JOSHUA (mid-second century C.E.), tanna, son of *Akiva. It is told that he stipulated in his marriage contract that his wife had to support him so that he could devote himself to study. Later, during a famine, she contested the validity of the stipulation but under the extraordinary conditions of the time the court upheld the original agreement (Tosef., Ket. 4:6). It is possible that he and his wife are also mentioned in the Midrash Tehillim (ed. Buber (1959), p. 302). Joshua is once mentioned as asking his father a halakhic rule (Tosef., Neg. 1:1), and it is also related that his father charged him with seven rules of behavior (Pes. 112a). Some rishonim, among them Rashi (Bek. 58a), identify Joshua with *Joshua b. Korha. It can be assumed that he perished during the persecutions at the time of *Hadrian. The Talmud mentions that Akiva mourned for the loss of his sons (MK 21b).


Bacher, Trad, 89; Hyman, Toledot, 647.
