Manger

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

Manger —The Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 translation of φάτνη in  Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:12;  Luke 2:16. In  Luke 13:15, the only other place where φάτνη occurs in NT, Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 both render it ‘stall,’ though (Revised Version margin) gives ‘manger.’ The precise meaning of φάτνη is somewhat uncertain, opinions differing as to whether it denotes a stall or a manger within a stall.

Tristram ( Land of Israel , p. 73) supposes that Mary and Joseph, who could not find room in the κατάλυμα, were obliged to go to some poor house hard by, where there was ‘an upper platform’ for people and ‘a lower platform’ for cattle, and that ‘in the lower portion allotted to the cattle the Infant when born was naturally laid at once in the long earthen trough which serves for a manger, and into which the fodder is pushed from the floor.’ If the κατάλυμα was like a modern Eastern khan , and if the φάτνη belonged to it (see below), Mary and Joseph went to one of the stalls for cattle and beasts of burden within the outside wall, and there the babe was born. Meyer (on  Luke 2:7) favours the view that φάτνη means a feeding-trough placed in a stable. In any case, φάτνη, as its derivation implies, designates a feeding-place for animals.

Opinions further differ as to whether the φάτνη in question was a cave or grotto in the limestone rock of the neighbourhood used as a stable, or an enclosure fenced in.

The former view, which has the weight of persistent tradition, is due to Justin Martyr, who tells us that Christ was born ‘in a certain cave near the village,’ which cave, he says, had been pointed out by Isaiah as ‘a sign.’ For this latter circumstance he founds upon  Isaiah 33:16 LXX Septuagint, ‘He shall dwell in the lofty cave of the strong rock’ ( Trypho , 70 and 78). A similar statement is made by Origen, who affirms that in his day there was shown at Bethlehem ‘the cave where Jesus was born, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling bands’ ( c. Cels. i. 51).

There is, of course, nothing improbable in this traditional view that the place where Mary sought shelter was a cave, for throughout Palestine such caves or grottoes were and are commonly used as stables. The other view, that the φάτνη was an enclosure, is favoured by many. According to Schleusner, it was the open courtyard attached to the inn and enclosed by a rough fence, into which the cattle would be shut at night, and where poorer travellers might lodge, when from want of room in the inn, or want of means to pay for room, they could find no other place. This view is supported by the Vulgate ( prœsepium ) and the Peshitta. It is, moreover, significant that the earliest Christian artists represent the Nativity as in an open courtyard.

Stanley, who opposes the view that the φάτνη was a cave, does so partly on the ground of  Matthew 2:11 and partly on the ground of the superstitious tendency to associate sacred events with caves. He says ( SP [Note: P Sinai and Palestine.] p. 440): ‘As soon as the religion of Palestine fell into the hands of Europeans, it is hardly too much to say that it became “a religion of caves.” ’ He further notes that when the Convent of the Nativity was dismantled during the invasion of Ibrahim Pasha, it was found that the traditional cave had been, in pre-Christian times, a place of sepulture, and was therefore not at all likely ever to have been used by Jews as a manger.

It has been commonly but too readily assumed that the precise meaning of φάτνη in St. Luke’s account must be determined by our interpretation of κατάλυμα. This appears to be a groundless assumption. It is not said by St. Luke that the φάτνη was connected with the inn. In  Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:12 the definite article is not used; for, though it appears in the Textus Receptus and a few Manuscripts of minor importance, in which it was probably inserted to designate the well-known φάτνη, preponderating evidence is altogether against it. It occurs, as the best Manuscripts show, in  Luke 2:16, but there it clearly refers to the φάτνη spoken of in  Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:12. It is at least possible that the φάτνη did not belong to the κατάλυμα at all, and it is worth noting as subordinate evidence for this that the Protevangel of James and the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy do not connect ‘the cave’ of which they both speak with the inn.

Our conclusion, then, seems clear that, whether the φάτνη was a cave or an enclosure, it was certainly a place where cattle were housed or fed. It cannot be maintained that there is anything improbable or unreasonable in the continuous Christian tradition which goes back to the first decade of the second century. Nor is the pious sentiment groundless which has pictured the birth of the world’s Redeemer in circumstances so humble, and has lingered in loving and grateful meditation over His manger cradle. See also artt. Bethlehem and Cave.

Literature.—Schleusner, Lex. s.v. φάτνη; Meyer-Weiss on  Luke 2:7; Keim, Jesus of Nazara (English translation ii. 80); Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus , i. 185; Stanley, SP [Note: P Sinai and Palestine.] , and Tristram, Land of Israel , as quoted; Hepworth Dixon, Holy Land , i. ch. 13.

