. Bohl, however, has shown that the form man was an old Semitic particle meaning “what.” It appears as manna, in the Palestinian Aniama Letters, documents written in the 14th century B.C. We may therefore conclude that this short phrase is properly translated, “What is this?” (LXX), or “What is it?” (RSV). This exclamation reveals the surprise of the Hebrews when they discovered the unfamiliar substance.

The final solution of this problem, noted above, is one of the many evidences that the Pentateuch was not written many centuries after the Exodus, as so many modern scholars believe. Words and expressions like this, found only in documents from the middle of the second millennium B.C., would not have been used by a writer in the first millennium, for he would have been unaware of their existence at the time of the Exodus. The story of the Exodus was written by a contemporary of that great event, one who was acquainted with the phraseology of his own time, and who knew how to use it.

They wist not what it was. This explanatory phrase shows that the preceding exclamation of the Hebrews was one of astonishment and inquiry. They could not have said, “It is manna,” when they did not know what it was, and Moses had to tell them that it was bread from heaven. If they had realized at once that it was the food sent them by God, there would have been no need for Moses to tell them so.