Tom lowe
1/7/2022
Title: Andronicus and Junias
Andronicus and Junia successfully brought many to Christ and demolished many temples of idolatry. The tradition holds that they were capable of performing miracles, by which they drove out demons and healed many of sickness and disease. Andronicus died as a martyr.
There has been a dispute surrounding both Junia's gender and apostolic status. However, she has been viewed as female through most of Christian history and by the majority of scholars. However, the precise nature of her apostolic status has been debated more. Except for the reference to a masculine "Junias" purportedly from the fourth-century bishop of Salamis, Epiphanius, the first texts regarding Junia as a male named Junias come from 12th-century manuscripts. The first author to describe Junia as a male was Giles of Rome in the 13th century.
Romans 16:7 is the only place in the New Testament where Junia is named. However, some have also identified her with a woman from the Gospels named Joanna, the wife of Chuza, who appears in Luke 8:1–3 and the narrative where the women visit the tomb of Jesus towards the end of the Gospels.
Background
Romans 16 is the final chapter of Paul's Letter to the Romans. In this chapter, Paul mentions his greetings to some other members of the Christian sect in his time, one-third of them being women. Of the twelve members that Paul describes in this chapter as having contributed the most to the Church, seven were women, whereas five were men. Among those women was Junia, who is introduced in Romans 16:7: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was (NIV). Most scholars have understood Paul to be referring to Junia as an apostle in this passage, although some have disagreed.
What does Romans 16:7 mean?
Paul's greeting is directed to a pair known as Andronicus and Junia/Junias. Though we do not know for sure, most scholars think it likely Junia is a woman's name, making this the second married couple included in Paul's list of greetings.
Andronicus and Junia are described as Paul's "kinsmen," likely meaning Jewish. If so, Andronicus, given his name, was probably a Hellenistic Jew. He had grown up as a Jewish person assimilated into Greek culture and spoke Greek instead of Hebrew. Paul refers to the pair as fellow prisoners. Paul often spent time in jails and prisons preaching the Gospel. Andronicus and Junia shared that experience, though we do not know if they were in prison with Paul at the same time.
Depending on the translation, the couple has been either well known "to" the apostles or "among" them. Given Paul's next statement in the following verse, it seems likely Andronicus and Junia at least knew the original 12 who came to hold the official office of Apostle. Paul writes that they were in Christ before him, meaning that Andronicus and Junia may have been Christians long enough to have been part of the very birth of the Church led by Peter and the others in Jerusalem.
Some scholars suggest that Paul referred to the pair as being "among" the apostles themselves, using the term in a general sense as he sometimes did to refer to other messengers of the Gospel like Barnabas and Silas (Acts 14:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:6). Andronicus and Junia must have been vocal in proclaiming Jesus if they spent time in prison for it.
Romans 16:1–16 includes a list of two dozen or so people or groups that Paul wants his readers to greet for him in Rome. He introduces them to Phoebe, the lady who will deliver this letter from him in Corinth. He asks them to greet his good friends and longtime partners in work and ministry, Prisca—or Priscilla—and Aquila, who have returned to Rome from their time in Asia. Also on the list are close friends, slaves, royal families, and members of the various house churches that meet in Rome; Andronicus and Junia were also on the list, as we have seen.
Dispute
In the first millennium of Christianity, Junia was described by Paul as an apostle. "Greet Andronicus and Junia . . . who are outstanding among the apostles."To be an apostle is something incredible. However, to be outstanding among the apostles—think what a wonderful song of praise that is! They were outstanding based on their works and virtuous actions. Indeed, how great the wisdom of this woman must have been that she was even deemed worthy of the title of Apostle.
All others in the first millennium of the ancient Church also took the name to be feminine. The first commentator on the passage, Origen of Alexandria, assumed the name to be feminine. In the 2nd century CE, Christian commentators did not indicate doubt that the epistle referred to Junia and that she was a woman and an apostle, including Jerome (4th-5th century), Hatto of Vercelli (10th century), Theophylact, and Peter Abelard (both 11th century). The earliest instance of someone taking the name to be masculine is Aegidius of Rome in the 13th-14th century. However, it demonstrates that the name was not commonly seen as masculine until well after the Reformation. Likewise, the most ancient New Testament manuscript versions (that is, the Vulgate and Old Latin) all read "Junia." The name Junia was also provided as the most likely reading in the Greek New Testament from its inception in 1898 until its 13th revision in 1927, at which point (without any new manuscript evidence to bring about the change), the preference changed to the male "Junias"; Junia was not restored until its 27th revision in 1998.
As Greek and English New Testaments shifted back to the "Junia" reading, some modern interpreters questioned whether the passage describes Junia as an apostle. While the Greek of Romans 16:7 has often been translated as Junia having been "outstanding among the apostles," which is an inclusive reading that numbers Junia among the apostolic body, some have recently suggested that the Greek warrants the exclusive reading of Junia being "well known to the apostles," therefore excluding Junia from being an apostle. The last reading is found in some translations today, including the ESV. That translation would indicate that the pair were not apostles but enjoyed a high reputation among the apostles. Several translators have criticized this rejection of Junia's apostolic status. Among other things, Burer and Wallace were criticized for using small sample size and for often including evidence from grammatical constructions that did not support their case; it was also noted that the more standard reading of the passage's Greek was never questioned until the verse was once again understood to contain a woman. A common argument among Belleville, Bauckham, and Epp is that all native speakers of koine Greek in the earliest years of Christianity read Paul's letter as describing Junia as an apostle. Bauckham writes that "writers such as Origen and John Chrysostom were educated native speakers of Greek. They had no reason for thinking Andronicus and Junia to be apostles other than supposing this to be the meaning of Paul's Greek." More recently, developing considerations made by Bauckham and Jewett on Paul describing Junia as being a follower of Christ before him and raising further discussion on Paul's views on apostolic legitimacy, Paul further describes Junia as having been a member of the early Christian community prior to him and one of his compatriots.
