Romans 16:7,8

“ Salute Andronicus and Junias, my countrymen and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, and who also have been in Christ before me.Salute Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. ”

The word Junian might be taken as the accusative of a female name, Junia, to denote the sister or wife of Andronicus. But the end of the verse leads us rather to think of a man of the name of Junias.

The expression συγγενεῖς μου may signify: my kinsmen, or my countrymen (Romans 9:3). The first meaning seems, in itself, the more natural; but in Romans 16:11; Romans 16:21 this term is applied to other persons, two of whom (Jason and Sosipater) appear to be Macedonians (Acts 17:5; Acts 20:4). The wider meaning, that of countrymen, thus becomes the more probable. Even Schultz finds a proof in these words that Paul wrote these lines to a church of Gentile origin (“ my countrymen”). Hence it has been concluded that these salutations could not be addressed to the church of Rome. From the same circumstance we, for our part, on the contrary, conclude that the church of Rome was not Jewish-Christian. It has been asked when these two Christians of Jewish origin could have been imprisoned with St. Paul? Neither the Acts nor the previous Epistles furnish an answer to this question. But the descriptions in 2 Corinthians 6:5 et seq., and Romans 11:23 et seq., allude to so many unknown circumstances in the apostle's life, that this ignorance ought not to excite our surprise. In chap. 15 of his Epistle to the Corinthians, Clement of Rome enumerates seven captivities of the apostle, and we know of only four (Philippi, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Rome). Probably the event in question belongs to a period anterior to his missionary journeys (comp. the end of the verse).

Most critics of the present day agree in explaining the following words in this sense: “well known by the apostles” (the Twelve). But what a strange title of honor: the apostles know them! And can the ἐν, in, have such a meaning: “illustrious with, that is to say, in the opinion of the apostles.” Meyer quotes the phrase of Euripides: ἐπίσημος ἐν βροτοῖς, illustrious with mortals, or in their eyes. But why not translate quite simply: illustrious amidst or among mortals? And similarly, and with still more reason, here: illustrious among those numerous evangelists who, by their missionary labors in the countries of the East, have merited the name of apostles. This title, indeed, could in certain cases have a wider sense than it has in our Gospels; thus, Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14, it is applied to Barnabas, as it is indirectly, 1 Corinthians 9:5. So we call the missionary Brainerd, the apostle of the Indians. Such another, the apostle of China or of the Indies.

A last title of honor: these two men preceded Paul himself in the faith. They belong, therefore, to that primitive church of Jerusalem whose members, as years elapse, take ever a more venerable character in the eyes of all the churches. The Greco-Latin reading: “the apostles who were before me,” is an evident corruption of the text.