StrongerBible

mneia

μνεία

GreekG3417mention, remembrance, ...

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Rom 1:9Eph 1:16Php 1:31Th 1:21Th 3:62Ti 1:3Phm 1:4
Compound of
mnáomaiμνάομαι to bear in mind, i.e. recollect; by implication, to reward or punishG3415
Word studyMNAY-ahnoun

What mneia means

remembrance: holding a person in mind and naming them, above all before God in prayer

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

All seven times this word appears in the New Testament it appears in a letter of Paul, and almost always in the thanksgiving he puts at the front of the letter. He tells a church or a friend that he keeps them in mind and says their names to God. The word covers both halves of that at once: the inward act of not forgetting a person, and the outward act of speaking their name out loud in prayer.

Four of the seven use a set phrase that letter writers of that era used constantly, literally "to make remembrance of" someone. In ordinary correspondence it was a courtesy, a way of assuring a friend that you named them before the gods. Paul takes the courtesy and fills it with real content: he is not being polite, he is reporting a habit he says he keeps without ever stopping.

The remaining three turn the word in two directions. In Philippians and 2 Timothy it is Paul's own steady remembering, tied straight to his praying. In 1 Thessalonians 3:6 the direction flips: the Thessalonians are the ones doing the remembering, and their memory of Paul is called a good one, which is how friends who miss each other talk. Nearby words divide the work differently. μνήμη is memory as a faculty or a lasting record, and ἀνάμνησις is a deliberate act of calling something back to mind, as at the Lord's Supper.

Nuances

1amaking mention of someone: naming a person out loud in prayer to God
TranslatabilityDirect
Rom 1:9Eph 1:161Th 1:2Phm 1:4
1bthe remembering itself: carrying a person in mind and holding them before God
Php 1:32Ti 1:3
1ca kindly memory one person keeps of another while they are apart
TranslatabilityDirect
1Th 3:6

What scholars say about mneia

Lexica treat μνεία as a single noun of the μιμνήσκομαι family with a two-part range: BDAG gives (1) remembrance, memory (Phil 1:3; 1 Thess 3:6; 2 Tim 1:3) and (2) mention, the latter carrying the periphrastic μνείαν ποιεῖσθαι + objective genitive (Rom 1:9; Eph 1:16; 1 Thess 1:2; Phlm 4); LSJ likewise lists both "remembrance" and "mention." Michel's TDNT article on the μιμνήσκομαι group stresses that the noun in Paul is never bare recollection but always remembrance realized in intercession. Moulton and Milligan document μνείαν ποιεῖσθαι as a stock epistolary formula in the papyri, where a correspondent assures the addressee of remembrance before the gods; Schubert's form-critical study of the Pauline thanksgivings shows how thoroughly Paul's openings are built on this convention while filling it with theological substance. The one substantial exegetical crux is Phil 1:3 ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇ μνείᾳ ὑμῶν, where the genitive is read as objective by the great majority (O'Brien, Fee, Lightfoot: Paul's every remembrance of the Philippians) against a minority subjective reading referring the μνεία to the Philippians' own mindfulness of Paul, i.e. the gift acknowledged in 4:10-18; the collocation μνείαν ἀγαθήν in 1 Thess 3:6, where the Thessalonians are the subject, is the closest NT support for that construal.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. μνείαlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. μνείαlexicon
  • Otto Michel, "μιμνήσκομαι κτλ.," TDNT 4:675-683theological-dictionary
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1930), s.v. μνείαlexicon
  • Paul Schubert, Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings, BZNW 20 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1939)monograph
  • Peter T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 58-61commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 77-79commentary
  • J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (London: Macmillan, 1868), 82-83commentary
  • Peter T. O'Brien, Introductory Thanksgivings in the Letters of Paul, NovTSup 49 (Leiden: Brill, 1977)monograph

All attested forms of μνεία

accusative f s

μνείαν

Rom 1:9, Eph 1:16, 1Th 1:2, 1Th 3:6, 2Ti 1:3, Phm 1:4

dative f s

μνείᾳ

Php 1:3