Is Junia the first female apostle?
Ed Sanders told Mark about a woman apostle at 16:7 when he was at Oxford in the 1980s. This was a long time before women started to become ordained into the Church of England.
Why is it that people do not know about Junia?
In context Paul is greeting people he knows. Andronicus and Junia are prominent among the apostles. In older translations, people presupposed Junia could only be a man. The original language proves that her name is feminine. There are many examples of this female name. Andronicus and Junia are a married couple. We have a female name and she is prominent among the apostles and it is only relatively recently that translators have presupposed her male. The early church father Chrysostom accepted she was female.
Scholars who accept that she is female are in the majority but if unhappy with this, some translators (Wallace etc) are only holding Junia as esteemed highly BY the apostles. Even those who admit that this is possible, admit also that it is highly unlikely. It would be rather an odd thing for Paul to say the apostles highly esteem Junia without including himself amongst that group doing the esteeming.
Hear in full here.
h/t Pat
Interesting how the ESV translate it as:
ESV 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.
How can we believe that there is no bias there?
16.9.09
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A little background reading so we might mutually flourish when there are different opinions
6 comments:
"Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me."
The NRSV translation is identical. Do YOU believe there is no bias there? I am fairly sure this translation is correct. I'm also fairly sure that 'apostoloi' here means 'messengers' (certainly not one of the Twelve).
Anon1
..more details that amplify me point and go far beyond it:
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=21-08-022-f
I wonder if Paul had Andronicus and Junia in mind when he plaintively said,
'Have I not the right to take a Christian wife about with me, like the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?' (1 Cor 9:4)
More than that - (code messed up)
???
"Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me."
The NRSV translation is identical. Do YOU believe there is no bias there? I am fairly sure this translation is correct. I'm also fairly sure that 'apostoloi' here means 'messengers' (certainly not one of the Twelve).
Anon1
I don't follow you - perhaps I'm tired - it os nearly midnight. The NRSV says:
"Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known AMONG the apostles, and they were in Christ before me."
I read that article referred to above and I am always astonished at one can be published. The author resorts to an English idiomatic translation for episemos, using "well-known" and rejecting "distinguished." The word episemos means "outstanding" and "distinguished" and cannot be made to mean "well-known to" by any stretch of the imagination.
Aphrodite was outstanding and distinguished among mortal. She stood above mortals. She was not simply someone who was well known to mortals. Andronicus and Junia must be distinguished among the apostles.
I don't know what their apostleship consisted of, and I don't really mind about that, but Wallace and Burer's article made a serious mistake in citing Ps. 2:6 in support of their theory. They have never rectified their error, and can hardly be expected to be taken seriously now.
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