Epiphanius’ Index Discipulorum

Christian Alexander

I have read in a book that in In Epiphanius’ Index Discipulorum 125 we read: ᾿Ιουνιᾶς, οὗ καὶ αὐτοῦ ὁ Παῦλος μέμνηται, ἐπίσκοπος ᾿Απαμείας τῆς Συρίας ἐγένετο, “Junias, whom Paul also mentions, became bishop of Apameia of Syria.”  The masculine relative pronoun (οὗ) that follows the name makes it clear that here Junias is to be understood as being a man.  While some have tried to make much of this, it is important to consider the previous sentence in which Epiphanius writes that Aquila became bishop of Heraclea and Priscas (Pricilla), whom he also considers to be a man, became bishop of Colophonman. Where can I find this resource and how can I search for the syntax of the source?

DAL

You‘re already discussing Junias here: https://community.logos.com/forums/p/206264/1200739.aspx#1200739 

And here: https://community.logos.com/forums/t/206269.aspx 

And here: https://community.logos.com/forums/t/206265.aspx

Please, stop flooding the forums with the same questions that are not about the software, per the guidelines.

DAL

Roy

Christian Alexander said:

While some have tried to make much of this, it is important to consider the previous sentence in which Epiphanius writes that Aquila became bishop of Heraclea and Priscas (Pricilla), whom he also considers to be a man, became bishop of Colophonman.

[quote]

Indeed, even if we disregard the reading of Ἰουνίαν in Greek manuscripts and the rendering of Juniam in Latin versions and do not count them as evidence for the name being feminine, it is still true that many learned persons in church history referred to the name Junia and/or took this to be a woman, the wife of Andronicus.²⁵ On the other hand, scholars who hold the consensus view admit that the work Index Discipulorum supposedly written by the 4^th-century Church Father Epiphanius (AD 310–403) who preceded Chrysostom and Jerome in time, gave the name as Ἰουνίας and stated that he became the bishop of Apameia.

Moreover, it is acknowledged that certain manuscripts of Rufinus’s (AD 340–410) Latin translation of the Greek commentary on Romans by Origen (AD 185–254) gave the name as Junias. However, to such scholars, Epiphanius’s statement is untrustworthy since he made Prisca a male too and said that he became the bishop of Kolophon, but Prisca/Priscilla was clearly the wife of Aquila (Acts 18:2).²⁶ As for Latin translations of Origen’s commentary on Romans, some scholars consider the manuscripts with the reading of Junias less reliable than those that render the name as Junia since they came later in time (12^th c.).²⁷

Footnote 26:

On the basis of Epiphanius’s statement in Index Discipulorum, a few contemporary scholars treat Junia(s) as a male. See, e.g., John Piper and Wayne Grudem, eds., Rediscovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991), 79. For the view that Index Discipulorum is untrustworthy as a historical source, see Bauckham, Gospel Women, 166–67; Belleville, “Reexamination,” 235; Epp, First Woman Apostle, 34–35; Cohick, Women, 215 n. 61. Among them, Bauckham and Belleville claim further that this work originated in the 9^th century, not from Epiphanius in the 4^th century.

Ng, Esther Yue L. “Was Junia(s) In Rom 16:7 A Female Apostle?  And So What?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 63. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (2020).