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The Wisdom of Solomon describes the manna from heaven with images of ice. This follows the Greek Septuagint translation of Numbers 11, which compares the manna to hoarfrost, and reflects a Jewish cosmological tradition about heavenly storehouses.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Numbers 11:7
Septuagint
5 We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt freely; and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our soul is dried up; our eyes turn to nothing but to the manna. 7 And the manna is as coriander seed, and the appearance of it the appearance of hoarfrost. 8 And the people went through the field, and gathered, and ground it in the mill, or pounded it in a mortar, and baked it in a pan, and made cakes of it; and the sweetness of it was as the taste of wafer made with oil. 9 And when the dew came upon the camp by night, the manna came down upon it.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 16:22
Deuterocanon
20 Instead of these things, you gave your people angels’ food to eat, and you provided ready-to-eat bread for them from heaven without toil, having the virtue of every pleasant flavor, and agreeable to every taste. 21 For your nature showed your sweetness toward your children, while that bread, serving the desire of the eater, changed itself according to every man’s choice. 22 But snow and ice endured fire, and didn’t melt, that people might know that fire was destroying the fruits of the enemies, burning in the hail and flashing in the rains; 23 and that this fire, again, in order that righteous people may be nourished, has even forgotten its own power. 24 For the creation, ministering to you, its maker, strains its force against the unrighteous for punishment and in kindness, slackens it on behalf of those who trust in you.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Wisdom of Solomon 16:20‐23 does not only use Psalm 77:24‐25 LXX, but also reworks other biblical traditions about the manna - and this way exemplifies the image of the “food of angels.” According to Wisdom of Solomon 16:20b God “without effort” offers to his people “bread ready to eat” from heaven. While the statement of “bread ready to eat” contradicts the ways of preparation mentioned in Exodus 16:13‐15 and Numbers 11:8, Exodus 16:13‐15 does not speak explicitly about the origin of the bread. The statement in the book of Wisdom - “from heaven” - might of course be due to developments as in Psalm 77:24 LXX. The small change can possibly be derived from the consideration that the food of heavenly creatures must be in heaven and therefore needs to be given from heaven ... The background of Wisdom of Solomon 16:20c is usually considered to lie in the fact that the Old Testament provides several descriptions of the manna (see, for example, Exodus 16:4, 14, 31 LXX and Numbers 11:7 LXX) ..."
Tobias Nicklas, “'Food of Angels' (Wis 16:20),” in Studies in the Book of Wisdom, ed. Géza G. Xeravits and József Zsengellér, JSJSup 142 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 83–100.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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