JUNIA, THE WOMAN APOSTLE
Did you know that there was a woman apostle? There was, and today, May 15, is a day in the Christian calendar to honor her.
During the Middle Ages, the Christian church began commemorating the lives of deceased Christians, both to honor them and be encouraged by such a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Episcopal Church continue the tradition to this day. According to the Episcopal Church, May 15[1] is a day to honor two early Christians that Paul mentions in Romans 16: Junia and Andronicus: “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles and became Christians before I did” (Rom. 16:7). This couple was eventually martyred for their faith, but two things stick out in Paul’s mention of them.
First, Paul says they are “outstanding among the apostles.” This could be interpreted as “well known by the apostles,” but the preferred reading is “outstanding among (or as) apostles.” This is how it was understood by the early church for centuries without exception. Paul mentions this word “apostle” (which literally means “messenger”) on several occasions as one who had encountered the risen Christ and had received a commission to preach the gospel.[2] He identifies as apostles: himself, Silvanus, Timothy, Barnabus, Peter and James the brother of Jesus, John, Apollos, and Epaphroditus.[3] As Philip Payne notes, “Outstanding among the apostles implies that Andronicus and Junia were revered missionaries recognized in the churches as having authority as ministers of the gospel.”[4]
Second, one of these apostles is a woman: Junia. Junia was a common Latin name for a woman, and it wasn’t until the 13th century that this name was interpreted as the masculine Latin form “Junias.” As Gordon Fee notes, there is not one reference in all of Roman literature to a Latin name “Junias,”[5] and the early church fathers (including Origen and John Chrysostom) understood this person to be a woman. John Chrysostom notes: “Oh how great is the devotion of this woman, that she should be even counted worthy of the appellation of apostle.”[6]
Paul’s greetings to this apostolic couple appear in Romans 16, a chapter full of women that Paul highlights as crucial to the ministry of the early church. The first is Phoebe, whom Paul calls a “deaconess” of the church of Cenchreae, who was carrying Paul’s letter from him to the church in Rome. Paul wants his readers to understand that Phoebe is qualified to bring his letter to the Romans, so he cites her qualifications. The word “deacon” (diakonos) is often translated “servant” or “minister,” but it is also used in Acts 6 of the seven deacons who oversaw the food distribution, and in 1 Timothy 3:8ff as an official role for ministers in the church. As an earlier scholar noted, “It is quite clear that Phoebe was one gifted by the Holy Spirit for publishing good tidings or preaching the Gospel.”[7] Paul then highlights eight women in the church of Rome, including Mary “who worked hard for you,” and Tryphena and Tryphosa as “hard workers in the Lord.” Paul uses this term “working hard” in other letters, including mentioning two women in Philippians 4:3 who work hard (Eudia and Syntyche), and in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, where he says “Now we ask you to respect those who work hard among you, and who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in highest regard because of their work.” Ronald Fung notes about the references to these women in Romans 16 and Philippians 4 who work hard: “These considerations would seem to suggest that the ‘labor’ of these women for the church and for the Lord included, at least may have included, the activities of preaching and teaching.”[8]
The prominent place Paul gives to women in Romans 16 corresponds to what we see throughout the New Testament. Jesus elevated the status of women by allowing women to be part of his disciple group, and he allowed Mary to choose the “better portion” by engaging him in theological discourse (Luke 10:38-42). In Acts and in Paul’s letters, we see women possessing a significant role in the early church. Peter, explaining the Pentecost phenomenon, quotes the prophecy of Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy” (Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32). The four unmarried daughters of Philip the evangelist are included in those who “prophesy” (Acts 21:8-9). Paul considered prophesying a gift exercised for the edification of the church and one given to and exercised by women in the public assembly (1 Cor. 11:5). We should also notice how often house churches are referred to as meeting in women’s houses: Lydia (Acts 16:40), Priscilla (1 Cor. 16:19), Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11), and Nympha (Col. 4:15). As Paul said, in Jesus, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).[9]
We should also notice the various women “prophets” mentioned in the Old Testament. A prominent woman prophet and spiritual and political leader was Deborah, who is described not only as a judge but as a “prophetess” (Judges 4:4). To say that Deborah is a “prophetess” would put her in the same category as Moses and other prophets who spoke the word of God (see Deut. 18:15-22). Other women described in the Old Testament as “prophetesses” are Miriam, Moses’ sister (Exod. 15:22); Huldah (2 Kings 22:14); and Isaiah’s wife (Isa. 8:3). Huldah appears in 2 Kings 22, when the Book of the Law was uncovered as Josiah was renovating the temple. When Josiah heard the Word of God read to him, he was distressed and asked the high priest to find someone to inquire of Yahweh about the words. As Alice Mathews points out, there were several male prophets in Jerusalem at this time from which the high priest could have inquired, including Jeremiah and Zephaniah. But they brought in Huldah, a woman, to explain and interpret the word of God (2 Kings 22:14).[10] Huldah “preached” the word of God to the king and his court.
On this day to commemorate the saints and apostles Junia and Andronicus, I also salute and honor all of the great women in my life who have “preached the gospel” to me through both words and their lives, including my wife Stacy, my mother, my sisters, my mother-in-law, my grandmother, a number of powerful women preachers, and so many of my dear friends. Thanks, Junia, for stepping up and being an apostle of Jesus Christ! We salute you.
[1] The Orthodox Church honors these early Christians on May 17.
[2] See 1 Cor. 9:1, 15:8, Rom. 1:1-5.
[3] See 1 Thess.1:1, 2:7, 1 Cor. 9:1-6, Acts. 14:4,14; Gal. 1:18-19, 2:8; and 1 Cor. 4:6,9.
[4] Philip B. Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 66.
[5] Gordon Fee, Gospel and Spirit: Issues in New Testament Hermenuetics (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 72.
[6] John Chrysostom, Homily on the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 31, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, trans. J.P. Morris and John Simcox (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 11:555.
[7] B.H. Streeter and Edith Picton-Turbervill, Woman and the Church (London: F. Fisher Unwin, 1917), 63.
[8] Ronald Y.K. Fung, “Ministry in the New Testament,” in The Church in the Bible and the World, ed. D.A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), 181.
[9] For further reading, see Robert Beasley, Set Me Free! Understanding our Traditions in the Light of Grace (Diversity Press, 1999); Alice Mathews, Gender Roles; Stanley J. Grenz, with Denise Muir Kjesbo, Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995); Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women & Wives (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992); Philip B. Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009); Two Views on Women in Ministry, ed. James Beck (Grand Rapids, MI: 2001); and Alan Johnson, Ed., How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
[10] See Alice Mathews, Gender Roles and the People of God: Rethinking What We Were Taught about Men and Women in the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), 64.