Question VIII. How various [is] the name of Joshua's father, and what does it signify?

In the Hebrew [it] is commonly said Nun, but in this [passage of] Paralipomenon (chapter 7, verse 27) Non; in this same place [it is] in Greek Non, [but] very frequently elsewhere Naue and Nauē. Whence, among the Latins too, both those forms, Nun and Nave, are in common use; in Josephus (book 3, chapter 2) Nauēkou, [in] chapter 13 Nauēchou. By some, however, it is derived from Naveh, which is “to dwell,” and sometimes “to be beautiful” — because [the things] kept at home are wont to be more beautiful. Whence, among the Rabbis, Noi is “beauty,” and Naeh “beautiful”; and in Rupert (book 1, on Numbers): “Joshua, that is, Saviour, son of beauty.” Others, to whom I more willingly give ear, derive it from nin, which is “son”; and then Nun is, so to say, “sonship,” or “sonned,” or “he who has been made a son.” For that Hebrew root seems to have been in use of old; whence comes that [passage of] Proverbs 29, verse 21: “He who delicately nourishes his servant from childhood shall afterward find him manon” — that is, “made a son,” or “contumacious,” as our interpreter rightly translates. For such a servant will conduct himself as though he were not a servant but a son, heir, and master, and therefore will observe obedience less, and be less willing to undertake work and labor — as R. Emmanuel expounds in his commentary on that book, against R. Judah and Tremellius and Junius, the Innovators, to whom there manon is “bereft of children.” And [in] Psalm 71 [72], verse 17: “Before the sun iinnon,” that is (as Burgensis translates), “shall be sonned,” or “shall be called a son” — as R. Abraham and Eliezer teach in the Commentary there (chapter 3); or, as R. Emmanuel and R. David [say], “the memory and praise of his name shall be strengthened and shall endure, no otherwise than if he were forever ‘sonned’” — that is, “increased with sons,” who are wont to guard and preserve the memory of a father as by a kind of monument. It is added that, just as nin is said, so also for ben is read bin (Exodus 33, verse 11; Numbers 27, verse 19; Deuteronomy last [chapter], verse 9). And perhaps the same with that name was that most celebrated [name] among the Assyrians, Ninus — from whom Nineve, as if Nin-naveh, that is, “the dwelling and habitation of Ninus.” For Naveh is “a dwelling” or “lodging,” as [in] Exodus 15, verse 13; Proverbs 3, verse 31; chapter 21, verse 20; chapter 24, verse 5; Isaiah 27, verse 10; 32, verse 18; 33, verse 20; 34, verse 13; 65, verse 10; Jeremiah 23, verse 3; 25, verse 30; 31, verse 23; 49, verse 20; 50, verses 19 & 44; Ezekiel 25, verse 5; 34, verse 14; Job 5, verse 3, and 23; 2 Kings [2 Samuel] 15, verse 24. In the Talmudic Tractate Pesachim (chapter 10, folio 119, page 2), and Rashbam in the same place, note that Joshua is called the “son,” not the “father,” as will be noted again below, book 5, chapter 24, question 14.