Junia

Junia
Andronicus, Athanasius of and Saint Junia
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches
Feast	May 17, 23 Pashons (Coptic Orthodox)

Junia or Junias (Greek: Ιουνια / Ιουνιας, Iounia[s]) was a 1st-century Christian highly regarded and complimented by apostle Paul. Paul probably refers to Junia as an apostle. The consensus among most modern New Testament scholars is that Junia was a woman.

Apostle Paul wrote in the Romans 16:7:

Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

The translation of the verse presents two problems:

These two questions are still under scholarly debate.

The meaning of "outstanding among the apostles" is rendered by some translations as "well-known to the apostles"—suggesting that the couple were not apostles but enjoyed a high reputation among the apostles. Some New Testament scholars consider that the Greek phrase episêmos en + dative (literally "noted among") does not automatically demand that the noted person is a member of the group among whom the person is noted. A well-known example of this grammatical construction is found in Euripides' Hippolytus 101:3 where the goddess Aphrodite is "famous (episêmos) among mortals," but evidently is not included as being among the mortals. For this reason some versions, such as the ESV, translate the Greek phrase as "well known to", unlike other versions such as NRSV which translate "prominent among." Those who have argued for the ESV translation include Michael Burer and Daniel Wallace who agree that Junia was a woman but assert that the correct rendition of the Greek text places her as well known to the apostles rather than prominent among the apostles. That translation would indicate that the pair were not apostles, but that they enjoyed a high reputation among the apostles.

Linda Belleville,Richard Bauckham, and Eldon Epp, who take the reading 'prominent among', have taken on the task of correcting some findings pertaining to Junia. Bauckham devotes several pages to interacting with, refuting, and correcting the Burer and Wallace article.