Theolog

Woman Apostle? Romans 16.7 and All That…

by Mark Bonnington, 16 Mar 2007

Tom Wright once famously described reading the Bible in translation as drinking fine wine through a tea bag. Many ordinary Christians can neither afford nor have the stomach for the fine wine of learning Greek and Hebrew and so they are more dependent on their translations. From time to time a translation really makes a difference.

Romans 16.7 is a potential bombshell of a verse tucked away in the list of names that people don’t usually read at the end of Romans. In the New International, New Revised Standard and English Standard Version it reads:

Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. (NIV)

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. (NRSV)

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles and they were in Christ before me. (ESV)

Writing from Corinth to Rome, Paul’s letter lists four reasons for greeting and honouring them: they are his kinsmen, they have been fellow-prisoners, they are ‘prominent amongst the apostles’ and they were believers before Paul.

Three aspects of this verse are interesting but uncontroversial. First, in calling them ‘kinsmen’ Paul probably meant only that they were Jewish (cf Rom 9.3), not that they were his close blood relations, though the latter is possibly what he had in mind. Secondly, it’s clear that at some point Andronicus and Junia have been imprisoned for their faith. It’s hard to tell whether Paul describes them as fellow-prisoners just because they have been in prison like him or more specifically in prison with him. Either way they had suffered for their faith as Paul had. Thirdly they were Christians before Paul. Since Paul was converted less than 18 months after the resurrection we may take it that they were among the earliest followers of Jesus. Being ‘prominent amongst the apostles’ must mean at least that they were revered in the earliest and most influential early Christian circles, the apostles. So Paul mentions them in dispatches as worthy of his greetings.

Three other aspects of the verse are more difficult or controversial: (i) Is Iunian a man (Junias) or a woman (Junia)? (ii) Who were the ‘apostles’? (iii) What does ‘prominent amongst the apostles’ mean?

What then of Iunian, man (Junias) or woman (Junia)? The name is a Latin one translated into Greek. The Greek is accusative and therefore could be male or female. The evidence that the name Junia is that of a woman, despite the habit of earlier English translations making her a man, is almost overwhelming and rests on two grounds. First the early Church took it to be female. Fitzmyer gives a whole list of Patristic commentators who took Iunian to be a woman and the first certain reference to Junias (male) is from the thirteenth century. Since some of these commentators wrote in Greek we may take their word for it that the name is a woman’s. Especially so since most did not think that women could be Church leaders and thus would presumably not have called her Junia if they could have avoided it. Secondly the name Junia occurs frequently as a female name in Rome around the time of the NT and never as a man’s name. Conclusion: Iunian is a woman’s name and should be translated Junia. If so then it is quite possible that she is Andronicus’ wife.

What does apostle mean here? The word apostle is used in three ways in the NT. The Gospels and Acts confine its use to the twelve – the men who Jesus chose to be represent Israel like the patriarchs and who like other disciples travelled with Jesus during his ministry (Mark 3.14; Acts 1.15-26). The second meaning is that of emissary – a messenger from one church to another in the days before daily post, telephones and email (Acts 14.14; 2 Cor 8.23; Phil 2.25). Finally Paul speaks of the apostles as those who have seen the risen Jesus but who are a wider group than the 12. In 1 Corinthians 15.5-8 he lists in order Peter, the eleven, James (Jesus’ brother), the rest of the apostles and more than 500 others who have seen Jesus alive. The apostles then do not include everyone who saw Jesus alive, nor are they limited to the 12 (or the eleven). They are an intermediate group – they have seen Jesus alive but have also have some recognised status in the early churches, almost certainly as travelling missionaries. In particular Paul teaches that they are they most senior of leaders in the Church whenever he lists the gifts or ministries in order of precedence (1 Cor 12.28; Eph 2.20; 4.11). It is this third and last sense that the word ‘apostle’ is used in Romans 16.7.

Finally, what does ‘prominent amongst the apostles’ mean? It could have a meaning that excludes Junia from the group called apostles: ‘well known to the apostles’ (ESV) or one that includes her in the group called apostles: ‘outstanding amongst the apostles’ (NRSV). That the inclusive meaning is the possible is clear from a very close parallel to Paul’s phraseology in Josephus’s Jewish War 2.418. Josephus writes of ambassadors to Agrippa ‘prominent among them were Saul, Antipas and Costobar.’ Again the witness of the earliest commentators is instructive. They take her to be one of the apostles, not just know to them. John Chrysostom said of Junia: ‘Think how great the devotion of this woman must have been that she should be worthy to be called an apostle.’ Such a conclusion fits perfectly with the reason Paul knows them yet writes to them in Rome. They are from the very first group of believers who have now spread out across the Roman Empire preaching the gospel even as far as Rome.

I won’t say much about the implications of Junia the woman apostle as they should be obvious. Although most of the leaders in the NT Churches were men there are persistent pieces of evidence like this that women could be acknowledged in the earliest Churches as significant leaders. A small revolution wrapped up in that obscure verse at the end of Romans.