The name in Romans 16:7 is written IOUNIAN in an unaccented text, and the accent decides the sex: Iounian is the common Roman woman's name Junia, Iounian the otherwise unattested man's name Junias. Every ancient reader who says anything takes it as a woman. Chrysostom, preaching at Antioch around 391, is unembarrassed and delighted — how great the devotion of this woman, that she should be counted worthy of the appellation of apostle — and no Greek father reads it otherwise. The masculine appears in the thirteenth-century Latin West, becomes standard in the printed editions, and is the reading in the Nestle-Aland critical text from 1927 until it was reversed in 1998. The reasoning was circular and was sometimes stated outright: the person is called notable among the apostles, an apostle cannot be a woman, therefore the name is masculine. Meanwhile the male name Junias is unattested anywhere in Greek or Latin antiquity and Junia is extremely common. This dataset keeps the woman, on the ground that the ancient witnesses are unanimous and the modern reversal has been made twice.
Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans · Homily 31 on Romans