It seems remiss of the article to not mention the word 'manna' meaning a mystical food or a spiritual nourishment. The OED has it as a Hebrew word, possibly com

It seems remiss of the article to not mention the word 'manna' meaning a mystical food or a spiritual nourishment. The OED has it as a Hebrew word, possibly coming from Aramaic word. Most often rendered in English with two N's, following the Greek μάννα, it is sometimes spelled with one. It appears not only in the bible but is used in English in multiple senses in every century from the 13th to the 21st. I'm not saying there isn't a Austronesian connection, I just think an academic piece would do well to mention a credible second hypothesis. I'm not a linguist but without very clear and direct evidence my working hypothesis would be that both words probably had an influence on the fantasy version. "Manna from Heaven" would have been heard in conversation by almost every single person he names in the article. Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens all use it.