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One of Apostles was a woman, Church is told
The Times (UK) ^ | July 06, 2002 | Our Religion Correspondent

Posted on 07/05/2002 7:21:05 PM PDT by aculeus

EVIDENCE that one of the Apostles of Jesus was a woman is being examined by leaders of the Church of England, who are debating whether women should be ordained bishops.

Joanna, who was close to Jesus during His ministry, changed her name to Junia and was recognised by St Paul as an Apostle, research to be published later this year found. Her role was ignored for centuries because medieval scholars altered the name to Junias to make it masculine.

Joanna, who was with Mary Magdalen when the empty tomb was discovered and taken as proof of the Resurrection, changed her Hebrew name to a Latin name to fit in with the Romanised culture of Tiberias, where she lived, Richard Bauckham, Professor of New Testament Studies at St Andrews University, says.

As Junia, she was described by St Paul in a letter to the Romans as “prominent among the Apostles”. She was a wealthy woman from King Herod’s court who turned to Jesus after seeing Him heal a friend’s wife, he says.

The defection of the powerful courtier to the new Christian movement was seen as even more scandalous because she was married to Chuza, one of Herod’s most influential stewards. Joanna converted her husband, changed the way she dressed and used her own money to support the mission.

Although it has been previously suggested in theological circles that the Apostle Junia was a female, she has never previously been linked to Joanna and the Herodian upper class of Tiberias.

The discovery suggests that not only was society far less patriarchal than previous research has shown, but that women such as Joanna may have used their wealth and standing in society to convert others to their cause. Joanna and Chuza were among the large numbers of disciples who gathered when Jesus appeared to rise from the dead. She witnessed the Crucifixion and Chuza later changed his name to Andronicus, Professor Bauckham says.

Professor Bauckham’s paper, Junia the Apostle, will be discussed during the meeting of the General Synod. Its presentation to a bishops’ working party on the theology of women in the episcopate will challenge the perception of the apostles that has dominated the Church since AD400.

Although Jerome, regarded as the most important religious scholar of that time, considered Junia to be a woman, subsequent translations in the Middle Ages and the King James Bible changed her name to the male Junias.

Robert Bartlett, Professor of Medieval History at St Andrews University, said: “If a name like Junia was a little ambiguous, the medieval scribes were quite likely to make mistakes. Certainly the medieval Church was male-dominated and wanted it to stay that way, but whether someone was cooking the books to make it appear that the Apostles were all men is not yet certain.” Medieval scribes were known for their inaccuracies, he said.

The assumption that the leading Apostles were all men has been one of the most unassailable arguments against the ordination of women bishops.

If the claim that Joanna and Junia were the same person, and that Junia was a woman and an Apostle is accepted, the argument for women bishops will have been all but won.

The “greatest surprise”, Professor Bauckham said, was that St Paul knew one of them “and considered her an outstanding Apostle”. Her high status would have conferred social legitimacy on the new religious movement.

After witnessing the Resurrection she left for Rome with her husband. Both were imprisoned for their beliefs and never heard of again.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: apostle; catholiclist; christianlist; religion
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To: dodger
#19: Feminism & PC-dom aside....

Indeed, always interesting.

101 posted on 07/06/2002 10:58:29 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Motherbear

Agreed.

But my point was simply, if the Bible acknowledges a female "Deaconess" and praises her.. Then why would they lie about this female apostle?

The reason femals apostles aren't mentioned is because they didn't exist..

102 posted on 07/06/2002 11:42:04 AM PDT by Jhoffa_
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To: AlGone2001
Paul was not one of the original twelve whom Jesus chose (Simon Peter; Andrew; James and John, the sons of Zebedee; Phillip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon of the Zealot party; and Judas Iscariot, later replaced by #13,Matthias). He is considered an Apostle in the spiritual sense because of his great evangelism. You don't think he was worthy of being called an Apostle?
103 posted on 07/06/2002 12:19:50 PM PDT by Canticle_of_Deborah
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To: AlGone2001
I should have been a little more specific in my previous post. The nature of Paul's conversion in Acts, Chapter 9 and the vision of Ananias tells us that Paul was called by Jesus in a vision and is considered to be the 'Apostle to the Gentiles'.
104 posted on 07/06/2002 12:29:05 PM PDT by Canticle_of_Deborah
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To: aculeus
Did I miss something? Which of the 12 was she supposed to be?
105 posted on 07/06/2002 12:33:01 PM PDT by SEA
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To: onedoug; RnMomof7
Might you comment on #36? Thanks.

Yes, I believe that is true, and she may not have been the only woman to stay around while the men fled. I am not 100% sure of this, but I will say what I think and maybe you can comment. I have heard, that up until Saul of Tarsus (later Paul the Apostle) those Jews were not persecuting women, so maybe the women hung around, because they knew they would be safe, where the men did not. When Saul was persecuting the early church, he did start persecuting women too. As I said, this is what I have heard in the past, but don't know how much validity there is.

