manna

• practices of Melanesians, Baganda tribes

91:0.5Pre­re­li­gious pray­ing was part of the mana prac­tices of the Melane­sians, the oudah be­liefs of the African Pyg­mies, and the man­i­tou su­per­sti­tions of the North Amer­i­can In­di­ans. The Baganda tribes of Africa have only re­cently emerged from the mana level of prayer. In this early evo­lu­tion­ary con­fu­sion men pray to gods—lo­cal and na­tional—to fe­tishes, amulets, ghosts, rulers, and to or­di­nary peo­ple.

• primitive belief in natural wonders and mysteries

103:3.2Later re­li­gion is fore­shad­owed in the prim­i­tive be­lief in nat­u­ral won­ders and mys­ter­ies, the im­per­sonal mana. But sooner or later the evolv­ing re­li­gion re­quires that the in­di­vid­ual should make some per­sonal sac­ri­fice for the good of his so­cial group, should do some­thing to make other peo­ple hap­pier and bet­ter. Ul­ti­mately, re­li­gion is des­tined to be­come the ser­vice of God and of man.

• primitive belief in natural wonders and mysteries

103:3.5Man evolved through the su­per­sti­tions of mana, magic, na­ture wor­ship, spirit fear, and an­i­mal wor­ship to the var­i­ous cer­e­mo­ni­als whereby the re­li­gious at­ti­tude of the in­di­vid­ual be­came the group re­ac­tions of the clan. And then these cer­e­monies be­came fo­cal­ized and crys­tal­lized into tribal be­liefs, and even­tu­ally these fears and faiths be­came per­son­al­ized into gods. But in all of this re­li­gious evo­lu­tion the moral el­e­ment was never wholly ab­sent. The im­pulse of the God within man was al­ways po­tent. And these pow­er­ful in­flu­ences—one hu­man and the other di­vine—in­sured the sur­vival of re­li­gion through­out the vi­cis­si­tudes of the ages and that not­with­stand­ing it was so of­ten threat­ened with ex­tinc­tion by a thou­sand sub­ver­sive ten­den­cies and hos­tile an­tag­o­nisms.

• Moses reputed to have fed Israelites with

136:6.6The Jews were ex­pect­ing a Mes­siah who would do even greater won­ders than Moses, who was re­puted to have brought forth wa­ter from the rock in a desert place and to have fed their fore­fa­thers with manna in the wilder­ness. Je­sus knew the sort of Mes­siah his com­pa­tri­ots ex­pected, and he had all the pow­ers and pre­rog­a­tives to mea­sure up to their most san­guine ex­pec­ta­tions, but he de­cided against such a mag­nif­i­cent pro­gram of power and glory. Je­sus looked upon such a course of ex­pected mir­a­cle work­ing as a hark­ing back to the olden days of ig­no­rant magic and the de­graded prac­tices of the sav­age med­i­cine men. Pos­si­bly, for the sal­va­tion of his crea­tures, he might ac­cel­er­ate nat­u­ral law, but to tran­scend his own laws, ei­ther for the ben­e­fit of him­self or the over­aw­ing of his fel­low men, that he would not do. And the Mas­ter’s de­ci­sion was fi­nal.

• bread of earth, not heaven

153:2.8And then said Je­sus, point­ing up to the de­vice of a pot of manna which dec­o­rated the lin­tel of this new syn­a­gogue, and which was em­bel­lished with grape clus­ters: “You have thought that your fore­fa­thers in the wilder­ness ate manna—the bread of heaven—but I say to you that this was the bread of earth. While Moses did not give your fa­thers bread from heaven, my Fa­ther now stands ready to give you the true bread of life. The bread of heaven is that which comes down from God and gives eter­nal life to the men of the world. And when you say to me, Give us this liv­ing bread, I will an­swer: I am this bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, while he who be­lieves me shall never thirst. You have seen me, lived with me, and be­held my works, yet you be­lieve not that I came forth from the Fa­ther. But to those who do be­lieve—fear not. All those led of the Fa­ther shall come to me, and he who comes to me shall in no­wise be cast out.

153:2.9“And now let me de­clare to you, once and for all time, that I have come down upon the earth, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the fi­nal will of Him who sent me, that of all those he has given me I should not lose one. And this is the will of the Fa­ther: That ev­ery one who be­holds the Son and who be­lieves him shall have eter­nal life. Only yes­ter­day did I feed you with bread for your bod­ies; to­day I of­fer you the bread of life for your hun­gry souls. Will you now take the bread of the spirit as you then so will­ingly ate the bread of this world?”

153:2.10As Je­sus paused for a mo­ment to look over the con­gre­ga­tion, one of the teach­ers from Je­ru­sa­lem (a mem­ber of the San­hedrin) rose up and asked: “Do I un­der­stand you to say that you are the bread which comes down from heaven, and that the manna which Moses gave to our fa­thers in the wilder­ness did not?” And Je­sus an­swered the Phar­isee, “You un­der­stood aright.” Then said the Phar­isee: “But are you not Je­sus of Naz­a­reth, the son of Joseph, the car­pen­ter? Are not your fa­ther and mother, as well as your broth­ers and sis­ters, well known to many of us? How then is it that you ap­pear here in God’s house and de­clare that you have come down from heaven?”

153:2.11By this time there was much mur­mur­ing in the syn­a­gogue, and such a tu­mult was threat­ened that Je­sus stood up and said: “Let us be pa­tient; the truth never suf­fers from hon­est ex­am­i­na­tion. I am all that you say but more. The Fa­ther and I are one; the Son does only that which the Fa­ther teaches him, while all those who are given to the Son by the Fa­ther, the Son will re­ceive to him­self. You have read where it is writ­ten in the Proph­ets, ‘You shall all be taught by God,’ and that ‘Those whom the Fa­ther teaches will hear also his Son.’ Ev­ery one who yields to the teach­ing of the Fa­ther’s in­dwelling spirit will even­tu­ally come to me. Not that any man has seen the Fa­ther, but the Fa­ther’s spirit does live within man. And the Son who came down from heaven, he has surely seen the Fa­ther. And those who truly be­lieve this Son al­ready have eter­nal life.

153:2.12“I am this bread of life. Your fa­thers ate manna in the wilder­ness and are dead. But this bread which comes down from God, if a man eats thereof, he shall never die in spirit. I re­peat, I am this liv­ing bread, and ev­ery soul who at­tains the re­al­iza­tion of this united na­ture of God and man shall live for­ever. And this bread of life which I give to all who will re­ceive is my own liv­ing and com­bined na­ture. The Fa­ther in the Son and the Son one with the Fa­ther—that is my life-giv­ing rev­e­la­tion to the world and my sav­ing gift to all na­tions.”