Apostle-ette Junia? Let's chat.

 

Junia ???

Some of my readers came to me asserting "Junia" was an apostle and anonymous sent me the above book. If you want our review of it , it is in the second half of this post.
The bottom line is that the author utterly failed to prove Junia to be an apostle, but concluded anyway, "JUNIA WAS AN APOSTLE!" 

When I pointed out the problems in making Junia into an apostle, their assertions included a few labels such as inferring me as being a “misogynist” , anti-female, and other terms. 

Because of my own exhaustive dive into scripture regarding men, women, ministry, the words used, who they applied to, and the several revelations pertaining to this subject, the results triggered some people to the point of making false accusations.

Let's test the assertion made by friends that Junia was an apostle..

1. apostle is "apostolos" in the Greek, a masculine noun. Like husband, brother, prophet. 
2. Jesus chose 12 men. There were many Godly women around Him.

3. Paul credited Junia and Andronica as fellow prisoners, kinsmen, and that they were both "IN CHRIST" before him.

This means they were serving the Lord before Paul's conversion. 
Yet there was no mention of either Andronicus or Junia named as apostles ever.

4. Paul and Barnabbas were the first apostles added and named as apostles in Acts 13. Prior to them, there are no other apostles named after Acts 1 when the Eleven were mentioned, and they cast lots to replace Judas who fell.

At that time, Two MEN were selected from among the disciples in Acts 1,  and the Lord's lot fell upon Matthias. Godly women were there, but they chose from the men.

Acts 1:23  they appointed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

24 And they prayed and said, “Thou, Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show us which of these two Thou hast chosen,
25 that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” 

26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias;
and  he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

5. 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 "𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭" 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝟏𝟑,  𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐬 being "𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧",

6. They want to apostle-atize Junia but look, there were TWO people "of note among the apostles":

"ANDRONICUS and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles and who also were in Christ before me"

Andronicus gets unequal "of note among the apostles" attention yet he is with Junia in that mention.  There is no evidence for Andronicus being an apostle either.

-it seems quite the stretch to turn Junia into an apostle based on this one phrase:
"Greet Andronicus and  Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me."

With no prior record of either Junia nor Andonicus being called an apostle, and no reference of her being one in any other mention of the names of the other apostles like Barnabbas, Epaphroditus, Silvanus, Timothy, and Lukes writing in Acts, 
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒 NAMED 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐔𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐀𝐒 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝟏𝟏 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐬.

And brethren, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑱𝒖𝒅𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑻𝑾𝑶 𝑴𝑬𝑵.
-𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕.
There is no Biblical record of Junia as an apostle (apostolos noun-masculine) nor Andronicus, both are mentioned, and Paul said they were “in Christ” before him.

𝐈 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞-𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐚.

Why did I receive such strong rebukes with false accusations and some name-calling?

It seems the Lord led me to search the connection to Junia as a name.
From several websites:
Name Junia. Meaning. “queen of heaven”.
Feminine of Junio.  “LATIN ORIGIN”. 
As with “Jezebel”, “Mary”, “Diana”, these names are attached to by deceiving spirits and thus doctrines of devils. Repeatedly we have seen women and men that give place to it triggered into responses that are not of Christ.

Apostolos is a masculine noun.
 Junia is a feminine proper name.
 Andronicus is a masculine name.

A Greek friend I have on Facebook confirmed it is a masculine noun. When we first met, I asked him, since it is his name, and as he is Greek, if girls were ever named as apostolos.
He “lol‘d and gave me a firm  No".

"THEY SAY THEY ARE APOSTLES.."?
Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou cannot bear them which are evil: and you have tried them which say: “ they are apostles”, and are not, and have found them liars:

Is there room for the “they say Junia was an apostle” to be tested in that warning? One might give thought to that. I found my detractors also held other false beliefs. One also asserted Joseph fathered Jesus. 

Last note.
Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  ALL the overseer functions are MASCULINE NOUNS.

Women are equal to men in Christ, but not the same in function. 
In a body, the hand is not more important than the eye, they are equal in importance but different in function. So it is with men and women in Christ.
The scriptures define function and use in all of us.

God gave instructions to men, and different instructions to women.
He gave examples for each. 
He gave instructions for children, employers, and employees in Christ.
All are loved and equal as brethren, but each has separate and defined instructions.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>,<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

ORIGINAL POST Review FROM< FACEBOOK:

Someone sent me the book, "JUNIA A Woman An Apostle".

My wife Linda said "let's see what it says". I agreed.

She sat to read it aloud, and then as she noted and reacted to various points, we went through it together in the interest of fairness, and to see how solid a case might be made. regarding Junia being an apostle.

