8462. What is this [Man hoc]? because they knew not what it was. That this signifies amazement at what was not known, is evident from the fact that the word “manna” in its own tongue means What? thus, that which is not known. That from this the bread that was given to the sons of Israel in the wilderness was called “manna,” is because this bread signifies the good of charity that is begotten through the truth of faith. Before regeneration this good is quite unknown to man, and it is not even known that it exists. For before regeneration a man believes that besides the delights of the love of self and of the world, which he calls good, there cannot be possible any good which is not from this source, or of such a nature. If anyone should then say that there is an interior good which cannot come to our notice, consequently not to knowledge, so long as the delights of the love of self and of the world have dominion, and that this good is that in which are good spirits and angels, people would be amazed as at something which is quite unknown, and as at something that is not possible; when yet this good immensely transcends the delights of the love of self and of the world. (That they who are in the loves of self and of the world do not know what charity and faith are, and what it is to do good without recompense, and that this is heaven in man, and that they believe that nothing of joy and life would remain if they were deprived of the delights of these loves, when yet heavenly joy then begins, see n. 8037) From all this it is now evident why the manna was named from “What is this?”