What about Junia?

Using Junia as a spring board to advocate for the full inclusion of women in church leadership involves a number of assumptions that belie it as a position of true biblical scholarship. It assumes:

1. That Junia was a woman (a plausible but not a proven position)

2. That Junia was an apostle (a plausible but not a proven position)

3. That all apostles had equal inclusion in church leadership (an untenable position)

It is a sad commentary on the state of Christianity that people get so caught up on one side or the other of the first two assumptions that they neglect the last and more important issue. "Apostle" has a variety of uses in the New Testament, and much of the discussion about Junia simply ignores this fact.

The only place in the Bible where Junia is mentioned is Romans 16:7 which reads: Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Many people have determined from this verse that Junia was a female apostle. I had always assumed that Junia was esteemed by the apostles and until recently had never concerned myself about whether this person was male or female. The Greek (like the English of the King James Version) is ambiguous and could be taken to mean either that Junia was a noted apostle or was noted by the apostles.

Perhaps Junia was a woman. Other women were honored by Paul's salutations in Romans 16, Priscilla even being mentioned before her male counterpart. That women were held in high regard by Paul cannot be doubted. They have been lifted up by the gospel to a place that is unheard of in paganism or any man-made religion. To maintain, however, from this short verse that there was a female apostle who held a place of authority in the church flies in the face of clearer passages of Scripture. 

Perhaps Junia was an "apostle." I suppose, if she was, that she was a missionary, and a highly honored one. That is what the Greek word, "apostle" means, after all. The apostles are men whom God sent to do His work. Certainly He sends women to engage in missionary work also. He sent Mary Magdalene to inform the disciples of His resurrection. He asked the woman who touched the hem of his garment to testify to His work in her life before the crowds in the street. Let us, however, not make so much of this verse about Junia that we use it to overthrow the clear teaching of the Bible. Junia could have been sent of God and still obeyed the injunction to be silent in the churches (1  Cor. 14:34) and not to have authority over men. (1 Tim. 2:12.) 

Whether male or female, not all the apostles held places of authority in the church. The idea that the apostles were somehow greater than other people is not the teaching of the New Testament. Even the original twelve were ordinary men who served their God. They had no infallibility and no authority above the word of God. Even if Junia was a woman (which is by no means certain) and even if she was an apostle (which is also not certain on the face of the passage,) any use of the Scripture about Junia to justify placing women in the place of pastor or church leader is based on a misapprehension what it means to be an apostle. 

The facts are these: The name Junia in Romans 16 is in the accusative case. For this name, the accusative case is the same whether the name is feminine or masculine, so the gender of the name cannot be determined by the text itself. The context gives us no conclusive evidence as to Junia's gender. The name is paired with a masculine name which might incline us towards her being his wife, but Junias could also be a male co-worker.

The male form Junias is rare in the history of Greek writing which inclines many people to the assumption that the person mentioned was feminine. This is a legitimate opinion, but it still remains only an opinion and not an indisputable fact. Chrysostom in the fourth century believed Junia was both feminine and an apostle. His opinion is evidence in favor of this view, but clearly not authoritative. He lived four centuries after the people involved and had no greater insight into Biblical Greek than modern preachers have into the English of the 1600s. We have no testimony to the gender of Junia/s from anyone who actually knew the people involved.

 Unless a first, second, or even third-hand testimony from someone who actually knew Junia is discovered, no amount of research is going to definitively decide this question. Apparently, in the eyes of God who breathed the Scriptures, the gender of this person was not of high consequence and is nothing to build a doctrine on. There are seven other women in the list of salutations, the first of whom was entrusted to deliver Paul's letter. If we need a female example, let us follow one of them.