J. Cromarty Smith.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

We find this word no where in the Bible but when made use of in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke the evangelist tells us, that "when the days with Mary were accomplished that she should be delivered, she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn," ( Luke 2:6-7) An English reader, unacquainted with the manners and customs of the East, from this relation, would be led to conclude, that from the fulness of the inn, and the poverty of the Virgin Mary, there was no other accommodation to be obtained for her. But travellers accustomed to the journies in Palestine, explain the circumstances connected with inns different to this nation. Every traveller takes with him, of some sort or other, accommodations for the way. There are, here and there, caravansaries, or inns, built for the accommodation of travellers, to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather; but sad must be the case of all travellers who carry nothing with them for their own comfort, when they take shelter in those hovels. It is to be hoped, that in Bethlehem, whose very name means the land of bread, there was sufficient provision of this kind for, the Lord of life and glory. But what other accommodations Mary had, we are left to conjecture. The humble circumstances in which Jesus appeared, in his first open manifestation in our nature, had a beautiful correspondence to the whole of his mission. The strongest expression we meet with in the word of God respecting the humiliation of Christ, is his emptying himself, or, as the apostle expresses it, making himself of "no reputation." ( Philippians 2:7) The great object for which the Son of God became man, was to restore the divine glory, which, sin had obscured; so that it was not enough for the Lord Jesus Christ to give all glory to God in a way of obedience and death, but he will give away, for a time, his own glory, to make the satisfaction to God more abundant. An inn, therefore, without accommodation, a manger, not a sopha, became exactly suited for this humble Saviour to make his appearance in. And when we find the Son of God so debased, whose essential glory was, and is, equal to the Father, we behold an equivalent given for the debasement of God, the Father's glory by reason of man's sin. Hence, therefore, the Lord Jesus, in his coming to redeem our nature, will, from the manger to the cross, debase, humble, and empty himself, and make himself of no reputation, yea, become "sin and a curse for us, when he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." It is very blessed thus to behold Jesus when entering our world, and to discover the causes wherefore there was no room for him in the inn!

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

MANGER (  Luke 2:7;   Luke 2:12-13;   Luke 13:13 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). EV [Note: English Version.] tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of phatnç , the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] equivalent of Heb. ’çbûs , ‘a place where cattle are fattened’ (  Job 39:9 etc.). It also represents ’urwâh (  2 Chronicles 32:28 ), and repheth (  Habakkuk 3:17 ), EV [Note: English Version.] stall. In   Job 39:9 ,   Proverbs 14:4 ’çbûs may mean the stall or shelter; in   Isaiah 1:3 it is probably the crib in which the food was placed. A like ambiguity attaches to ’urwâh or ’uryâh (  2 Chronicles 32:28 ), lit. ‘collecting place’ or ‘collected herd.’ It probably came to mean a certain number of animals, as ‘a pair’ or ‘team’ (  1 Kings 4:26 ,   2 Chronicles 9:25 ) [Gesenius]. The Heb. repheth (  Habakkuk 3:17 ) clearly means ‘stall’; marbçq is the place where the cattle are ‘tied up’ (  1 Samuel 28:24; ‘fatted calf’ = ‘calf of the stall,’   Jeremiah 46:21 ,   Amos 6:4 ,   Malachi 4:2 ); phatnç may therefore denote either the ‘manger’ or the ‘stall.’

If katatuma (  Luke 2:7 ) means ‘guest chamber’ (see art. Hospitality, ad fin .), Joseph and Mary may have moved into the side of the house occupied by the cattle, from which the living-room is distinguished by a higher floor, with a little hollow in the edge, out of which the cattle eat. The present writer has seen a child laid in such a ‘manger.’ Or, in the crowded khân , only the animals’ quarters may have afforded shelter. We do not now know. Ancient tradition places Jesus’ birth in a cave near Bethlehem. Caves under the houses are extensively used in Palestine as stables. The midhwad , ‘manger,’ cut in the side, is an excellent ‘crib’ for a baby.

W. Ewing.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Fatnee only in  Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:12;  Luke 2:16, where the infant Jesus was laid,  Luke 13:15 "the stall." The open courtyard attached to the inn or khan, with arcades around and terraces over them. However there are limestone caverns in the narrow long gray hill on which stands Bethlehem; and Justin Martyr, born at Sichem, only 40 miles off, A.D. 103, states that "Joseph lodged in a cave near Bethlehem." The "manger" was a crib in a stable or lower enclosure (Which Was Possibly A Cave As Justin Martyr Says) attached to the inn or Khan . (See Inn .) The inn had apartments or cells above for travelers, and stalls for the cattle below. The upper platform, reached by steps, was probably occupied by the inn and its occupants; the lower level, from which the steps arose, was usually appropriated to cattle and goats, and on this occasion was used by Joseph and Mary on account of the crowded state of the regular inn or Khan . Early Christian artists represent the scene of the nativity as an open courtyard with a crib or long trough.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The interest attached to this word is in connection with the birth of Christ.  Luke 2:7-16 . The word is φάτνη, which in classical Greek is used for a 'manger' or 'feeding trough;' but it has been doubted whether the modern manger was introduced into Palestine so early. Schleusner contends that the word implies in scripture "any enclosure, but especially a vestibule to the house, where the cattle were, not enclosed with walls, but wooden hurdles." With this agrees the Vulgate praesepe and the Peshito-Syriac. The word φάτνη occurs in the LXX in  2 Chronicles 32:28;  Job 6:5;  Job 39:9;  Proverbs 14:4;  Isaiah 1:3;  Joel 1:17 :  Habakkuk 3:17 .

