Junia

Life and work

In his closing greetings to the Romans, Paul writes: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was" (Romans 16:7). Junia and Andronicus appear to be a pair — likely husband and wife, or close kin — who were believers before Paul's own conversion and who shared imprisonment with him at some point.

Questions and debates

"Junia" is a well-attested Roman woman's name, and early church writers like Origen and John Chrysostom read the verse as referring to a female apostle without controversy. Beginning in the medieval period, some manuscripts, translations, and commentators — apparently uneasy with a woman being called an apostle — rendered the name as "Junias," a masculine form with no other attestation anywhere in ancient sources. Modern textual and historical scholarship overwhelmingly favors "Junia" as the original reading, and most contemporary translations have restored it, but the centuries-long shift to "Junias" remains a well-documented example of translation choices shaped by assumptions about gender and church leadership.

Scripture references

• Romans 16:7 — Paul calls Andronicus and Junia "outstanding among the apostles"