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 16:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 16:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “(The) people went out very early in the morning to collect enough. When the sun became hot, the food melted completely.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “In the morning all of them gathered as much as they needed when the sun became hot, the leftover food melted away.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Every morning each one gathered according to his/her needs. And when it became-hot, the food they had- not -taken melted-away.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “In the morning each and every day, all the people gathered that food so that it was sufficient for them. But when[ever] the sun [would] arise and so the place became hot, whatever food remained on the ground still, that’s what the sun cooked and it disappeared.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “By day in the morning in the morning, a man gathers that which is enough with his family. When sun be hot, any which they not [body] gathered, it dissolved.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Each morning they gathered as much as they needed. But later, when the sun got hot, what was left on the ground melted.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 16:21

Morning by morning means “every morning,” or “every day when the sun rose.” They gathered it means they collected the manna from the ground. Each as much as he could eat, or better, “as much as he needed” (Good News Translation). (See the comment at verse 16.)

But when the sun grew hot means, of course, “when the sun heated it” (Durham), for although the sun is always hot, its rays do not hit the ground directly until well after sunrise. Only when the sun had risen fairly high in the sky would the rays have hit the manna directly and melted it. So one may translate “when the sun rose high in the sky, it melted.” It melted refers to “what was left on the ground” (Good News Translation), for what was collected would have been protected from the sun.

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 .