R. Hanina was second and third generation Amora

Amora

Amoraim , were renowned Jewish scholars who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral law, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and the Land of Israel. Their legal discussions and debates were eventually codified in the Gemara...

 Sage of the Land of Israel

Land of Israel

The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...

, a pupil of Rabbi Yannai

Rabbi Yannai

R. Yannai was a Jewish sage, living during the first half of the 3d Century, and of the first generation of the Amora sages of the Land of Israel. He was a disciple of R. Judah haNasi - the sealer of the Mishnah. R...

  and R. Yochanan bar Nafcha

Yochanan bar Nafcha

Rabbi Yochanan ;...

 , brother of the famous Amora sage R. Hoshaiah

Hoshaiah

Hoshaiah or Oshaya was a Palestinian amora of the 3rd and 4th amoraic generations. It is supposed that his colleague Hanina was his brother...

.

R. Hanina was the scion of a family of great sages. He was a bachelor all his life, and together with his brother sold shoes for prostitutes, and yet they did not raise their eyes to see them. Amora Rava

Rava (amora)

For the third generation Amora sage of Babylon, with a similar name, see: Joseph b. Hama .Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama, who is exclusively referred to in the Talmud by the name Rava , was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora, born in 270. He is one of the most often-cited Rabbis...

 used to say that on these two borthers it is said that if a bachelor who lives in a city and does not sin, God declares him every day.

R. Yochanan bar Nafcha

Yochanan bar Nafcha

Rabbi Yochanan ;...

 wanted to ordain him a Rabbi but failed, until R. Hanina explained to him that he is a descendant of the house of Eli the priest, on whom upon a curse was uttered : " and there shall not be an elder in thy house for ever". A curse that is aimed in its biblical sense, "an elder" - a Rabbi - a descendent of Eli .

One must not cofuse between him and Hanina bar Hama

Hanina bar Hama

Hanina bar Hama was a Jewish Talmudist, halakist and haggadist frequently quoted in the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud, and in the Midrashim....

, who is sometimes cited simply as R. Hanina, and was ordained a Rabbi (most likely by Judah ha-Nasi).