Junias: a female apostle in Romans 16:7?

by behemot 2 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  behemot

  In his book Misquoting Jesus, Bart D. Ehrman claims that the "Junias" mentioned in Romans 16:7 with Andronicus among those "who are of note among the apostles" (NWT: "who are men of note among the apostles") was actually a woman. I don't see the word "men" in the original Greek, so I suppose it has been added in the translation to dispel the embarrassing thought of the existence of female apostles in the early Church. Similar adjustments can be found in other translations: KJV, ESV, NASB, RSV, ASV have "kinsmen", NKJV has "countrymen".

  Ehrman claims that Junias is attested in the ancient world as a female name and not as a male name. Do you know of any evidence for this?

  Behemot
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  Narkissos

  Hi behemot,

  Junias would rather be a masculine name (cf. Barnabas etc.), but the problem is that we only have the accusative Iounian from which to infer the nominative as either Iounias (masculine) or Iounia (feminine). In both cases this is a Greek transliteration of a Latin name built on Juno. And indeed in the Latin sphere Junia is attested as a feminine name (Tacitus, Annals 3,76; 12,4), while the masculine patronym Junius would more likely be transliterated Iounios. So Ehrman has a good case, but not entirely compelling imo, since a Greek masculine name built on the name of the Roman goddess cannot be ruled out either...

  It is to be noted, also, that a variant reading has Julia (as in v. 15, in a masculine/feminine pair).
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  behemot

  Hi Narkissos,

  thanks for the info. I found some interesting comments also here:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junia

  Behemot