Bread from Heaven

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Image taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here . For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.

Following is an artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India:

For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here . For other images of Sister Marie Claire paintings in TIPs, see here.

The following is a stained glass window from the Three choir windows in the Marienkirche, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, of the 14th century, depicting the feeding with manna:

Source: Der gläserne Schatz: Die Bilderbibel der St. Marienkirche in Frankfurt (Oder), Neuer Berlin Verlag, 2005, copyright for this image: Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

See also other stained glass windows from the Marienkirche in Frankfurt.

complete verse (Exodus 16:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 16:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “When they measured that food, it appeared/was seen that (the) people who collected/gathered much did not surpass what they needed and those who collected/gathered little did not lack.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “When they measure it he who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little did not have too little. All of them have as much as they need.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But when they measured it, each one has one gantang/(about 2 kilos). Those who gathered more did- not -have-too-much, and those who gathered a little also did- not -have-too-little. Each one took only just-enough.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And when it was done then they filled it into small clay pots, and so they saw that the people who gathered much, theirs was sufficient for them, and the people who gathered not very much, theirs also was sufficient for them. They all received [it] so that it was sufficient for them.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Which they weighed that which they gathered with cup, one who gathered that which be much [body], there was not any which again add for him, and one who gathered that which be little [body], there was not any which lacked for him. Therefore, that which a man gathered, it was the same the same.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “But when they measured what they had gathered, those that had gathered a lot did not have anything left over. And those that gathered less still had enough to eat. Each person gathered just what they needed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 16:18

But when they measured it with an omer suggests that they did not measure the manna until after they had gathered it. He that gathered much had nothing left over is literally “and did not cause a surplus the one making many.” He that gathered little had no lack is literally “and the one making less did not cause a shortage,” or “those who gathered less did not have too little.”

This should not be understood as a miraculous equalizing of manna, for some households were larger than others and required more manna. Translator’s Old Testament is helpful here: “But when they measured it out in omers, they discovered that those who had collected a large amount did not have too much, and those who had collected a small amount did not have too little.”

Each gathered according to what he could eat is the same as verse 16, literally “according to his eating” (King James Version). But it probably means “as much as he should eat” (New American Standard Bible), not what he could eat. New Revised Standard Version now has “as much as each of them needed,” and Contemporary English Version has “according to their needs.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .