Epp on Junia / Junias (Rom 16:7)

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 3 18:26:07 EDT 2002



At bible.org here is a part of Wallace's article
that I think Clay referenced:

------
When, however, an elative notion is found, EN plus a personal plural dative 
is not uncommon. In Ps Sol 2:6, where the Jewish captives are in view, the 
writer indicates that "they were a spectacle among the gentiles" (EPISHMWi 
EN TOIS EQNESIN). This construction comes as close to Rom 16:7 as any I have 
yet seen. The parallels include (a) people as the referent of the adjective 
EPISHMOS , (b) followed by EN plus the dative plural, (c) the dative plural 
referring to people as well. All the key elements are here. Semantically, 
what is significant is that (a) the first group is NOT a part of the 
second—that is, the Jewish captives were not gentiles; and (b) what was 
'among' the gentiles was the Jews' notoriety. This is precisely how we are 
suggesting Rom 16:7 should be taken. That the parallels discovered so far 
conform to our working hypothesis at least gives warrant to seeing 
Andronicus' and Junia's FAME as that which was among the apostles.


In sum, until further evidence is produced that counters the working 
hypothesis, we must conclude that Andronicus and Junia were NOT apostles, 
but were known to the apostles. To be sure, our conclusion is tentative. But 
it is always safer to stand on the side of SOME evidence than on the side of 
none at all.
------

There really are several viable lexical and grammatical alternatives
surrounding this verse.

For one, not all APOSTOLOI had equal rank.

For what it's worth, I think one can easily distinguish, on a
lexical level that is, that there were Apostles appointed
by Christ himself, and apostles appointed by the Apostles,
yielding three distinct, descending groups:

1. Christ (The Apostle)
2. Apostles (those commissioned directly by Christ)
3. and apostles (those commissioned directly by the Apostles)


The last category (#3) is probably close to that "missionary" view
that someone else quoted (Spicq?). If so, then one could still
see Junia as feminine (which Wallace seems reluctant to do), having
been commissioned to perform some task that perhaps would be more
appropirate for women, but such tasks would not contradict
other biblical directives (for those who still hold women can not
teach, you are still safe with a female apostle).

My (controversial) thoughts,

Mark Wilson




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