coriander

The Hebrew that is translated as “coriander” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as kuániarssuit or “angelica.” “Kuániarssuit (modern kuanniarsuit) [is] a plural form based on the stem kuáneĸ (modern kuanneq), ‘angelica’ (angelica archangelica ), an herb native to Greenland and other Arctic and subarctic regions, used as a seasoning in food and as a kind of tea.” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)

 

According to Exodus 16:31, the miraculous food called “manna” that God sent to the wandering Israelites in the desert was “like coriander seed, white.” Coriander Coriandrum sativum did in fact grow in Egypt and the Holy Land. However, its seed is not very white, but more brown or gray, and Numbers 11:7 tells us that the color was that of bdellium, of which we know almost nothing for certain. Further, the Septuagint has the Greek word korion, which is not coriander. The Arabic name gidda, the cognate of the Hebrew word gad, refers to a different plant, namely wormwood. To complicate the matter further, Exodus 16:14 describes manna as “flaky,” whereas coriander seeds are spherical or egg-shaped.

In view of these difficulties, Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) expresses doubt as to whether the word gad actually refers to the plant we now know as coriander. He speculates that early translators, not knowing what gad referred to, took the Punic word goid (𐤂𐤃) for coriander, and made the association between gad and coriander. The writer would have done us a favor if he had said “like coriander flowers,” which can be white, but unfortunately the text has “seed.” Maybe an early narrator or scribe made a mistake in transmitting the text. Could the Hebrew word perach (“flower”) perhaps have been replaced by zera‘ (“seed”)?

However, it is possible that coriander seed really was intended, and that the point of comparison between manna and coriander seeds was their size, which is about 4 millimeters (3/16 inch) in diameter, the size of a peppercorn. (Thus Revised English Bible and New American Bible have “like coriander seed, but white.”) Another possibility is that the writer was thinking of the way the seeds cluster, or of their firmness. We are told in Numbers 11:8 that the people pounded the manna in mortars and ground it in mills, suggesting some degree of hardness.

The coriander plant is around 60 centimeters (2 feet) in height, the upper leaves being finely divided and the lower ones broad, with tiny white or reddish flowers, and a strong odor. The seeds are oily, brown or gray, and about the size of small peas. The leaves and seeds were used in ancient times in cooking, and are still used for soup and salads up to the present. The fragrant oil from the seeds is sometimes used in making perfume and medicine.

Translators can give a generic rendering, as Good News Bible has done (“like a small white seed”), omitting reference to coriander (but including it in a footnote). It is also possible to follow REB and NAB (“like coriander seed, but white”), which disassociate the seed from the color. If this is done, translators may transliterate “coriander” from a major language or from the Hebrew gad.

Coriander flowers, photo by Nigel Hepper

Coriander seeds, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Exodus 16:31)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 16:31:

  • Kupsabiny: “The people of Israel called that food manna. It was white and tasted like honeycombs.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “’The Israelites named the bread manna. It was like coriander seed but its taste is like bread made with honey.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The Israelinhon called the food manna. These seemed-like seeds which (are) small and white, and sweet, and like thin bread that has honey.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “The people of Israel called the name of that food mana. That mana was white and yet small like a korianda tree’s seeds. And it tasted like sago on which they smeared honey.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “And that foot people of Israel were gathering , they named it manna. It looked like fruit of sorghum white, and when they ate it it be like bread which they mixed with honey.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “The Israeli people called this food manna, which sounds like the words in their language that mean ‘what is it?’ It looked like small seeds called coriander, but it was white, and it tasted like thin wafers/biscuits made with honey.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 16:31

Now is the usual conjunction waw, and it is dropped in most translations. The house of Israel is an unusual expression, but it still means “the people of Israel” (Good News Translation), or “the Israelites.” Called its name manna means that they “called the food manna” (Good News Translation), or they named it “manna.” The Hebrew is simply man, and so is the Greek in the Septuagint, but in Num 11.6-7 of the Septuagint it is manna. This is the first use of the term, which sounds like the question man huʾ (“What is it?”) in verse 15. (See the discussion there.)

It was like coriander seed describes the size and shape of the manna, but not the color or taste. Coriander was a small herbal plant that produced small brown seeds. White describes the color of the manna. In areas where the coriander plant is unknown, one may express this as Good News Translation does: “it was like a small white seed.” And the taste of it refers to the manna, not the seed. Like wafers made with honey refers to flat biscuits or “thin cakes” (Good News Translation) sweetened with honey, or “honey-cakes” (Translator’s Old Testament).

Honey may here refer to the sweet product of wild bees, but the Hebrew word devash usually refers to a thick, sweet syrup made from dates or grapes, as in 3.8. In only a few places does the word explicitly refer to the sweet food made by wild bees (Deut 32.13; Judges 14.8-9; 1Sam 14.25; and Psa 81.16). In cultures where dates are unknown, but wild bees’ honey is known, the term for this may be used. In certain languages this will be referred to as “bee excretion,” “bee water,” or even “the sweet juice made by insects named ‘bee.’” However, in cultures where date trees are common, there may be a term for this sweet syrup known to Arabs as dibs, and this would be a preferable translation. The important idea to bring out here, however, is that the honey was a thick, sweet syrup with which the people were familiar.

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 .