Junia (apostle)

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Andronicus, Athanasius and Junia (Modern Icon, Orthodox Church of America)

Junia or Junias is a person who is mentioned in Romans 16.7 LUT together with Andronicus . Paul describes both as "respected among the apostles". Many exegetes assume that Junia is a woman who had a leading role in early Christianity . This is interesting not only for research into early Christianity, but also for current discussions about the admission of women to church offices. For feminist theology it is an important issue to make forgotten women visible in the New Testament and in church history, including the apostle Junia.

Two questions must be distinguished in the discussion: 1. Is it a woman's name? 2. Does “respected among the apostles” mean that the person with that name was an apostle, and if so, how is this to be understood?

Junia as a woman's name

Bible translations

In older German translations of the Bible, the man's name Junias is read in Rom. 16.7, for example the verse in the unrevised standard translation (1980): “Greet Andronicus and Junias [...]; they are respected apostles and professed Christ even before me. "

The following modern German Bible translations keep the traditional reading as the male name Junias:

The following modern German Bible translations bring the female name Junia in Rom. 16: 7, sometimes with an explanatory note:

  • Good news Bible (2000): “[…] It also speaks in favor of a woman that the woman's name Junia is documented many times in extra-biblical ancient literature, but a man's name Junia has not yet been proven. The view that the person in question was a man named Junias first appeared in the 13th century in the Latin-speaking Church of the West. It quickly became the common property of the interpreters and has remained so to this day, while the Eastern Orthodox Churches still adhere to the traditional view. "
  • Bible in Righteous Language (2006): “In most of the older versions of the Bible, the man's name Junias is used here. This name did not exist for men in ancient times, but the woman's name Junia was common. The interpretations at the time of the old church read here “Junia” ( Ἰουνία ). The only difference between the two names is the interpretation of an accent. Later interpreters could no longer imagine that a woman would be honored as an apostle here, so they changed the text. "
  • Zürcher Bibel (2007): "There is broad consensus in research that the accusative form ‹Iounian› is derived from the female name Iounia / Junia (and not from the short form of the male name Junianus)."
  • Revised standard translation (2016)
  • Luther Bible (2017)

Name variants in manuscripts of the Romans

The oldest manuscripts of the New Testament in ancient Greek were written in capital letters and without accentuation or punctuation until the 9th century . The originally unaccented Greek word ΙΟΥΝΙΑΝ Iounian can either be the accusative form of the male name “Junias” or the female name “Junia”, so that it is not clear from the name form and the text section as a whole whether it is a “Junias” or a "Junia" acts. It was not until the 9th century that ancient Greek Bible texts were written with upper and lower case letters and with introduced accents. The difference in accented spelling between Ἰουνίαν and Ἰουνιᾶν is the setting of an accent on the iota (´ acutus ) or on the alpha (~ circumflex ).

All scholarly editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus of Rotterdam (1516) to the 12th edition of the Novum Testamentum Graece (1923) used the feminine name form in the accent; this changed with the 13th edition of the Novum Testamentum Graece (1927): Ἰουνιᾶν . Due to the authority of this scholarly text edition, the reading was adopted as a man’s name in Bible translations and scientific commentaries of the 20th century. Since the 5th reprint (1998) of the 27th edition, the Novum Testamentum Graece has again emphasized the feminine name form in the main text: Ἰουνίαν .

Interpretation history

All church fathers, according to Ulrich Wilckens , naturally saw Junia as a woman, which did not change suddenly in the western church until the 13th century. Bernadette Brooten names the testimony of Origen , Hieronymus , Atto von Vercelli , Theophylact and Petrus Abelardus for the older tradition of interpretation . It was not until Aegidius of Rome (1245–1316) interpreted Andronicus and Junias explicitly as viri “men” without justifying his deviation from the older commentators with arguments (Opera Exegetica, Opuscula I ). (Burer and Wallace, however, refer to Epiphanios of Salamis . This author wrote: "Junias, whom (οὗ) Paul also mentions, became bishop of Apamea in Syria." However, since Epiphanios also called Priska on the same occasion as a man, he may be Testimony should not be weighted too heavily.)