Identification with Joanna, the wife of Chuza.
Richard Bauckham argues for identifying Junia with Joanna, the wife of Chuza, "Joanna" being her Jewish name, and "Junia" her Roman. Joanna, the wife of Chuza, is mentioned as one of the members of the ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, traveling with him among the other twelve and some other women, city to city.
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene), seven demons had come out; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their means. (Luke 8:1-3)
Joanna, the wife of Chuza, is also mentioned alongside Mary Magdalene and other women as those who first visited the tomb and found it to be empty. To this group of women, including Joanna, that Jesus first appears to and instructs them to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee in Luke 24:1-10. Bauckham notes that Paul describes Junia as having been a Christian community prior to him. Given that Paul himself converted within three years of the death of Jesus, that would require Junia to have been a member of the community from a very early period. Furthermore, whereas Joanna is a Hebrew name, Junia is a Latin name. Jews often adopted a second, Latin name that was nearly sound equivalents to their original name. Joanna and Junia act as near sound equivalents in the native languages, which Bauckham says indicate the identification between the two. Finally, Paul describes Junia as being "prominent among the apostles." Given that Junia is described as an early member of the community and one of the most prominent members, that she is not named elsewhere is indicative, as Bauckham argues, that she and Joanna are the same individual, given Joanna's high prominence during the ministry of Jesus.
Junia's gender
While some debate proliferated beginning in the first half of the 20th century, it has now been widely accepted that Junia was a woman. Until the 12th century, there was no record of Junia being interpreted as a man. It took until the 13th century for an author to make that claim where the feminine name Junia was altered to the masculine name Junias. As such, some scholars see Junia's apostleship and the reference to her in Romans 16:7 as proof that Paul the Apostle, whose name is ascribed to thirteen epistles in the New Testament, encouraged female leaders in the Church. However, some modern translations committed to complementarianism present both Andronicus and Junias as males, against the manuscript evidence, the first millennium of tradition, and contemporary scholarship.
The first reference to Junia as a male comes from a medieval alteration of a passage by the Church Father Origen, who initially describes Junia as a female. (Two other individuals quoting Origen, Rabanus Maurus and Tyrannius Rufinus, also have Junia in the feminine.) In the medieval period, medieval scribes began replacing the name 'Junia' in biblical manuscripts with the masculine version, 'Junias,' due to prejudices against the possibility of a female apostle being described in the Pauline letters. Since the earliest manuscript had no accent mark hence a different interpretation of the gender. One writing attributed to Epiphanius of Salamis, a Christian living in the 4th century, also appears to describe Junia as a male; however, this work is only known the 9th century at the earliest and is most likely to have been misattributed by then to Epiphanius as another medieval example of the masculinization of Junia being back-dated to the period of the Church Fathers. There are later references as well, that is, Ægidius of Rome (also called Giles of Rome in English, ca. 1243–1316) in the late Middle Ages, though without explanation. Two centuries later, in 1512, Jacques LeFevre also considered Junia a man, even though the name was feminine in the Latin translation available to him. (A different feminine version, Julia, is found in five manuscripts, the earliest one being Papyrus 46.)
The earliest copies of the Greek texts for Romans 16:7 are majuscules (written only in capital letters) without accent marks. Because the gender of the name depends on accentuation, the name itself is insufficient to determine gender, and reliance is instead placed on patristic evidence. By the time accentuation appears in manuscripts of the New Testament, Junia is unanimously accepted as a female name. The critical Greek text of the New Testament produced by Erasmus in 1516, for example, accented the name as feminine. This continues in every critical Greek text with a single exception (in the 1858 Alford edition) until 1928, when the Novum Testamentum Graece accented it as male. This caused a monumental shift towards masculine accentuation until 1998 when the feminine form came back to domination.
Eastern Orthodox traditions hold that Junia and Andronicus of Pannonia traveled extensively and preached the Gospel to pagans, many of whom were converted to Christianity. Many of the pagan temples were closed, and Christian churches were built in their place. Junia and Andronicus are believed to have suffered martyrdom for Christ. The female identity of Junia was accepted without objection during the first twelve centuries of the Church, according to the writings of the church fathers. Paul's "enthusiastic acclamation" of Junia prompted Chrysostom, prominent Church Father, to marvel at her apparent devotion such that "...she would be even counted worthy of the appellation of an apostle."
Junia (Greek: ?????a) was a 1st-century Christian, highly regarded and complimented by the Apostle Paul. Paul probably refers to Junia as an apostle. The consensus among most modern New Testament scholars is that Junia was a woman.
The only reference to Junia and Andronicus appears in Romans 16:7 (NRSV):" Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was."
Notes concerning Andronicus and Junias (obtained from the previous material).
• Andronicus means "Man of victory," and Junias (being feminine) was probably his wife.
• Paul calls them his "kinfolk," which probably means fellow-workers, though some argue for a literal reading of them being related to him.
• He also refers to them as "fellow prisoners," meaning they might have shared some prison time. There is no record of this, but Paul was imprisoned on several occasions.
• They were "outstanding among the apostles" but were not part of the original Twelve. (This is where scholars have a hard time thinking Junias was a woman. It would mean that a woman was a bona fide apostle. Though Chrysostom reportedly wrote: "Oh! how great is the devotion of this woman, that she should be even counted worthy of the title of Apostle!")
• Paul declares that they were Christians even before he was. That would mean they were among the earliest of believers. Perhaps they were in that first group at Pentecost. (Though this is also speculative.)
