Yehoshua bin Nun's name

Just a quick tidbit I came across now:

A Late Antiquity silver lamella (an amulet text inscribed on a sheet of metal, often silver or gold) in Hebrew, Wolfe NA 3, includes the following quote:

"ועמהם שבעת המלאכים שיאצאו עם יהושע בנון מחוץ למחנה..."

"And with them the seven angels that exited with Yehoshua Binun the encampment..."

According to Ohad Abudraham, who published the lamella in the essay ''Joshua Son of Nun and the Seven Angels': a Hebrew lamella from the Wolfe Collection', Journal of Jewish Studies 72 (2021), pp. 45-58, this type of spelling may be the rationale behind Ramban's explanation for why Yehoshua was called bin Nun instead of ben Nun. Ramban wrote that it was because the word "binun" (בינון) was a nickname, referring to his tevunah (תבונה), his wisdom. So, we have here evidence of Jews of Antiquity seemingly agreeing with Ramban's idea. Perhaps they did not think up of an explanation themselves but simply carried on a pronunciation tradition, but it is also possible that they did think this themselves and Ramban also thought of it himself.

יהושע בנון (Yehoshua Binun) (image taken from Abudraham, lamella, p. 52)


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