I need your help with a bible-distorting wikipedia article

[Timbothefiveth]

A wikipedia article is distorting the truth about the apostles

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostle_(Christian)#Andronicus_and_Junia

Apparently, Paul is referring a female apostle.[18][19] Unhappy with reference to a female apostle, editors and translators have often changed the name to “Junias,” the masculine version of Junia, as in the Revised Standard Version.[19] While “Junia” was a common name, “Junias” was not.[19] This alteration is part of a pattern by which later editors changed Paul’s epistles to make them less favorable toward women in positions of authority.[19]

I guess the scholars know more than the people who were actually there. They also forget that just because a name is usually not used for men, doesn’t mean it never is. (I.E., Tyler)
Anyway, I need your help making this article more balanced, but I don’t really know enough to do a good job. Help please!

 

[COPLAND_3]

That is an error in the article, the Greek has ιουνιαν, Masculine Singular Accusative Proper from Lexical Form of ιουνιας. There is a variant reading but still the same gender, some manuscripts read Ιουλιαν (Julias), such as p46 and some old Latin, Coptic, and Etheopian.

 

[BerhaneSelassie]

Its been debated whether Junias is male or female, regardless I am surprised that is still in the wiki article since they do not allow original research, which clearly that is. It is also debated the meaning of the sentence, some interpreted it as meaning Junia was honored by the apostles, others read it to mean Junia was an Apostle. St John Chrysostom said Junia was female and an apostle, since apostle is used different ways in the New Testament, Going from 12 Apostles to clerics in general where it includes St Paul and St Barnabas, and the usage with Junia suggests an even more general usage where it applies to non clerics. Not to mention Hebrews also calls Jesus “an apostle”.

 

[Abu]

There were no female “apostles” or "female “priests”.

There were women who accompanied the Apostles (who were not married) – Peter had a mother-in-law but there is no mention of his wife.

1Cor 9:5 - Have we not power to lead about a sister, a woman*, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

• In most English translations, the Greek word “gynikas” here is mistranslated as “wife” but there is no justification for it. Greek has no specific word for husband or wife and so uses the words “andros” and “gynikas” instead which mean “man” and “woman” respectively. It is only the context that can specify the marital meaning of the words.]

Is this verse talking about a wife? Not at all. If it were, it would be very peculiar. Every man was entitled to have a wife with him while he worked. It was the standard practice in the ancient world. What St. Paul was talking about was a woman charged with caring for his needs and that of his ministry. We see this during Our Lord’s ministry.

 

[geometer]

Not to mention Hebrews also calls Jesus “an apostle”.

He said he was sent by god. What is the problem? The good news is that god sent him, and will send you.

 

[TMC]

There were no female “apostles” or "female “priests”.

There were women who accompanied the Apostles (who were not married) – Peter had a mother-in-law but there is no mention of his wife.

1Cor 9:5 - Have we not power to lead about a sister, a woman*, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

• In most English translations, the Greek word “gynikas” here is mistranslated as “wife” but there is no justification for it. Greek has no specific word for husband or wife and so uses the words “andros” and “gynikas” instead which mean “man” and “woman” respectively. It is only the context that can specify the marital meaning of the words.]

Is this verse talking about a wife? Not at all. If it were, it would be very peculiar. Every man was entitled to have a wife with him while he worked. It was the standard practice in the ancient world. What St. Paul was talking about was a woman charged with caring for his needs and that of his ministry. We see this during Our Lord’s ministry.

Of course Peter had a wife, how else does one come by a mother in law? Early Church historians Eusebius and Clement both say Peter had a wife and children, and that his wife was martyred before Peter was.

newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm

On Junia, I am no expert on such things, but from what I have read it seems like the better reading is that Junia was a woman, but there is considerable debate as to what her role was in the Church.

That said, I think people get way too heated these things. I have trouble enough following the important stuff without worrying my little head over trivial and inconsequential details.

 

[Abu]

Of course there was no living wife mentioned with Peter nor the other Apostles.

What is vital is to know that continence (often referred to as celibacy in this context) was the norm from the Apostles, there is no mention of wives with them, and that is why there were “sister women” to care for their needs, and to whom Paul refers.

 

[TMC]

Of course there was no living wife mentioned with Peter nor the other Apostles.

What is vital is to know that continence (often referred to as celibacy in this context) was the norm from the Apostles, there is no mention of wives with them, and that is why there were “sister women” to care for their needs, and to whom Paul refers.

Were Eusibius and Clement wrong then?

 

[Abu]

Fr Zimmerman in Celibacy Dates Back To The Apostles, HL!, 1994].

“In 1969 Christian Cocchini, S.J. completed his doctoral thesis at the Institut Catholique, on the history of clerical celibacy. The president of the examiners who approved his dissertation was Cardinal Danielou. Cocchini’s mastery of the sources from the New Testament to the seventh century is unequalled.

This is what he found:
“From the beginnings of the Church, and throughout the Greco-Latin world, a single rule prevailed: Priests were celibate; or else, if they had married before ordination, they and their wives promised to live together thereafter without the use of the marriage. This rule was an Apostolic norm; it was proclaimed and practiced by the Apostles; and that norm in turn was founded upon the example of our Lord Himself.

Fr Zimmerman writes:
“All of the English versions I have access to translate the text as “wife,” which is completely contrary to what Paul qualifies as “sister.” The Fathers of the Church, who spoke Greek as their mother tongue and were closer in time to the apostolic tradition than we are, refer to her as a sisterly assistant, not a wife.

Apart from Peter, there is no mention in Scripture of any other Apostle being married – continence being the norm from the Apostles and for the successor priests and bishops of Christ’s Church, from the example of Christ and of His mother.

 

[beeliner]

A wikipedia article is distorting the truth about the apostles!

I see neither the distortion nor the problem here.

Firstly, the article says, ‘Apparently’.

Secondly, Paul uses the term ‘apostle’ broadly on many occasions, not just here.

Thirdly, many other women are mentioned in the same discourse.

By the way, the footnote in the Good News Bible says that the name may be translated as Junias or June, and also that some manuscripts have Julia.

Fourthly, what difference does it make?