Who is junia in new testament

The reason for the witness is simple: all the ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts commending the oustanding apostles in Romans read either "Junia" or "Julia", both feminine forms.

Both Junia and Julia were very common ancient Greek woman's names, whereas the masculine alternatives suggested by modern commentators have no manuscript evidence to support them. However, they occur in NO ancient manuscript of Romans ! Of the hypothetical name "Junias," Bernadette Brooten writes, "What can a modern philologist say about Junias? Just this: it is unattested. To date, not a single reference in ancient literature has been cited by any of the proponents of the Junias hypothesis.

My own search for an attestation has also proved fruitless. This means that we do not have a single shred of evidence that the name Junias ever existed. Certain early manuscripts do contain a variant name, but it, too, is feminine.

P46, a papyrus manuscript dating about AD, is one of the most ancient and reliable Greek mss of the NT extant. In Romans , P46 reads "Julia," which can only be feminine. What does this mean? That in Romans 16, St. Paul commends a noteworthy woman apostle. It also means that translators who found a woman apostle unacceptable made up the name "Junias" to substitute their own word for the Word of God. That is how important limiting women's freedom has been to religious legalists.

We will find that this attitude and practice have been all too common. What does the Bible say? Given the above evidence, how is it that the name was commonly understood to be masculine during the 20 th century?

Yet, during this time and the next three centuries the name continued to be accented as feminine in Greek New Testaments, and most translations including King James interpreted the name as feminine. The tide would begin to turn in earnest in the late 19 th century, and the change to the masculine became established in early 20 th century scholarship. Thus, after almost years of the name being understood as feminine by most interpreters, early 20th century scholars decided that the name must be masculine.

What justified the change made by those early 20th century scholars? Did they have different evidence than we have today? No, the only reason they made the change to masculine is because they had decided before even looking at the evidence that it is not possible that Paul could have called a woman an apostle, because they did not believe that women can be apostles.

They allowed their preconceived notions and prejudices to cloud their ability to read the evidence. First, it really is significant that Paul called her an apostle. This breaks open our notions of what was possible for women in the early church and further reveals the significant ways that women contributed to the leadership and growth of the church in the first century. Second, her tale is also a cautionary one for scholars and all who read and interpret the Bible.

When we read what early 20th century male scholars wrote about interpreting her name, we see otherwise capable and intelligent men profess ideas for which there is no solid foundation, all because of their own cultural biases. Our cultural setting influences our assumptions, and our assumptions influence how we interpret texts and sometimes even what we understand to be in the text itself.

Let all of us who seek to interpret the Bible heed the warning. Thank you for continuing to educate us and keep our eyes open to all the truths that are sometimes hidden in the ancient writings of Paul.

I eagerly look forward to your next posting. Therefore, I will stick with believing Junias to be male. Ridicules the explanation, and has no basis or knowledge for such a reasoning. We know that Junias was a man and that it is not enough just to translate a word like the meaning of an apostle to say that Paul called them apostles. Throughout the New Testament the word apostle is placed correctly indicating who the apostles were. His modern theology of gender, feminism and LGBT is nothing more than fraudulent heresies.

The theology he refers to is not modern at all. For years the theology held that Junia was a woman. Deal with it. Paul did. Thank you. This is also in line with the truth that God is no respecter of person and is not partial. Christ was anointed prior to his death bus woman with the most expensive oil and showed Himself to Mary Magdalene upon His resurrection.

Also if I may add using one of oldest book canonized is Job. A contemplative view of how God used the adversity to reform a man described to be already blameless, upright and who shuns evil is how to treat his daughters. However, in the concluding chapter we read that Job did not only esteem his new begotten daughters by mentioning their names and implied meanings but were given inheritance. Who Was Junia?

The Junia Project is named for Junia, a woman apostle in the early church see Romans Junia: Co-laborer, fellow prisoner, noted apostle. Subscribe to The Junia Project blog. Name First. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. More on Junia Junia is Not Alone. Denver: Patheos Press.