Epp on Junia / Junias (Rom 16:7)

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Jun 4 03:09:47 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.
> ------

Thanks, Mark, for posting this comment by Wallace. It makes good sense and
looks like a good  and plausible solution to a difficult exegetical problem.
>
> 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)

I agree with the first 2. Christ was THE APOSTLE and he chose 12 disciples
whom he called apostles. Judas failed in his ministry as apostle, so the
other 11 chose and commissioned Matthias.

I see no evidence in the NT that later apostles were commissioned by the
twelve apostles. Paul was chosen by Christ directly, but not commissioned by
the others. He started out as an evangelist and teacher, learned from
Barnabas what a shepherd is and also developed his teaching ministry over
the years. He also was familiar with prophetic visions. In short, an apostle
is a fairly all-round leader in the body of Christ with responsibility for
spreading the gospel and establishing local congregations with sound local
leadership. The ministry of an apostle is partly defined in contrast to the
other ministries in Eph 4:11. Paul's ministry as an apostle was recognized
by the other apostles in Acts 15, but that is different from commissioning.
In Acts 13, Paul was recognized as one of the teachers and sent off by the
local church leadership with God's blessing together with Barnabas. This
does not constitute commissioning by the other apostles.

In the Apostolic Church of Denmark which have recognized apostles, prophets,
evangelists, shepherds and teachers for about 80 years, we used to
commission apostles, but have now stopped that practice. We realized that
apostolic ministry as well as the other ministries are shown in practice and
is often hindered rather than helped by a formal commissioning. I am not
sure how the Apostolic Churches in other countries are doing nowadays. We
rarely, if ever, use the title Apostle, but prefer to recognize the ministry
when we see it, inside or outside of our own little church.
>
>
> 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)...
(snip)

I think "missionary" is much broader than "apostle". A missionary can have
the ministry of an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher, a prophet, a shepherd
and other kinds of ministry like administration.
>
> My (controversial) thoughts,

This may be controversial in today's world, but I agree with you and
Wallace. If Carl and others are correct in saying that the underlying name
is probably Junia and refers to a woman, it is likely that she was the wife
of Andronicus, both of whom had a good reputation among the apostles. At
least we then have Aquila and Prisca to compare with.

Iver Larsen




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