Martin Luther based himself on Faber Stapulensis . So he came to the following translation: "Greet the Andronicum and the Junian my friends ..." (Biblia Deudsch, 1545). Since then , there has been a consensus in Protestant and Catholic exegesis, with a few exceptions ( Johannes Calvin , Johannes Drusius 1698, Christian Wilhelm Böse 1742, Marie-Joseph Lagrange 1916) that a man's name Junias should be read here, which is not otherwise found in ancient literature and its derivation from the common Latin name Junian (i) us is philologically improbable.

In 1977 Brooten presented a study on the understanding of ΙΟΥΝΙΑΝ Iounian as a woman's name, which led to a re-evaluation of this topic in exegesis. Since the 1980s, a broad exegetical consensus has developed that Paul is talking about a woman named Junia. Many Bible translations that have appeared or revised since then also take this into account. The main argument here is that there is no evidence of the ancient male name Junias, in contrast to the common female name Junia. If one assumes that Junias is a coincidentally unconfirmed short form of Latin male names such as Junian (i) us or Junilius, it should be ignored that the formation of such short forms (e.g. Artemas for Artemidorus) is common for Greek names, but for Latin names Not.

According to Holger Weiß, whether the person in question is actually a man or a woman is still scientifically controversial. (White is a lecturer in the New Testament at a training facility of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church .)

Junia as an apostle

The second question about the meaning of the phrase “respected among the apostles” arises independently of the reading of the name ΙΟΥΝΙΑΝ. Two interpretations are possible:

  • inclusive: Andronicus and Junia are apostles;
  • exclusive: the apostles have a high opinion of Andronicus and Junia.

The inclusive reading has prevailed since the early Church. The following remark can be found in John Chrysostom (344–407):

“To be an apostle is great. But famous among the apostles - consider what great praise that is. How great must the wisdom of this woman have been that she was found worthy of the title apostle. "

- John Chrysostom

Scientific exegesis has largely followed this up. (The term apostle is to be understood as Paul uses it.) Wilckens sums up the development as follows: "That a married couple, a man and a woman, are both" apostles "has only appeared so incredible since the Middle Ages, that instead of Frau Junia they were supposed to read a man by the name of Junius. In the whole of the Old Church, no one rightly took offense. "

In addition, an exclusive reading was and is also represented, for example by Theodor Zahn (1910) and more recently Michael H. Burer and Daniel B. Wallace (2001). For semantic reasons, but with a relatively narrow text base, these exegetes advocate an exclusive understanding of Romans 16.7. The English Standard Version follows this interpretation and translates: “Greet Andronicus and Junia […]. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. "

Junia Church

Apostelin Junia Church (Augsburg)

There has been an Apostle Junia Church in Germany since 2012 : the old Catholic parish of Augsburg voted on the naming of the newly built church in Sheridan Park at the parish meeting on October 2, 2011 and decided by a large majority in favor of the Apostle Junia . The church was consecrated on July 8, 2012 by Bishop Matthias Ring .

