I have recently been looking at some of the literature which discusses whether  Junia (or Junias) – who, along with Andronicus, is greeted by Paul in Romans 16:7 – was a female apostle. A book on this topic strongly supporting this view has been written by Eldon Jay Epp. The claim on the back of the book is that it throws “new light on women’s leadership through the text of Romans 16:7”. (Unfortunately, in support of this aim, the author approves of removing one passage from the text of 1 Corinthians entirely, and denying Pauline authorship to some other NT books, so his results, and the accompanying conclusions, are perhaps of somewhat limited value from the conservative Evangelical standpoint.)  Two articles from a conservative Evangelical perspective which basically agree that  Junia was a woman, but which strongly oppose the view that she was an apostle have been written, one by Michael H. Burer and Daniel B. Wallace, and a later one by M. Burer alone.  Details of all these are found in the article below.

The grammatical aspects of Romans 16:7 in connection with the “apostleship” question have been closely analysed, particularly by M. Burer and D Wallace who have made extensive studies of other Greek texts whose grammatical structures bear upon the correct translation of the relevant part of Romans 16:7 .

However, I have not, so far, found any studies that attempt to link this question to the structure of the wider passage,  Romans 16:3-15, where Paul greets many individuals and groups amongst the believers in Rome. Even though there is much really helpful information on this passage in the commentaries,  no structural analyses appear to have been attempted and in this article, I attempt such a structural analysis. I hope you will find it interesting and would be most grateful for any help and particularly corrections regarding what I have put forward.

The article is in Word document format, and can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

Romans16.7

Categories: Chiastic and Other Structures, New Testament Exegesis, Romans

Tags: Analysis, apostle, Burer, Chiasm, chiastic, Exegesis, Female, greet, greetings, Junia, leadership, New Testament, Paul, Romans 16:7, Structure, Wallace, women, word count