The Book of Isaiah

Chapter 1 V.1 Part 3.4

Paul & The Female Controversy 3

The previous info gave us some background, but the next two books I examined ran a basic parallel in information, so I am going to combine the information of both books here, within several posts, only specifying areas or comments that were distinctly not contained in one of the books, and combining the ideas I found in both that were the same.

The first book was “What Paul Meant,” written in 2006 by Gary Wills. He pointed out that Paul believed in women’s basic equality via the following.

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

There is no more man and woman since they were divided here.

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

They are reborn; brother and sister are now (ktisis) “a new order of being.”

2Cr 5:17  Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Paul worked with, paid tribute to and received protection from his Sisters in Messiah.

In the functions of the Spirit – Paul stresses equal dignity, and talks about Junia and her husband Andronicus.

Rom 16:6  Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.

Rom 16:7  Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

He included her among the apostles, and in some translations, referred to her as his fellow emissary; as well as one who joined the brotherhood before he did.

Junia’s name was changed to Iounia – in the accusative case – male – Iounian. Junias was only a hypothetical name which never occurs in all the ancient literature and inscriptions – whereas Iounia is a common name.

In the book, “In Search of Paul,” written in 2004, the eminent historical Jesus scholar, John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, an expert in biblical archeology – team up to examine what archeology and textual scholarship can tell us about the apostle and his role in Christianity. They reveal that Paul, like Jesus, focused on championing the Kingdom of God – a realm of justice and equality – against the dominant worldly powers of the Roman Empire.

In this book, Junia is mentioned as “a case that would be funny to ridiculous if it were not sad to tragic. For the first twelve hundred years of Christianity, commentators had no trouble identifying her name as female, presumably the wife of Andronicus (Rom 16:7), like Prisca is of Aquila (16:3-4).

In Greek, by the way, her name appears in the accusative case as Junian. Then the name started to be identified as male – Junian was alleged to be the accusative case of the male name Junia(nu)s. Unfortunately however,

there are over 250 known cases of a female Junia in antiquity and not a single one ever discovered for the male abbreviation of Junianus to Junias.

The problem of course was Paul’s supreme accolade for both members of that married couple and specifically for the female Junia. It was even suggested, as a backup position, that if Junia were female, Paul’s compliment should read “prominent to the apostles” rather than “prominent among the apostles.” Clearly then, the only reason for suggesting a masculine meaning is to avoid a major female apostle.”