Numbers 11—a story about the people’s complaining to Moses that they have no meat to eat, only manna—is part of the murmuring traditions, some of which we have already looked at (#125, #126, #127) and even seen use contradictorily by other biblical scribes (#124).
To a large extent the quail story of Numbers 11, where Yahweh responds to the Israelite’s complaining that they have had no meat to eat only manna by sending them quails just before he strikes them down anyway, has already been dealt with in contradiction #126 (see also #125). Here I’ve worded the contradiction differently in order to expand upon #126 in more detail.
The tradition now preserved at Exodus 16, from the Priestly source, claims that the people have not eaten meat since their departure from Egypt. However, where this story presently sits in the wilderness narrative is already problematic since according to the later Priestly redactor the event recorded in Exodus 16 occurs exactly, only, 1 month from the Exodus (16:1). And we are to remember that on the eve of (or the morning after; see #115) the Exodus, the Israelites enjoy their first Passover meal—a roasted lamb per household (Ex 12:3). So the complaint of not having meat to eat only 1 month after having eaten a nice lamb dinner is ill-conceived in the narrative as it has been redacted.
Although Exodus 16:13 is a one-verse Priestly version of the quail story, the real focus of Exodus 16 is the manna tradition. Here we learn that “the children of Israel ate the manna 40 years until they came to the settled land. They ate the manna until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan” (Ex 16:35). The tradition implies that all they eat for the duration of the 40-year wilderness period is manna! Thus Numbers 11:6:
“There isn’t anything to eat, except the manna before our eyes.”
This is not in fact the case! And as I’ve mentioned in other entries, the present wilderness narrative is rather a collection of once separate traditions, random legislation, and stories. The biblical texts themselves bear this out. For we are informed of many instances where the Israelites eat meat, that is where they eat more than just manna. In fact, manna is curiously absent from these variant traditions:
- First, contrary to this manna/quail tradition or story the Exodus tradition itself claims that the Israelites left with a large number of livestock: “sheep and oxen, a very heavy livestock” (Ex 12:38). The Israelites’ possession of cattle and livestock is reiterated in Ex 17:3 (just after they had complained of no meat to eat in Exodus 16!?), Ex 34:3; Lev 17:3, 22:19, 23, 27:9; and Num 7, 32:1.
- The Jethro tradition now preserved in Exodus 18 claims that Moses, Aaron and Israel’s elders ate bread (not unleavened manna!) with Jethro, and presumably meat too since sacrifices were performed (18:12).
- Exodus 24:5 records a covenant tradition where (some of) the people eat meat—peace-offerings (the peace-offering was the sacrifice performed on consumable meat; see Lev 3, 7:11-21, 19:5-8). This “occurs” less than a month after the quail story, according to the chronology imposed on the narrative by the later Priestly redactor (see Ex 19:1).
- The Golden Calf story now at Exodus 32 states that all the people “sat down to eat and drink” (32:6)—that is meat; peace-offerings were made, as well as whole burnt-offerings to Yahweh.
- The eternal law of presenting daily Yahweh’s show bread in the Tent of Meeting assumes that there is grain to make, and eat, bread (Ex 25:30; Num 4:7)—reinforced throughout the book of Leviticus.
- Lev 1-7 is a priestly manual instructing the Aaronid priesthood about how to perform the various sacrifices, especially when an impure contamination happens or a sin is committed. The sacrifices, each of which requires livestock and assumes the Israelites have numerous livestock (see especially #9 below), are to be performed during the wilderness period in order to maintain the camp’s and the people’s holiness—a reoccurring theme throughout all of Leviticus! So the eating of meat is a constant and regular happening in the Priestly source!
- In Aaron’s consecration ceremony, both Moses and Aaron and sons eat meat (Lev 8-9)
- Leviticus 23 records the mandatory observance of “Yahweh’s appointed times” all of which entailed the sacrifice of animals, and some of which entailed the eating of those animals (see: Festive Calendars).
- The dedication ceremony recorded in Numbers 7 records the festive slaughtering of, excluding Yahweh’s burnt-offerings, 36 bulls, 72 rams, 60 goats, and 72 lambs for consumption as meat! This happens on 1/1/2 according to Priestly reckoning (see also #221).
- In Numbers 9 we are informed that in the second year of the Exodus, on 1/14/2, the Israelites kept the Passover—that is ate a lamb per household! And ditto for the remaining 38 years!
And now, in Numbers 11, just 1 month after the Passover celebration in Numbers 9 (see Num 10:11), are we to assume that the Israelites had no meat to eat, and only manna!? Obviously there are conflating traditions here.
Point of fact is that the wilderness tradition as we now have it is a composite of various, and contradictory, once separate stories. The Bible itself tells us this, and moreover that its stories are not to be taken literally, nor historically for that matter (see How we know that the biblical scribes were not writing history). Rather they are stories with powerful theological punchlines—don’t test Yahweh, or else!
