Bible Dictionary
MANNA
MANNA
(Gr. “manna”, Heb. “mãn”).
The Hebrew expression “mãn hû” means: “What is this?” (Ex. 16:15), asks where the name of the substance comes from. Manna was the main food of the Israelites during the forty years of their wandering in the desert.
The Israelites met him for the first time in the desert of Sin, when they complained of lack of food. The descent of manna is compared to a rain of heavenly bread (Ex. 16:1-4, 12; Ps. 78:24; 105:40).
In the morning, when the dew dissipated, small grains remained on the ground, resembling frost. The children of Israel, not knowing what it was, asked: “Mãn hû?” Moses told them, “It is the bread that the Lord gives you to eat” (Ex. 16:13-15; Num. 11:9).
The manna remembered the seed of white coriander; It was white, and had a taste like flakes with honey or fine oil (Ex. 16:31); people ground it in mills or pounded it in mortars, cooking it or making cakes (Num. 11:7-8).
Moses ordered the Israelites, on behalf of the Lord, to gather one omer per person each morning (between 3.5 and 4 l.), and not to save anything for the next day. The worms attacked the manna of the disobedient.
On the sixth day, the Lord sent two omers of manna per person; there was nothing on the Sabbath (Ex. 16:22-30). Aaron preserved an omer of manna, evidently incorruptible, so that his successors after him would keep it for successive generations, so that they would see the food of his predecessors in the wilderness (Ex. 16: 32-34).
A year after the first appearance of the manna, at the same time, it is specified that the people continued to receive this bread from heaven, which continued to fall until the end of the 40 years in the desert. The Israelites despised this blessing (Num. 11:4-9; 21:5), yet God did not deprive them of it (Ex. 16:35; Deut. 8:3, 16; Neh. 9:20 ; Ps. 78:24).
The manna did not cease until the day after the Passover celebrated at Gilgal, after they had passed through Canaan, and after the people had eaten of the fruit of the land (Josh. 5:10-12).
The question has often been raised as to whether the manna was a product created especially to help the Israelites, or whether it was a natural substance, multiplied in a miraculous way.
There are various plants that exude a kind of substance analogous to manna, spontaneously, or due to the bite of an insect. This is the case of “Tamarix nainnifera” (variety of “Tamarix gallica”), which grows in the Sinai Peninsula; This plant is bitten by a hemipteran, “Chermes”, or “Coccus manniparus”.
The product, which is yellowish in color, turns white when it falls on the stones and remains in the sun; It is found for 6 to 10 weeks, especially in June. The “Alhagi maurorum” and the “Alhagi desertorum” also exude a kind of frost, and there are also more plants of this genus.
Its product is used as honey and butter by the Arabs; taken in stronger doses, it has purgative effects. It is evident, however, that all these substances do not have the characteristics of manna.
The manna was miraculously produced, in sufficient quantity for an entire nation; This amount was doubled on the sixth day and did not appear on the seventh; It ceased to exist when it was no longer necessary.
Typological sense.
Christ compares manna to the living Bread that came down from heaven. While the manna nourished the body for a short time, Jesus, the true bread of life, offers his flesh and blood as nourishment and eternal salvation for our souls (John 6:31-35, 45-48 ).
Every Israelite had to seek manna every day, in the morning, in sufficient quantity, simply taking the trouble to collect this gift from Above. In the same way, each believer seeks his nourishment in Christ, each day before all other activity, in order to be fully supplied, appropriating the heavenly gift by faith.
He who overcomes will receive this spiritual and hidden manna even in heaven (Rev. 2:17), because Christ will be our living Bread until eternity.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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