Was Junia Really the First Woman Apostle?

Romans 16 and the Question of Junia

In Romans 16, Paul says to greet his co-workers in the gospel of Christ. On that list are Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners, he says, who are outstanding to the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

Some translations read just like that, that Andronicus and Junia are outstanding to the apostles. But there are others, including the NASB and the King James, that say they are outstanding among the apostles.

Some have interpreted this to mean that Andronicus and Junia were apostles. Furthermore, that Junia is the first woman apostle. Entire books have been written from just this one verse. But that's a lot of assumption from a simple greeting.

Whether Junia Was a Woman

First of all, we don't know for sure that Junia was a woman. As theologians like Charles Ellicott, Heinrich Mayer, Joseph Benson, Matthew Poole, John Gill, and countless others have noted, Junia was likely a man.

That aside, Paul was not calling Junia an apostle, but that Andronicus and Junia were known to the apostles as outstanding servants in ministry. They were kinsmen, meaning they were Jews by descent. They were fellow prisoners with Paul, and they were in the faith before he was.

Why Romans 16:7 Does Not Prove a Woman Apostle

That's it. To know for sure this verse is calling Junia a woman apostle, you would first have to know A. Junia is a woman, and B. Junia is an apostle. As it reads, this verse doesn't definitively say either.

And nowhere else in the New Testament is it said any of the apostles were women. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4 .6, learn not to go beyond what is written, so that none of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other when we understand the text.