It appears from Bava Batra 10b that Nehunya was a contemporary, but not a pupil, of Yohanan ben Zakkai.
Nehunya was rich and had a large retinue of servants; but he was distinguished for his meekness and forgiving nature, to which he attributed his attainment of great age;[1] two short prayers composed by him exhibit the same qualities.
Nehunya is frequently mentioned in the Talmud; in Hullin 129b he is referred to disagreeing with Eliezer ben Hurcanus and Joshua ben Hananiah regarding a halakhah.
[3] In a post-Talmudic text, he said that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was rescued from the Red Sea, that he repented, that he afterward reigned in Nineveh, and that it was he who in the time of Jonah exhorted the inhabitants of Nineveh to repentance.
He is generally supposed to have been the author of the daily prayer beginning Ana BeKoach, the initials of which form the forty-two-lettered name of God.