Web links

literature

  • Peter Doctor: Junia or Junias? On the critical textual background of Ro 16.7. In: Friedrich V. Reiterer, Petrus Eder (ed.): Love for the word. Festschrift for Ludger Bernhard. Salzburg / Vienna 1993, pp. 83-102.
  • Peter Arzt-Grabner : Junia, the rehabilitated apostle . In: Bible and Church. 4/2010, pp. 243-245.
  • David C. Bienert:  Junia. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 30, Bautz, Nordhausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-88309-478-6 , Sp. 706-710.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Bernadette Brooten : “Junia… Outstanding among the Apostles” (Rom. 16: 7) . In: L. Swindler / A. Swindler (eds.), Women Priests. A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration . New York 1977, pp. 141-144. ( PDF ) (German version: Junia… outstanding among the apostles (Rom. 16,7). In: Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel (Hrsg.): Women liberation. Biblical and theological arguments. Munich 1982, pp. 148–151.)
  • Michael H. Burer, Daniel B. Wallace: What Junia Really About Apostle? A re-examination of Rome 16.7 . In: New Testament Studies. Volume 47, 2001, pp. 76-91. ( PDF ).
  • Daniel Dangendorf: Junia, the first apostle? An exegetical study (= MBS Texts. Volume 140). ( PDF; 1.1 MB ).
  • Bart D. Ehrman : Copied, misquoted and misunderstood. How the Bible came to be what it is. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-06450-5 , pp. 207-210.
  • Eldon Jay Epp : Junia, the First Woman Apostle. Fortress Press, Minneapolis 2005, ISBN 0-8006-3771-2 .
  • Susanne Heine : Women in early Christianity. On the historical criticism of a feminist theology. Goettingen 1986.
  • Yii-Jan Lin: Junia: An Apostle before Paul . In: Journal of Biblical Literature . Volume 139, 1/2020, pp. 191-209.
  • Gerhard Lohfink : Female Deacons in the New Testament. In: G. Dautzenberg (Ed.): The woman in early Christianity. Freiburg 1993.
  • Werner Neuer : Man and woman from a Christian perspective. Brunnen-Verlag, Giessen 1982; 5th, revised edition 2002, ISBN 3-7655-9503-9 .
  • Wilhelm Schneemelcher : New Testament Apocrypha. In German translation. 2 volumes, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1999, volume 2, pp. 10 and 25.
  • Ulrich Wendel: Priska, Junia & Co. Surprising insights into women in the New Testament. Brunnen-Verlag, Giessen 2003, ISBN 3-7655-1300-8 .
  • Michael Theobald : The biblical women Junia and Phoebe . Without homeland rights in the Roman Catholic. Church? In: Catholic Sunday Gazette. No. 13, March 25, 2012 ( Junia and Phoebe without homeland rights? As PDF file )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Good News Bible. Old and New Testament. With the late writings of the Old Testament (Deuterocanonical writings / Apocrypha) . German Bible Society, Stuttgart 2000. ISBN 3-438-01672-9 . P. 379 (NT)
  2. ^ Bible in Righteous Language , note 717.
  3. ↑ The New Testament. The psalms. Zurich Bible 2007 . TVZ Zurich 2007. ISBN 978-3-85995-250-8 . P. 211.
  4. ↑ Christine Jacobi: Junia (WiBiLex, 2016), p. 5.
  5. ↑ a b c Ulrich Wilckens: The Letter to the Romans (Rom 12-16) (= Evangelical-Catholic Commentary on the New Testament . Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982. ISBN 3-7887-0650-3 . P. 135.
  6. ↑ Bernadette Brooten: “Junia… Outstanding among the Apostles” (Rom 16: 7) , New York 1977, p. 141.
  7. ↑ Michael H. Burer / Daniel B. Wallace: Was Junia Really an Apostle? (2001), p. 77.
  8. ↑ a b Bernadette Brooten: “Junia… Outstanding among the Apostles” (Rom 16: 7) , New York 1977, p. 142.
  9. ↑ A German version is available under the title Junia… excellent among the apostles (Rom. 16: 7) . In: Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel (Ed.): Women liberation. Biblical and Theological Arguments. Munich 1982, pp. 148-151.
  10. ↑ Michael H. Burer / Daniel B. Wallace: Was Junia Really an Apostle? (2001), p. 78. This view is also held in evangelical exegesis, see e.g. B. Eckhard J. Schnabel , The Letter of Paul to the Romans, Chapters 6-16 , SCM R. Brockhaus, Witten 2016, p. 872: "... the fem. Form Ἰουνία cannot be doubted."
  11. ↑ Bernadette Brooten: “Junia… Outstanding among the Apostles” (Rom 16: 7) , New York 1977, pp. 142 f.
  12. ↑ Holger Weiß: Were there female apostles? Junias or Junia? - To understand Romans 16: 7 . (PDF file) On: elfk.de ; last accessed on April 13, 2017.
  13. ↑ Quoted from Wilhelm Schneemelcher: New Testament Apocrypha. In German translation . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1999, volume 2, p. 10
    Commentary on the letters of St. Paul to the Romans (In epistula ad Romanos commentarius) 32nd Homily, chap. XVI, V. 5-16. Library of the Church Fathers
  14. ^ Ulrich Wilckens: The Letter to the Romans (Rom 12-16) (= Evangelical-Catholic Commentary on the New Testament . Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982. ISBN 3-7887-0650-3 . P. 135 f.
  15. ↑ a b website of the Old Catholic Church in Germany . Accessed February 15, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Junia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Junian; Junias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian apostle
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC BC or 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century