RE: Sexist Language

From: Stevens, Charles C (Charles.Stevens@unisys.com)
Date: Wed Jun 25 1997 - 18:45:37 EDT


On June 25, 1997 at 2:39 PM, Robert J. Petry comments:

<<My question is this. Does the Greek actually include Junias "among"
the
Apostles, or as Wuest translates it, "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my
fellow countrymen and my fellow prisoners who are of excellent
reputation among the apostles, ..." Being of reputation, and being an
Apostle are certainly two different things. And "among" here is EN I
believe. Does EN really mean "among" here, or "in", as a possible
implication of "in fellowship with" the Apostles?>>

The New American Bible ("unrevised" New Testament) has for this passage
"and to Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners; they are
outstanding apostles, and they were in Christ even before I was."

(I acknowledge the "breeziness" of this translation, and suspect that
that very informality is at least one of the reasons the NAB has been
reissued with what amounts to a whole new New Testament translation).

G. R. Berry's brief lexicon associated with his interlinear translation
of the TR lists hO as the appropriate article to be associated with
IOUNIAS, indicating that he regards the proper name to be masculine n
at least construction. I strongly suspect the (original) NAB
translators presumed the same, given their translation of this passage.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: Discussions of the authority and
expertise of the group that produced the first NAB New Testament aside,
the citation provides evidence that *some* scholars, at least, regard
EPISTEMOI EN TOIS APOSTOLOIS as carrying the connotation "are apostles
of note" rather than "are well-thought-of among the apostles", and given
the Roman Catholic position on the role of women in the church hierarchy
it appears that those same scholars have presumed that the Junias
mentioned in this passage could not have been female.

    -Chuck Stevens [SMTP: Charles.Stevens@unisys.com]
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