Was Junia/Junias a female apostle?

Andronicus and Junias were Paul's kinsmen. If this indicates that they were fellow Israelites or even near relatives, we cannot now determine. The description "fellow prisoners" reveals their faith­fulness even unto bonds (2 Cor. 11:23). They were in Christ before him, and thus age has its place, privileges and rights even in spiri­tual men. They were of note among the apostles, which may mean they were noteworthy among the messengers known in the assem­blies and that their ministry had some apostolic character. However, this might suggest there were more than twelve (and if Junia is the preferred reading then we might have a female apostle! This is hardly likely, not least because Paul speaks of kinsmen). Perhaps it is easier to understand the commendation as indicating that they had come to the special attention of those regularly known as apostles because they had served the Lord and His people well.

The kinsmen of the apostle are not overlooked. With respect to the expression "of note among the apostles" (verse 7), I feel uncertain as to its precise meaning. I think, however, that the term apostle is here applied in a lower sense, to the Lord's messengers indifferently.

"Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow captives which [οἵτινες] are of note among the apostles, who [οἵ] also were before me in Christ." (Ver. 7.) We see how the apostle delights in noticing every distinctive form of service, relation, or fellowship.

(V. 7). The claims of kindred are not forgotten; but the higher claim to remembrance, in the case of Andronicus and Junias, is that they had suffered with the Apostle as "fellow-prisoners". The Apostle carries out his own exhortation, "In honour preferring one another" (12:10), for he says they "are of note among the Apostles", and "were in Christ" before himself.

But, as has been elsewhere stated, a new principle was introduced in and even before the apostolate of Paul, on the dispersion of the order of the Church at Jerusalem — individual agency according to the energy of the Spirit, according to its measure, the operation proving itself and its own efficacy. So even the apostle of this owns: "The signs of an apostle were wrought in me"; "Make full proof of thy ministry"; "Let no man despise thee." Hence, though subsisting not in authoritative revelation of the will of God, nor power in the Church, in a subordinate sense, it seems to me that the gift of apostle and prophet has not passed away. Barnabas was an apostle: Junius and Andronicus were of note among the apostles: and it was praise to a church that they had tried certain whether they were apostles, and they were not, but liars. Doubtless, these pretenders set up for the highest form of apostolate. But the Church could not have been commended for trying them, if there had been question only of the twelve and Paul. In truth, the word 'apostle,' though now of definite force, has it not properly; it just amounts to one sent, a missionary. The messenger of the Church is called "your apostle," in the original.

Romans 16:7. Vol. I. p. 51. — Your querist is aware, doubtless, that we have very scanty data whereby to decide the epoch of St. Paul's conversion, and that the mass of learned divines and chronologists reject Dr. Burton's reasoning, and interpose several years between the crucifixion and that event. This, however, would only afford more ample space for such as Andronicus and Junia to hear the Gospel, while it weakens the evidence (if such it is to be called) for their being the fruit of St. Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost. Bengel seems to think that they were themselves Apostles, in virtue of having seen the Lord, and testifying thereto (cf. 1 Cor. 15:6); that is, of course, Apostles in a subordinate sense. This, if true, would scarcely harmonise, I think, with Acts 2:10, as applied by Mr. DAVIS.

After the same fashion we have the word apostolos applied to the sent-ones of the Lord Jesus, twelve of whom were so commissioned and named of Him while on earth (Luke 6:13, et all.), and another subsequently from His place at the right hand of God. (Gal. 1:1; Acts 9:6, 15, &c.) These are known in scripture as "the apostles (sent-ones) of Christ." Besides these we have the term, as in the case of aggeloi, applied to other sent-ones, as in Acts 13:2; 14:4, to those sent forth on a special mission by the Holy Ghost, one of whom was also, though the other was not, an apostle of Christ; then in 2 Cor. 8:23, "the messengers (apostoloi) of the churches;" in Phil. 2:25, "Epaphroditus, your messenger" (apostolon), viz., of the Philippians; and in some such sense perhaps Andronicus and Junia. (Rom. 16:7.) In our passage the apostles of Christ are those in question — His own domata to the church.

Paul was also an apostle by the Lord's direct call, and that in the highest sense, as we have seen. There were others who were called apostles, but soon were more especially the apostles of the churches. The twelve and Paul were pre-eminently the apostles of the Lord. Compare 2 Corinthians 8:23, Philippians 2:25; Romans 16:7.

But here we may pause for a moment, and contemplate the progress of Christianity, and the state of the church in Rome at this time. At a very early period, and without the aid of any apostle, Christianity had found its way to Rome. It was no doubt first carried thither by some who had been converted under Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost. Amongst his hearers we have expressly mentioned "strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes." And Paul, in his Epistle to that church, thanks God that their "faith was spoken of throughout the whole world." And in his salutations he speaks of "Andronicus and Junia," his kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were chief men among the apostles and whose conversion was of an earlier date than his own. But great wonders had been wrought by the gospel in the course of thirty years. Christians had become a marked, a separate, a peculiar people. They were now known as perfectly distinct from the Jews, and bitterly disclaimed by them.

This long letter now draws to a close, the apostle explaining why he had thus written, and reiterating his long-felt desire to visit them, a desire which he hoped might soon be fulfilled. In the opening of his letter he had acquainted them with his wish to labour among them (1:11-15). Here he explains, why it was that by letter he was ministering to them, of whose ability to admonish one another he had no doubt, seeing they were "full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another" (15:14). He might well write thus. For some there were among them, as Aquila and Priscilla, who had doubtless learnt much from Paul, and who had shown their readiness and ability to impart to others of the truth they had received, as we see instanced in the pains they had taken at Ephesus with Apollos (Acts 18:26). Others, as Andronicus and Junias,* Paul's kinsmen and fellow-captives, had been Christians before Paul, and were of note among the apostles (Rom. 16:7). Nor were there wanting, as we learn from Phil. 1:14, those who could minister the Word in Rome. For "many of the brethren in the Lord," he writes in that epistle, "waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear." Spiritual gifts may not have been so richly bestowed on the saints in the metropolis as on their brethren in Corinth; but clearly there was no dearth of those able to minister in the Word. It was not to a young assembly that he was writing, but to a company which numbered amongst it many earnest labourers, and even veterans in the holy warfare.