The Junia Case, Once Again. A Response to Esther Yue L. Ng, “Was Junia(s) in Rom 16:7 a Female Apostle? And so What?” (JETS 63/3 [2020]: 517-533)

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_A16992482DDD
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The Junia Case, Once Again. A Response to Esther Yue L. Ng, “Was Junia(s) in Rom 16:7 a Female Apostle? And so What?” (JETS 63/3 [2020]: 517-533)
Journal
Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research
Author(s)
Marschall Priscille
Publication state
In Press
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
32
Language
english
Abstract
In 2020, Esther Yue L. Ng published an article to reopen the “Junia(s) case” of Romans 16.7. In her article, entitled “Was Junia(s) in Rom 16:7 a Female Apostle? And so What?” (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 63/3), she challenged the consensus of 21st-century scholarship that the person named ΙΟΥΝΙΑΝ in Rom 16.7 was a woman apostle active in the first diffusion of the Gospel. As Matt H. Hamilton noticed in a review of recent scholarship over Junia, Ng's article represents the most well-written and most challenging production of the 21st century “anti-Junia” trend. It is the aim of the current essay to provide a detailed response to it. Going through the three lines of argument mobilized by Ng (Junias could be the Greek rendering of the Hebrew masculine name Yehunni; Junia(s) was perhaps only ‘well-known to the apostles’ instead of being an apostle on her or his own; if a woman apostle, Junia did not have the same responsibilities as male apostles), this essay highlights many methodological shortcomings that run throughout her article. It also unveils the rhetoric of doubt used by Ng, which is manifest particularly in the “funnel” dispositio of her article. Finally, this essay exposes the “axiom of unsuspicion” that Ng adopts with regard to the issue of androcentrism and her particularly unsatisfactory treatment of how and why the masculine reading Junias had made its mark in modern scholarship and translations.
Keywords
Women in Early Christianity, Junia, Woman apostle, Paul, Epistle to the Romans, Romans 16:7, New Testament, Textual criticism, NT editions, Gender bias
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / Careers / 179755
Create date
21/02/2024 18:19
Last modification date
22/02/2024 8:15
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