Joshua ben Perachyah

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Joshua ben Perachya (Hebrew: יהושע בן פרחיה) was Nasi of the Sanhedrin in the latter half of the second century BCE. He and his colleague Nittai of Arbela were the second of the five pairs (Zugot) of scholars who received and transmitted the tradition (Avot i.6; Haggigah 16a). At the time of the persecution of the Pharisees by John Hyrcanus, Joshua was deposed—a disgrace to which his words in Men. 109b apparently allude. To escape Hyrcanus, he fled to Alexandria, Egypt; but he was recalled to Jerusalem when the persecutions ceased and the Pharisees again triumphed over the Sadducees (Sotah 47a). The same passage refers to a pupil of Joshua's who according to some scholars may have been Jesus (comp. Krauss, "Das Leben Jesu," p. 182, Berlin, 1902). Only a single halakhah of Joshua's has been preserved (Tosef., Maksh. iii. 4), besides the following ethical maxim which shows his gentle judgment of his fellow men and his eagerness to spread knowledge among the people: "Get thee a teacher; win thee a friend; and in judging incline toward the side of innocence" (Avot i. 6).