Bien Hoa AB, RVN

106 posted on 07/06/2002 1:20:39 PM PDT by Mark17
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To: Mark17
...Or at least thought it to be safer for themselves, as women.

An interesting aspect. Though it still must have taken great courage for Mary Magdelen to come forth with what she'd witnessed, given the charged atmosphere. One of my hero(in)es, sure.

God's grace to you.

Roughly Hoi An to Quang Ngai and all points west.

107 posted on 07/06/2002 2:42:20 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: onedoug
Though it still must have taken great courage for Mary Magdelen to come forth with what she'd witnessed, given the charged atmosphere.

Well, I am sure there is no doubt she was courageous, and there are many courageous, deeply committed Christian women in the Bible. The point of this thread, however, is was there a female Apostle, and I don't think there were any.

I have not returned to VN, and most likey will not. My next trip will be to the Philippines, to bring home a young (with an emphasis on young) Christian woman as a wife.

108 posted on 07/06/2002 3:00:31 PM PDT by Mark17
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To: tellw
I think the justification for a celibate priesthood is greater than the justification for an all male priesthood. There are no physical limitations that can keep women from a priestly vocation.

Except, of course, that the priest is alter Christus, another Christ.

That would be masculine...

109 posted on 07/06/2002 6:57:37 PM PDT by ninenot
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To: Antoninus
Isn't it amazing how they 'discover' things ex post facto to justify their departures from traditional Church practice and teaching?

In a few months someone else will discover that a couple of the Apostles were married to each other as gays.

110 posted on 07/06/2002 7:01:40 PM PDT by ninenot
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To: PresbyRev
You did it again, you gave me everything you could, except that which is relevant, chapter and verse. Until you can quote chapter and verse to substantiate your position, you have no valid position, and I am reluctantly forced to repeat, no chapter and verse, no sale.
111 posted on 07/06/2002 8:31:07 PM PDT by A6M3
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To: aculeus
Next, these guys and gals will be saying that Jesus was actually a woman. Actually, there are already rumors spread that God is a woman. Of course, the feminazis believe they are god, anyway.
112 posted on 07/06/2002 8:33:30 PM PDT by Don Myers
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To: narses
I have absolutely no doubt that women were very important in the formation of the Church and neither does the Catholic Church. This is what happens when Churches or religions leave out the very important inclusion of Mary, the Mother of our Lord as someone to be highly esteemed and respected. If Mary wasn't an Apostle then I don't believe I would even consider that any other woman was.

This is all just a bunch of liberal claptrap and a feminazi political agenda.

113 posted on 07/06/2002 8:34:20 PM PDT by tiki
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To: He Rides A White Horse
No relation at all. I met him when I was very young. I also met his brother Bill Rice, who (at the time)had a very large ministry for the deaf. I imagine they're both pretty old by now.
114 posted on 07/07/2002 3:32:21 PM PDT by Bill Rice
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To: B Knotts
This smells an awful lot like the Anglicans trying to justify their priestesses after the fact.

No, you think?

As Junia, she was described by St Paul in a letter to the Romans as “prominent among the Apostles”.

So, St. Paul -- who was, unlike Richard Bauckham, a contemporary of the Apostles and who wrote that women shouldn't hold positions of authority in the Church -- didn't know Junia was female?

The point of the Gospels, BTW, isn't that men should dominate women but that all should be humble before God and put others ahead of themselves. A Christian really shouldn't be guided by ego to seek authority, which I suspect is the motivation for the "liberals" who control the Anglican Church.

115 posted on 07/07/2002 3:43:32 PM PDT by Tribune7
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To: skemper
Apostle" means "sent out". and has a formal meaning with a capital "A", as an office, or a broader sense, as special envoys, as with the case here.

Except that in New Testament Greek, the earliest manuscripts were written entirely in capital letters.
116 posted on 07/07/2002 4:59:35 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: RnMomof7
2000 years from now, they'll be debating whether Hitlery was really the president, and there is far more evidence to support that position :o)
117 posted on 07/07/2002 7:25:47 PM PDT by editor-surveyor
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To: xzins
"There is no female apostle in this text AND everything else is absolutely pure conjecture that will be thrown out of serious theological discussions, not because of sex bias, but because of the paucity of the argument."

It would be great if you were right, but in this day of politically correct re-writings of the word, who knows?

118 posted on 07/07/2002 7:34:53 PM PDT by editor-surveyor
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To: editor-surveyor
she was:>)
119 posted on 07/07/2002 7:51:52 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Mark17
How ya been Marlk? wite me sometime..
120 posted on 07/07/2002 7:53:01 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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