We operated on Paul's command to "prove <test> all things".

-𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨, 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐢, 𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬.

The author had 3 major points and spent a LOT of verbiage on them, little to no scripture.

1. Was Junia a woman or a man?

This question took up about 35+ pages total over 9 chapters.

𝑻𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒆. 𝑺𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝑹𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒔 16𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 as a witness..

For numerous reasons I would argue against anyone claiming Junia was a man. (without the need for 5,000 words).

2. He spent a lot of time explaining and defining "apostle", proving whether it should be translated "apostle" or "messenger".

Again, a LOT of verbiage for a short and easy point.

The word "apostle" or "apostolos" is easily recognizable even in its' Greek form.

𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 the word "𝒂𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒔" 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕𝒔' 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 and application to the men that were called and served as apostles.

Spanish words have gender just as do Hebrew and Greek.

A husband is "esposo". Wife is "esposa".

An apostle is "apostolos". There is no feminine form for it.

A man, prophet, is "prophetes".

A woman that prophesies is "prophetess", and does have a feminine form, "propheteis".

He missed that.

He overlooked that all the apostles in Acts 1 were male, that they selected a replacement for Judas from among two men,

-and that two more men were called to be apostles in Acts 13,

and that there were no mentions of any female apostles in Acts, even though there were "prophetesses" mentioned.

2a. He spent 11 chapters in 35 pages on "was she an apostle" or "known to the "apostles".

𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬:

𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞 "𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬"?

𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞 "𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞?"

Again, he ignored "apostolos" at this juncture being noun-masculine as it is in the other 78 places where apostles are mentioned.

-and in those 79 references, not one female is referenced as an apostle.

-unless you stretchhhhhh the scripture to apply a masculine noun upon Junia.

He cites numerous scholars, arguments, and translations, none of which were conclusive or definitive despite their arguments, and 154 pages total, with a lot of inconclusive verbiage.

In one chapter, he refers to "Burr and Wallace", projects and accuses their view as being biased, patriarchal, then goes into a lot of word-technicalities in the Greek, and in my opinion, falls into the morass of complex word-hair-splitting and arguments over translations.

It was tedious and boring, frankly without fresh insight or Spirit-given revelation.

We had to read and re-read numerous sentences trying to understand points made from the Greek that he said were technical but simple. They were anything but. Sometimes I asked Linda to re-read a sentence or paragraph 3-4 times trying to make sense of his "simple" ideas.

So instead without ever putting forth a definitive corollary scripture, or proof from the scholars he cited for support, he summed up 154 pages in the final 2-page chapter with the conclusion:

"Junia is a woman apostle".

-Which is what the scriptures never said.

Thus, he concludes,

"the question has been answered most emphatically Junia was among the apostles". Page 153

-After failing utterly to prove his assertion and making something simple, into a complicated argument and a needless writing.

As he ended with his own view, made several absurd statements, ( I can quote them), a few arguments from silence, blames some scholars and translators as being anti-female, and in the final chapter as we looked for conclusive proof, it was not there!

𝐌𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫, "𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫".

No clear cut definitive proof, and as there are so many conflicting books and ideas about God and His Word, this underscores the wisdom of my repenting of seeking truth from the confusion and conflicts in the church world.

He ignored 2Timothy 2:12, he failed to note the chronology in Acts where there were 12 apostles until Acts 13, where Paul and Barnabbas were appointed and called.

I am sorry for the ones supporting this false teaching.

It is no different than those that firmly believe God is three beings, or that Jesus is God, when there is no direct scripture for those conclusions.

For you the "Junia" book sender:

The name "Junia" means "queen of heaven".

I can expand on that, and the difference with Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary as an idol and feminine power that is spiritually attached to "her", but that is for another time.

Thank you for reaffirming the wisdom of me going to the Lord for truth and understanding and not to man.

I forgive those that insulted and slandered my conviction to seek God first in HIS WORD.

The book you sent me is noted, highlighted, and marked.

To me it is astonishing someone could write a book to try and prove something the scripture does not say, and did so by relying on the words of others rather than having total dependence on God's Word.

The fact that in both Greek and Hebrew, nouns have gender that designate their proper application to either of the two sexes, escaped the writer in the 154 pages plus intro.

Summary.

The author WANTS to believe Junia was an apostle,

just like many WANT to believe in a rapture,

and people want to believe God is three persons,

WANT to believe their pastor is telling them the truth about tithing,

WANT to believe their church is right,

WANT to believe there is a no hell-judgement,

WANT to believe when not one scripture says those things.

And THAT is how people are deceived by the "leaven" in Churchianity.