[Avodah] Why Not: Yehoshua BEN Nun?

cantorwolberg at cox.net cantorwolberg at cox.net
Wed Jun 13 09:30:14 PDT 2012


> That is not a valid analogy. "Binyamin" IS one word.
> "Bin Nun" is 2 words and the context is not the same.

Are they really two words?  Doesn't the makaf make them one word?
And in what way is the context different?  What does Binyamin mean?
"Son of the right".  So how is it different from this?

It is different because Binyamin is one person, the son of (BEN) another.
Yehoshua BIN Nun is two people: father and son.
Binyamin is not both the father and son.  That is what I mean by context.
Of course, the etymology and meaning of Binyamin is "son of right" but
that is not what we are talking about. We're talking about Yehoshua BIN Nun,
two people. [Joshua and his father Nun]. And the way we say so and so the son of so and so, 
we say: Ploni BEN Ploni, not BIN Ploni. And the fact that the name of Ploni happens to
contain the word "bin" is coincidental to the fact that he is still Ploni BEN Ploni.
It would be the same as someone whose name was Bentziyon. He would still be
Bentziyon ben Avrohom. Even if he were Bintziyon, he would still be Bintziyon ben Avrohom.
The whole question here is why is BIN used instead of BEN. And every response given
I knew about. None of them were satisfying and the fact that there are that many explanations, 
means everyone is speculating. 
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