Mar bereih deRavana

At the top of today’s daf (Kiddushin 39a) we encounter Mar son of Ravana:

נִיתְנֵי אוֹ: ״זֶה וָזֶה יוֹרֵד וְלוֹקֵחַ״, אוֹ: ״זֶה וָזֶה יוֹרֵד וְלוֹקֵט״! הָאָמַר לֵיהּ שְׁמוּאֵל לְרַב עָנָן: תְּנִי אוֹ: ״זֶה וָזֶה יוֹרֵד וְלוֹקֵחַ״ אוֹ: ״זֶה וָזֶה יוֹרֵד וְלוֹקֵט״. מָר בְּרֵיהּ דְּרַבְנָא מַתְנֵי לֵיהּ לְקוּלָּא: ״זֶה וָזֶה יוֹרֵד וְלוֹקֵט, וּבִלְבַד שֶׁלֹּא יִלְקוֹט בַּיָּד״.

let the mishna teach in the same manner in both cases, either by stating in both this case and that case that one may go down and purchase the produce, or by stating in both this case and that case that one may go down and gather the produce. The Gemara answers: Didn’t Shmuel say to Rav Anan that one should teach it either as stating in both this case and that case that one may go down and purchase the produce, or in both this case and that case that one may go down and gather the produce? Mar, son of Rabbana, taught this mishna according to the following lenient version: In both this case and that case one may go down and gather the produce, provided that he does not gather it with his own hand.

Artscroll, Koren, and indeed the Vilna Shas have “bar Ravana”.

Elsewhere, he often appears as Mar bar Ravina. This would be confusing because we would think he is a son of sixth-generation Amora Ravina I or seventh-generation Ravina II.

On our very page, we have the Costa printing with bar Ravina:

as well as the Munich 95 manuscript:

And indeed, one manuscript fragment actually erroneously changes his name to Mar bar Rav Ashi, who would be quite late.

To argue for this, the question is what matni leih means, and whether it represents a redactive effort. But we see this act of matni leih earlier as well.

Here is what we know of Mar bar Ravana (Hebrew Wikipedia, Toledot Tannaim vaAmoraim). He transmits Torah in the name of third-generation Rav Nachman and Rav Sheshet, and is a colleague of Rabbi Zeira II, Rava, then Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak and Rav Pappa.

Under discussion is what first-generation Shmuel said to his student, second-generation Rav Anan. So, Mar son of Ravana, operating after that, could weigh in with a different version of what was said.

Here is what Rav Aharon Hyman writes in Toledot Tannaim vaAmoraim: