00 Wiki - Junia
00 Wiki - Junia
Junia
Junia
Andronicus, Athanasius of Christianopoulos and Saint Junia Honored in Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches Feast May 17, 23 Pashons (Coptic Orthodox)
Junia or Junias (Greek: / , Iounia[s]) was a 1st-century Christian highly regarded and complimented by apostle Paul. Paul refers to Junia as an apostle .[1] That Junia was a woman is seldom contested today among Christian theologians. Apostle Paul wrote in the Romans 16:7 [2]: Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Romans 16:7 KJV [3]
Scholarly debate
The translation of the verse presents two problems: The majority of Greek New Testament manuscripts give a female name Junia; a minority give a masculine name Junias.[4] The phrase translated "of note among the apostles" (KJV) can be read two ways, as illustrated by the two readings in the NIV; "outstanding among" (NIV main text) or "esteemed by" (NIV footnote).[5] These two questions are still under scholarly debate.
Junia's apostleship
Grammatical issue: "prominent among" or "well known to"?
The meaning of "outstanding among the apostles" is rendered by some translations as "well-known among the apostles"suggesting that the couple were not apostles but enjoyed a high reputation among the apostles. Some New Testament scholars consider that the Greek phrase epismos en + dative (literally "noted among") does not automatically demand that the noted person is a member of the group among whom the person is noted. A well-known example of this grammatical construction is found in Euripides' Hippolytus 101:3 where the goddess Aphrodite is "famous (epismos) among mortals," but evidently is not included as being among the mortals.[6] For this reason some versions, such as the ESV, translate the Greek phrase as "well known to", unlike other versions such as NRSV which translate "prominent among." Those who have argued for the ESV translation include Michael Burer and Daniel Wallace[7] who agree that Junia was a woman but assert that the correct rendition of the Greek text
Junia places her as well known to the apostles rather than prominent among the apostles.[8] That translation would indicate that the pair were not apostles, but that they enjoyed a high reputation among the apostles. The phrase epismos en is in bold italics in the following comparison of translations of Romans 16:7: Greek " , , ,..." Vulgate "salutate Andronicum et Iuniam, cognatos et concaptivos meos, qui sunt nobiles in apostolis,..." KJV "Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles,..." NRSV "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles,..." ESV "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles,..."
Gender bias
Gilbert Bilezikian[9] sees gender-bias in the KJV, ESV, and other translations of Romans 16:7 that provide the masculine term "kinsmen" for the gender-neutral term for "relatives" or "compatriots". He points out how improbable it would be for Paul to have six "kinsmen" in Rome at the same time. [Rom. 6:7,11,21] [10] Linda Belleville,[11] Richard Bauckham,[12] and Eldon Epp[13] have taken on the task of correcting some findings pertaining to Junia. Bauckham devotes several pages to interacting with, refuting, and correcting the Burer and Wallace article.
Junia post-resurrection experience of Jesus and a divine commissioning. He believes she was most likely among the 500 that Paul mentions to have received a Christophany. [1 Cor 15:1-11] [17][18] Bilezikian disagrees and places her among the post-resurrection Christian disciples who had never seen Christ but who were pioneer missionaries, such as Apollos, [1Cor.4:6-9] [19] Epaphroditus, [Phil. 2:25] [20] Sylvanus and Timothy. [1Thes.1:1, cf. 2:6] [21] Junia was a popular name for nobility. It is also of note that Junia possesses a Latin name which could have stemmed from servile origins. This could mean that she was a freed slave who adopted the name of her patron.[22] Alternatively as previously mentioned, Junia could have belonged to a family of Hellenized Jews. According to Harry Leon, it was common place during this period for Greek-speaking Jewish families to give their daughters Latin names and their sons Greek names, hence the Greek name of Andronicus.[23] Further, 75% of the 517 names found in the six Jewish catacombs of ancient Rome are Greek names.[24] Junia's relationship with Andronicus is somewhat ambiguous. While it is generally supposed that they were husband and wife, they could have been siblings or simply a team of evangelists. What is important is that Junia is referred to in her own right, not as an attachment to someone else. This means that she earned her title and position on her own merit, rather than it being simply a natural derivation from her husband's status. A popular work exploring Junia has been published by journalist Rena Pederson. This book has been reviewed in the Toronto Star.[25] The opposing interpretation of this verse disavows both Junia's apostleship and her female gender.[26] Complementarians believe that the Bible limits or prohibits women's leadership roles in the church, and requires male leadership/female submission in marriage.
Junia's gender
That Junia was a woman is seldom contested today among Christian theologians. The first credible reference to Junia as male comes from Aegidius of Rome (ca. 1243-1316) in the late Middle Ages, though without explanation. Two centuries later, in 1512, Jacques LeFevre also considered her a man, even though in the Latin translation available to him the name was clearly feminine.[1] U.S. journalist Rena Pederson argues that medieval translators such as the 13th-century Archbishop Giles changed her name to Junias, as a reflection of an institutional prejudice against women that stretched back to ancient Greek scholars.[27] She opines that the growing acknowledgment of Junia's female apostleship will establish an important precedent for women preaching and teaching. "And since Paul often has been viewed as someone who wanted to keep women quiet, his praise for Junia seems to show that he was much more broadminded in practice,"[28] Pederson adds. Stephen Finlan notes that in the Corinthian and Roman letters, Paul addressed a number of women as "leaders". However, Finlan also affirms that Junia is the only female apostle named in the New Testament.[29] He writes that Junia is clearly a female name that was changed to the male "Junias" in the Latin translations of the New Testament. In Paul's identification of her as a relative, as being "in Christ" before him and being "prominent among the apostles," Finlan finds it significant that Paul greeted her as an "apostle" in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way as if there was nothing unusual about a female apostle. In the Corinthian and Roman letters, Paul addressed a number of women as "leaders," but Junia is the only female apostle named anywhere in the New Testament. The problem of translating the name arises because, when the New Testament was composed, Greek was normally written without accents, although these already had been invented. If written with an acute accent on the penultimate syllable (), the name is "Junia" (a woman's name); if with a circumflex accent on the final syllable (), it is "Junias" (a man's). No conclusion can be drawn from the masculine gender of the associated words in the same verse, since they apply also to the male Andronicus. Accordingly, even if Junia(s) is a woman, the rules of Greek grammar put those words in the masculine form. The overwhelming choice of the male form (), when in the 9th century accents were added in manuscripts, may have been influenced by the grammatical gender of these words, but it has also been attributed to a supposed bias on the part of scribes against the idea of a female apostle.[30]
Junia In his book Junia: The First Woman Apostle, Epp gives a textual critical evaluation of the history of Junia in the Greek text and also the search in non-Biblical Greek literature for "Junias"the alleged masculine form of the name which has not been found in writings from New Testament times and only rarely thereafter. He points out that the earliest copies of the Greek texts for Romans 16:7 [2] are majuscules (capital letters). There are no accent marks in them. The importance of this is that the gender of the name depends on the accentuation. Hence, the earliest texts are inconclusive and we are very dependent on Patristic interpretation for the gender of Junia. When the minuscules (using lower case Greek letters) appeared, Junia was accented with a character which indicates the feminine form of the name. The feminine form of the name appeared in Erasmus' critical Greek text in 1516 and continuously thereafter in all other critical Greek texts, with the exception of Alford's 1858 edition, until 1928 when Nestle inexplicably (read: he didn't explain it in the apparatus) went to the masculine form. This remained the case until the 1998, when the edition just as inexplicably went back the other way and the masculine was dropped as even an alternative (not in the apparatus). Hence, the textual weight seemed to be for the feminine name Junia, which text critic Eldon Epp in 2005 believed most scholars accept. However, the masculine form is preferred in the UBS New Testament, 4th edition, which matches the 27th edition of the Nestle-Aland text (the latest editions of each text). Two Greek manuscripts have "Julia" (clearly a woman's name) instead of "Junia(s)" in this verse. One is papyrus P46 of about the year 200. The other is the 13th-century minuscule manuscript catalogued as "6". "Julia" is also the reading in some Latin manuscripts, in one tradition of Coptic manuscripts and in Ethiopic manuscripts. Three Greek uncial manuscripts have the inverse substitution, ("Junia(s)" in place of "Julia") in Romans 16:15 [31]. This raises the question whether the proximity of the two names, "Junia(s)" and "Julia", on the same page is the reason why, in both cases, a few scribes replaced one name with the other. There are also tentative connections between Junia and Joanna, [Luke 8:3] [32] suggesting that Junia could be the Latin form of the Hebrew Joanna. Thus, it is feasible that Junia is Joanna.[33] Only one record of the male name "Junias" has been discovered in extra-biblical Greek literature, which names him as the bishop of Apameia of Syria. Three clear occurrences of "Junia" have been found. While earlier searches for "Junias" in Latin also yielded no evidence, it is reported that "Junias" has been found as a Latin nickname or diminutive for the name "Junianas", which was not uncommon both in Greek and Latin. While this is a possibility, historical studies on the name "Junia" as a contracted form of "Junianas" has shown there are over 250 citations of the name Junia in antiquity all of which have been found to refer to women, with not one single case proven to be the abbreviated form of Junianus to Junia.[34] Meanwhile the name Junia is attested multiple times on inscriptions, tombstones and records; most notably, General Brutus half sister, Junia.[35] Among the early Church Fathers, the United Bible Societies The Greek New Testament only cites Jerome as having read the name "Julia" in Romans 16:7 [2] and Chrysostom as having understood the name as the feminine "Junia". Chrysostom wrote: "O how great is the devotion of this woman that she should be counted worthy of the appellation of apostle!"[36] Although among the Fathers, "an almost universal sense that this was a womans name surfacesat least through the twelfth century, ... this must be couched tentatively because although at least seventeen fathers discuss the issue (see Fitzmyers commentary on Romans for the data), the majority of these are Latin fathers," and "Junia", but not "Junias", was a common enough name in Latin. It has even been claimed that the first known mention of Junia as a male is by Aegidus of Rome (12451316), though this ignores the evidence of the Greek manuscripts about how the name was actually interpreted at least from the 9th century onward. The Coptic Synaxarium reading for the twenty-third of Bashans identifies Junia the apostle as being a man of the tribe of Judah. Epiphanius (315 - 403 AD), in Index of Disciples says, "Junias, of whom Paul makes mention, became Bishop of Apameia of Syria." In Greek, the phrase "of whom" is a masculine relative pronoun (hou) and shows that Epiphanius considered Junias to be a man. And in a Latin quotation from Origen (died AD 252), in the earliest extant commentary on Romans, says that Paul refers to "Andronicus and Junias and Herodian, all of whom he calls relatives and fellow captives" (Origen's Commentary on Romans, preserved in a Latin translation by Rufinus, ca.
Junia 345-ca. 410 AD, in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 14, col. 1289). The name Junias here is a Latin masculine singular nominative, implying that Origen, who was one of the ancient world's most proficient scholars, thought Junias was a man.
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] Epp, Eldon. Junia, the First Woman Apostle. Augsburg Fortress, 2005. ISBN 0-8006-3771-2 http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Romans+ 16%3A7& version=NIV http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Romans+ 16%3A7& version=KJV Keith Elliott, Ian Moir -Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament: An Introduction 2000 Page 66 "GNB and REB also note the alternatives Junia'/'Junias' at Romans 16:7. The difference between the genders in the Greek depends on the accents and, as early manuscripts were written without accents, .." [5] H.E. Jacobs Andronicus in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-D - Page 123 Geoffrey W. Bromiley -1939 revised 1979 "are referred to as "of note among the apostles," this may be interpreted either as designating the high esteem in which they were held by the Twelve, or as reckoning them in the number of the Twelve, or as reckoning them in the number of apostles. The latter is the sense, if "apostle" be understood here in the more general meaning, used in Acts 14: 14 of Barnabas, in 2 Cor. 8:23 of Titus, in Phil. 2:25 of Epaphroditus,." [6] Charles Segal Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow 1993 Page 124 "Aphrodite has a temple at the city's summit and a statue before the house, in the presence of which she is declared "conspicuous" (epismos) among mortals (101-3). " [7] Burer, Michael, and Daniel B. Wallace. "Was Junia Really an Apostle? A Re-Examination of Rom 16.7," New Testament Studies 47 [2001]: 76-91
Junia
[8] Eldon Jay Epp The Junia/Junias Variation in Romans 16.7: in New Testament Textual Criticism and Exegesis: Festschrift J. Delobel. Ed. Adelbert Denaux, Jol Delobel" p287. "in Euripides, Hippolytus, l03, Aphrodite is described as "prominent/splendid among/to mortals", where the exclusive view is apparent because she is not a mortal"..."Though questions remain, Burer and Wallace viewed the inscriptions as furnishing four personal en + dative instances ... From classical literature three examples were given; the first is impersonal (Lycurgus, Against Leocrates, l29), the second personal (Euripides, Bacchae, 967), ... The fifth example, from Josephus (B.J., 2.4l8), ... " [9] Bilezikian Beyond... p.301 #54 [10] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Rom. + 6%3A7%2C11%2C21& version=NIV [11] Belleville, Linda. "Iounian...episamoi en tois apostolois: A Re-examination of Romans 16.7 in Light of Primary Source Materials". New Testament Studies, 51, pp 231-249. doi:10.1017/S0028688505000135. 51 (2005) [12] Bauckham, Richard. Gospel Women : Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels. Eerdsmans, 2002. ISBN 0-8028-4999-7 [13] Epp, Eldon. Junia, the First Woman Apostle. Augsburg Fortress, 2005. ISBN 0-8006-3771-2 [14] Stagg, Evelyn and Frank Stagg. Woman in the World of Jesus. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978. ISBN 0-664-24195-6 [15] Hammer, T. "Wealthy Widows and Female Apostles: The Economic and Social Status of Women in Early Roman Christianity," in G.D. Dunn, D. Luckensmeyer & L. Cross (ed.), Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church: Poverty and Riches, 5 (Strathfield: Paulist Press, 2009), 65-74. [16] Hengel, M., Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity. tr. J. Bowden. London: SCM Press, 1979. ISBN 978-1-59244-190-7. pp. 107-108. [17] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=1Cor+ 15%3A1-11& version=NIV [18] Gillman, F. Women Who Knew Paul. Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-8146-5674-7, p.68. [19] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=1cor+ 4%3A6%2C9& version=NIV [20] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Phil. + 2%3A25& version=NIV [21] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=1thes+ 1%3A1%2C2%3A6& version=NIV [22] Lampe, Peter. "The Roman Christians of Romans 16", in K.P. Donfried (ed.), The Romans Debate, rev. ed. Hendrickson Publishers, 1995. ISBN 978-1-56563-671-2. p.226 [23] Leon, Harry J. The Jews of Ancient Rome. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995[1960] p.94. [24] Leon, Harry J. "Names of the Jews of Ancient Rome." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 59, (1928), pp. 205-224. Web: 7 Jan 2009 Names of the Jews of Ancient Rome (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 282986) [25] The Lost Apostle: Searching for the Truth About Junia, Rena Pederson, Jossey-Bass, September 11, 2006, ISBN 0-7879-8443-4 [26] A study on Junia (http:/ / www. cbmw. org/ questions/ 38. php) by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood [27] Pederson, The Lost Apostle, pp. 128-130 [28] Pederson, The Lost Apostle, p.8 [29] Finlan, Stephen. The Apostle Paul and The Pauline Tradition. Liturgical Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8146-5271-8, p. 134 [30] Wallace, Daniel B. Junia Among the Apostles: The Double Identification Problem in Romans 16:7. Web: 7 Jan 2010 Junia Among the Apostles (http:/ / www. bible. org/ page. asp?page_id=1163) [31] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Rom+ 16%3A15& version=ESV [32] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Luke+ 8%3A3& version=NIV [33] R. Bauckham, Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women of the Gospels (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 109-202; B. Witherington III, Joanna: Apostle of the Lord or Jailbait, BR 21, (2005), 2: 12-47 [34] J. D. Crossan & J. Reed, In Search of Paul, How Jesus Apostle Opposed Romes Empire with Gods Kingdom (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 115 [35] Belleville, L., Women Leaders in the Bible, in Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity without Hierarchy, ed. R. Pierce & R. Merill Groothuis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 110-126. [36] Chrysostom, Homily on Romans 16, in Philip Schaff, ed, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. II. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1956, p. 555. as quoted on (http:/ / www. godswordtowomen. org/ studies/ womenhistory/ rissjunia. htm) also available at CCEL (http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ npnf111/ Page_554. html) [37] "St. Junia, martyred along with the Seventy." Orthodox Church in America. Web: 7 Jan 2009. Junia, martyred along with the Seventy (http:/ / www. antiochian. org/ node/ 18620) [38] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=1Cor+ 12%3A28& version=NIV [39] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Eph. + 2%3A20%2C3%3A5& version=NIV [40] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=1Cor+ 9%3A6-8& version=NIV [41] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=1cor+ 12%3A28%2C31& version=NIV [42] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Rom. + 16%3A3& version=NIV [43] http:/ / www. biblegateway. com/ passage/ ?search=Phil. + 4%3A2-3& version=NIV
Junia
Other references
Giesler, Michael E. Junia (The Fictional Life and Death of an Early Christian.) Scepter Publishers, 2002. ISBN 978-1-59417-078-2 Pederson, Rena. The Lost Apostle: Searching for the Truth about Junia. Wiley Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-470-18462-2 Riss, Kathryn J. "The Apostle Junia." Women in Church History: Women's Ministries in the Early Church. Web: 7 Jan 2010. The Apostle Junia (http://www.godswordtowomen.org/rissjunia.htm) Wills, Garry (2007). What Paul Meant (http://books.google.com/books?id=NrPqV9f2OEgC). Penguin. pp.9092.
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