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 (Romans 16:7).
Questions surrounding the “Junia” of Romans 16:7 have been circulating for centuries in the Church. For the first 1,000 years of Church history, the vast majority of commentators agreed that this name should be translated as Junia, a woman’s name. This coincides with the fact that Junia was a common ancient Roman female name, while the masculine forms – Junias or Junianus – are virtually unknown. It is only after the 13th century that Junias, the masculine form of the name, begins to appear more regularly in translations. From the 14th century through the Reformation, an argument grew that the name should be understood as masculine. However, in recent years it appears that most academic New Testament scholars now agree that the name is best understood as referring to a woman.
At Woodland Hills, we find the arguments for the claim that Junia was a woman to be quite convincing. There is also good reason to conclude that when Paul calls Junia an “apostle,” he uses the term in a robust sense – that is, a person who has witnessed the risen Jesus, has received a divine commission, has suffered for the Gospel and has worked signs and wonders. This means that “apostle” here doesn’t simply mean “sent one” in a generic sense, but rather that Junia is among the witnesses to the resurrection that now hold a prominent place of tradition-bearing and leadership within the church. Paul says as much when he notes that Junia and Andronicus were “in Christ before” Paul himself (which means they were most likely among the early Palestinian Jewish followers of Jesus), and that they are “prominent among the apostles.”
Some scholars have argued that the phrase “prominent among the apostles” should be understood as saying not that Junia is an apostle, but merely that she is held in high regard by the (male) apostles. But this is not the best rendering of the Greek. As Ben Witherington observes: “The Greek phrase has sometimes been taken to mean notable to the apostles or even noted by the apostles, but the Greek preposition en here surely has its normal meaning of “in” or “among,” as the earliest Greek commentators on this verse, Origen and John Chrysostom, admit” [Ben Witherington, “Joanna: Apostle of the Lord,” 46, n. 5].
New Testament scholars Ben Witherington and Richard Bauckham both argue that this “Junia” in Romans 16 is probably the Greek name used to designate the woman named “Joanna” (a Hebrew/Aramaic name) in the Gospels. She is one of Jesus’ followers mentioned in Luke 8:3, and was a witness to Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:10).
Recommended Resources
- “Joanna the Apostle,” in Gospel Women: Studies of Named Women in the Gospels by Richard Bauckham
- Junia: The First Woman Apostle by Eldon Jay Epp
