Library Theodoret Questions on Exodus
Questions on Exodus 30: Why was it called manna?
Why was it called manna?
As soon as they saw it they asked one another, “What is this?” So they gave it the name “What is this?”—for that is what manna means. The narrative itself also teaches this: “When the sons of Israel saw it,” it says, “they said to one another, ‘What is this?’ for they did not know what it was.” So the question became a name. As for “like a cake with honey,” Symmachus rendered it “like fine flour with honey.” The gomor was a Hebrew measure. The lawgiver teaches that it was “a tenth of three measures”; and as Josephus said, “it holds three and a half Attic cotylae.”
Greek: Theodoret of Cyrus, Quaestiones in Octateuchum / Questions on Exodus (CPG 6200.02; cf. Fernández Marcos and Sáenz-Badillos; also PG 80, cols. 225–298). English: study translation for BWAB Library—not the copyrighted Robert C. Hill (CUA Press) translation. The full Questions on Exodus (72 questions) is hosted here.