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Φάτνη (Strong'S #5336 — Noun Feminine — phatne — fat'-nay )

"a manger,"  Luke 2:7,12,16 , also denotes "a stall," 13:15. So in the Sept., the word denoted not only a "manger" but, by metonymy, the stall or crib ( Proverbs 14:4 ) containing the "manger."

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Manger. This word occurs only in  Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:12;  Luke 2:16, in connection with the birth of Christ . It means a Crib or Feeding Trough ; but according to Schleusner, its real signification, in the New Testament, is the open court-yard attached to the inn or khan , in which the cattle would be shut at night, and where the poorer travellers might unpack their animals and take up their lodging, when they were, either by want or means, excluded from the house.

King James Dictionary

MANGER, n. L. mando.

1. A trough or box in which fodder is laid for cattle, or the place in which horses and cattle are fed. 2. In ships of war, a space across the deck, within the hawse-holes, separated from the after part of the deck, to prevent the water which enters the hawse-holes from running over the deck.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) The fore part of the deck, having a bulkhead athwart ships high enough to prevent water which enters the hawse holes from running over it.

(2): ( n.) A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Luke 2:7,12,16 Luke 13:15Inn

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Luke 2:16

Floyd Lewis

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

is the rendering found in  Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:12;  Luke 2:16, of the term , Φατνη used to designate the place in which the infant Redeemer was cradled; which seems to denote a Crib or "stall" for feeding cattle, as it is rendered in  Luke 13:15 (see Horrei Miscell. Crit. Leon. 1738, bk. 2, ch. 16). It is employed in the Sept. in a similar sense for the Heb. אֵבוּס ,  Job 39:9;  Isaiah 1:3; also by Josephus, Ant. 8:2, 4; comp. Lucan, Tim. p. 14; Xenophon, — Eg. 4:1. Gersdorff (Beitrege zur Sprachchalrakterestik des N.T. p. 220) is in favor of translating the word crib everywhere, and quotes Elian (apud Suid. s.v.), Philo (De sommdiis, p. 872, b. ed. Colon. 1613), and Sybile. Eryth. (ap. Lactantius, 7:24, 12) to that effect. Schleusner (Lex. s.v.) says it is any enclosure, but especially the vestibule to the house, where the cattle were enclosed, not with walls, but wooden hurdles; but in common Greek the word undoubtedly often refers to a trough hollowed out to receive the food for horses, etc. (see Homer, II. v. 271; 10:568; 24:280). The Peshito Version evidently so understands it. On the other hand, it is doubtful if such a contrivance as a proper manger was known in the East, especially in the khans or "inns" of the description alluded to in the text. (See Caravanserai).

"Stables and mangers, in the sense in which we understand them, are of comparatively late introduction into the East (see the quotations from Chardin and others in Harmer's Observations, 2:205), and, although they have furnished material to modern painters and poets, did not enter into the circumstances attending the birth of Christ, and are hardly less inaccurate than the ‘ cradle' and the ‘ stable' which are named in some descriptions of that event." We are therefore doubtless here to regard the term as designating the ledge or projection in the end of the room used as a stable, on which they have or other food of the animals of travelers was placed. (See Strong's Harmonyos and Expos. of the Gospels, p. 14.) Several of the Christian fathers maintain at that the stable itself was in a cave, and the identical manger in which the infant Jesus is traditionally stated to have lain is still shown by the superstitious monks, being no other than a marble sarcophagus; but the whole story is at variance with the narrative in the Gospels. (See Meldon, De praesepi Christi, Jen. 1662.) (See Bethlehem).

"avernier, speaking of Aleppo, states that" in the caravanserais, on each side of the hall, for persons of the best quality, there are lodgings for every man by himself. These lodgings are raised a along the court, two or three steps high, just behind which are the stables, where many times it is as good lying as in the chambers. Right against the head of every horse there is a niche with a window into the lodging-chamber, out of which every man may see that his horse is looked after. These niches are usually so large that three men may lie in them, and here the servants dress their victuals." In modern Oriental farm-houses, however, something corresponding to a Western "manager" may be found." It is common to find two sides of the one room where the native farmer resides with his cattle fitted up with these mangers, and the remainder elevated about two feet higher for the accommodation of the family. The mangers are built of small stones and mortar, in the shape of a box, or, rather, of a kneading- trough, and when cleaned up and whitewashed, as they often are in summer, they do very well to lay little babes in" (Thomson, Land and Book, 2:98). (See Stable).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mān´jẽr ( φάτνη , phátnē ): Properly the place in a stall or stable where the food of cattle is placed (in the Old Testament "crib" (  Job 39:9;  Proverbs 14:4;  Isaiah 1:3 )); thus also, apparently, in the narrative of the nativity in  Luke 2:7 ,  Luke 2:12 ,  Luke 2:16 . In Septuagint, the Greek word, representing different Hebrew words, has also the extended meaning of "stall" ( 2 Chronicles 32:28;  Habakkuk 3:17 ); thus also in  Luke 13:15 , where the Revised Version margin has "manger." Old tradition says that Jesus was born in a cave in the neighborhood of Bethlehem; even so, a place for food for cattle may have been cut in the side of the rock.