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Numbers 13 · a question people ask

Exodus already calls him Joshua. Why is he renamed here?

Interpretation

Exodus calls him Joshua from the first time he appears (Exodus 17:9), and so does Numbers 11:28. Here he is listed as "Hoshea the son of Nun" (13:8), and then "Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua" (13:16). The text doesn't say when Moses gave the name, or why. Protestants read it in two main ways.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

Renamed at this point

Moses gave the name when he sent the spies. The list names him "Hoshea" (13:8) with the other eleven, and the naming follows straight after: "These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua" (13:16). Exodus, on this view, calls him by the name he was later known by.

Numbers 13:8 · Numbers 13:16

Renamed earlier, recorded here

Moses had already named him, and 13:16 records it beside the list, where his old name appears. On this view, he was Joshua from the time of Exodus 17 onward, as the text there calls him: "Moses said to Joshua" (Exodus 17:9).

Numbers 13:16 · Exodus 17:9

The verses

“Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out to fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God’s rod in my hand.””
Exodus 17:9 · World English Bible
“The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart from the Tent.”
Exodus 33:11 · World English Bible
“Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!””
Numbers 11:28 · World English Bible
“Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.”
Numbers 13:8 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 13

Numbers 13: Well able

The spies' report began, "Surely it flows with milk and honey" (13:27). What followed turned on one Hebrew verb: Caleb said it twice, "we are well able", and the others said it with a "not" (13:30-31). And the three sons of Anak they saw at Hebron (13:22) are the three Caleb drove out years later (Joshua 15:14).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions