This review is from: Junia: The First Woman Apostle (Paperback)
Eldon Jay Epp has written an interesting, scholarly text exploring the identity of one of the persons mentioned by the apostle Paul in
Romans 16.7, Junia. Some translations have rendered the name Junias, a masculine name, but the King James Version of the bible actual has the word Junia included (together with Andronicus in the same verse). Why is there confusion, and why is this important?
Perhaps the most significant reason for figuring out the gender of this person is not just because of the list of names, but because of the title the apostle Paul gives to the persons mentioned in
Romans 16.7 - he calls them apostles. Again the KJV has Paul referring to them as 'my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles'; the NIV translates this as, 'They are outstanding among the apostles', but translates the name 'Junia' as 'Junias'. Why the change?
Epp traces both exegetical ideas as well as the history of exegetical and translation practice with regard to this name to discover that, with rather few exceptions, the critical editions of Greek texts and translations prior to the twentieth century carried the name Junia as a female name, but that in the early twentieth century, a change was made to change the name to a masculine form, in part because of the view that Paul would never refer to a female with the appellation of 'apostle'.
Epp crafts his argumentation well, showing side examples of textual criticism exegetical technique with other difficult passages, with particular emphasis on different kinds of readings possible in verses and pericopes dealing with gender issues.
Perhaps one of the more telling issues apart from the translation of the Bible itself is that of the names Junia and Junias themselves. Whereas Junia is a common name in antiquity, attested to in many documents beyond the biblical texts for women throughout the Roman world, there are no examples of the masculine form of the name, Junias, anywhere. Early biblical commentators such as Origen, John Chyrsostom, Jerome and Abelard make reference to Junia, Chyrsostom making the remark that it was a significant thing that Paul recognised her as an apostle.
Epp has provided an incredibly well-documented text, with extensive notes, charts and tabular information, and no fewer than five different indexes. The bibliographic information goes on for thirteen pages (which is a significant amount, considering the base text itself barely tops eighty pages). This grew out of an article Epp was writing, but became a more significant project, worthy of being a stand-alone text.
This is not a book for general or light reading - it is a scholarly, academic text, and not a narrative account or fictionalised biography of the person Junia, about whom we can really only guess at any such details as might comprise a worthwhile biography.
Those who are interested in biblical exegetical scholarship (and some of the motivations that lie behind how and why certain translations are as they are), and for students in seminary, upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as biblical scholars themselves, this can prove to be a fascinating and worthwhile text.
Eldon Jay Epp is a professor at Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
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