I’ve always wondered about this account. ’40 years’ with no meat! it just don’t add up. It makes much more sense
that whoever or whomever’s wrote this was much later on.
Thanks for the post…
There’s also an interesting anachronism regarding the manna. Exodus 16:34-35 reads:
How could Aaron have placed the jar of manna “before the covenant” when neither the commandments nor the ark of the covenant in which they were housed existed? It might be argued that a later editor added this detail or that it’s a look-ahead by the author, who knew what eventually happened. However, I think it is more likely an anachronism, since v:33 says that Aaron should place the jar “before Yahweh,” a phrase that is also anachronistic since the tabernacle had also not yet been built. And this isn’t the only time that this phrase occurs in Exodus 16. Consider the verses below:
These verses make it abundantly clear that on 2/15/1, the Israelites were in the wilderness. The anachronism follows in vv. 9-10:
Verse 9 literally says “near before Yahweh,” an impossibility since to go “before Yahweh” means to be before the tabernacle. A couple of examples suffice:
Notice, though, that v:10 says that the congregation “looked towards the wilderness.” How could it look toward the wilderness when, as I mention above, they were already in the wilderness. It appears that an editor or later writer realized that in a time before the tabernacle had been built, it would be impossible to appear “before Yahweh,” so he inserted the nonsensical-sounding claim that a people already in the wilderness could look toward the wilderness as a way of appearing “before Yahweh.”
John,
Thanks for your additions. I too was initially shocked when I started looking closely at the material how often the manna tradition was not picked up in other traditions/stories, such as the one about obtaining food from Edom as you mention above (Deut 2:1-6; Num 2014-21). It almost seems like each story had an individual purpose; the manna tradition’s message is more theological in nature—Yahweh sustained the wilderness generation. I’m not sure if there’s an etiological purpose behind the story. Reading Exodus 16:34-35 makes me think that there is here: Aaron placing the manna before the covenant serves to explain why, later, the Aaronids place daily the showbread before Yahweh.
I like your astuteness in observing the anachronism here. As I mused earlier (#218), I’m inclined to think that the manna tradition (quail tradition also) was originally a story told after the Sinai event. But since the redactor was faced with having 2 versions of the manna/quail tradition (E and P) he opted to place one version before Sinai (Ex 16) and one after (Num 11). If this is the case, he then created this anachronism by placing the Priestly version of the story in Exodus 16, and the Elohist in Numbers 11! The same thing happens with the Sabbath, which is also an anachronism mentioned in the Priestly text of Exodus 16—it assumes it had already been given!
Deuteronomy 2 seems unaware that Yahweh provided manna every day:
This seems at odds with Exodus 16:35:
And of course even these narratives contradict each other regarding how the Edomites reacted toward the Israelites. I wrote about this in 2002: http://www.tinyurl.com/edomgreetem. But this is another contradiction for another day.
All of the anachronisms disappear if Exodus 16 is moved after the tabernacle, ark, ten commandments, spy incident (to account for the 40-years reference), etc. Where it would have originally stood is limited by one factor: it must precede Aaron’s death.
Thanks for the link!
Hi Dr Steven DiMattei,
Thanks for this site. Very interesting, very overwhelming.
“Here we learn that “the children of Israel ate the manna 40 years until they came to the settled land. They ate the manna until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan” (Ex 16:35). The tradition implies that all they eat for the duration of the 40-year wilderness period is manna!”
Are you saying Exodus 16:35 is saying the Israelites ate only manna those forty years?
Thanks.
As regards Manna, I noted that devout Christians who visited the Sinai in the 1800s, mentioned that the Manna offered them by Monks, at St. Catherine’s Monastery, in the Sinai did not have the properties mentioned in the Bible. The Bible claims that Manna was processed by pounding and grinding, then it was sieved, and added to bread dough as a flavoring to make sweet cakes of. The Manna in the Monks’ possession was of a honey-like consistency, it was put on bread like a jelly, to eat by the Beduin. It was not ground or pounded either, being of a honey-like consistency. I eventually came across a report stating that Manna also existed in the Zagros Mountains, today’s Kurdistan, borderin Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia). It came from insect excretions and was associated with oak trees. This manna appears in the form of rock-hard crystals, and has to be pounded and ground in a mortar before being added to water, then seived in a cloth, to remove twigs and dirt, then it was added as a flavoring to bread dough to make sweet cakes of, as described in the Bible. My conclusion: The biblical account was written by a Jew in the Babylonian Exile, circa 587-562 BC, who knew the processing of Babylonian Manna via pounding and grinding of rock-hard crystals, and he ASSUMED INCORRECTLY, that the Sinai Manna would be processed in the same manner, via pounding and grinding, then sieving. For more details google “Mattfeld Manna of the Sinai”