μάννα

Forms

μᾰ́ννᾰ (mánna) n (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

The biblical word is borrowed from Biblical Hebrew מָן (mān, “manna”).^[1][2][3] The Septuagint has the bare μάν (mán) in Exodus and μάννα elsewhere, a form that matches Aramaic מַנָּא (mannā).^[4][3] BDAG explains the Greek form as probably shaped by an older word of the same spelling meaning “grain, granule” (see Usage notes).^[5]

The Hebrew word is commonly explained from the question that the Israelites asked when they first saw the food, “What is it?”, as in Exodus 16:15.^[6][7] Babiniotis prefers this to a derivation from a Hebrew word for “portion”.^[6][7] The Etymologicum Magnum also says the word means “what is this?”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch, made in the 3rd century BC, for the food that fell from heaven for the Israelites in the desert, in Exodus and Numbers.^[3][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Josephus and Philo use it of the same miraculous food, sometimes as a feminine noun.^[5][3] In the New Testament it appears in the Gospel of John and the Letter to the Hebrews, and symbolically in Revelation.^[4] Modern scholars often identify it with the sweet exudation of the manna tamarisk, which dries and falls in small grains.^[5]

The word passed into Coptic, where it is recorded from about AD 800.^[11] In medieval vernacular Greek it was used both as an indeclinable neuter and as a feminine noun.^[12] It survives as Modern Greek μάννα (mána), with phrases such as “like manna from heaven”, for a boon that comes unexpectedly.^[13]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint Exodus and Numbers use it for the food of the Israelites in the desert.^[9][3][10]
• 1st century AD – Josephus uses it, sometimes as a feminine noun.^[3][5][14]
• About AD 800 – A Coptic manuscript has the borrowed word.^[11]
• Modern Greek – μάννα (mánna) keeps the biblical sense and figurative phrases.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Manna, the food from heaven that fed the Israelites in the desert.^[3][15][16]

Usage notes

An older Greek word μάννα, feminine, meaning powder or granules of frankincense, is found from the Hippocratic writers on, and later in Dioscorides and Galen;^[3][2] Chantraine treats it as a separate word, probably a borrowing.^[2] Modern Greek μάννα (mána, “mother”) is a different word again, from μάμμη (mámmē).^[6][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
5. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
6. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
8. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Giannakis, Georgios K., ed. (2014), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, 3 vols, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
16. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.