Re: Junias Redivivus!

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 30 1995 - 16:16:08 EST


I'm not sure that this got out to the net; it got hung in my Eudora program
and didn't confirm a send, so I'm sending it a second time.

At 12:26 PM 11/30/95, Edward Hobbs wrote:
>Carl Conrad raises the question about the accentuation of Iounian in Rom.16:7
>with a question about how far back these accents go.
> We went through all this a couple of years ago or so; we seem to
>have to re-invent the wheel with regularity!
> The oldest uncials of course do not have accents. Was there a
>(secret, never-revealed) quasi-Masoretic tradition among early Christian
>copyists as to accentuation? To ask the question is to answer it.
> But the really more significant question is: What is the tradition
>of accentuation of this name? And the fact is that the final circumflex is
>VERY RECENT! (I.e., 20th century!). To my knowledge, NO MS. gives this accent!
>Even Hort's 1881 text gives IouNIan, acute on penult, thus feminine. And
>this accentuation is also found inserted by second corrector even in B and D.
> Wierdly enough, Metzger's note on this passage only discusses the
>variant "Ioulian", saying not a word about changing a woman into a man and
>moving+changing the accent from its universal form in the MS tradition!
>
> The feminine name "Iounia" is very common. The (imaginary, masculine)
>name "Iounias" is non-existent. It was invented (clumsily, as Carl notes!)
>to eliminate a female apostle. Bauer's largely-excellent Lexicon is marred
>by this entry as one of his stupidest definitions (that it is the common
>woman's name Iounia "is ruled out by the context"!). If Danker doesn't
>change this is his latest revised translation, I will never drink Scotch
>with him again. [Above: this IN his latest]
>
> Heaven knows, we have enough problems with male chauvinism, without
>having to INSERT them into the text!

Thanks, Edward. I knew we'd discussed this before (repeatedly atque ad
nauseam!), but I don't recall our having talked about the accents before.

I'll call Danker tonight and tell him about the scotch-drinking sessions!
He still makes his home here.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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