Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:3 (Sep 2022)
Article: Did Joanna Become Junia?
Author: Esther Yue L. Ng

JETS 65:3 (September 2022) p. 523

Did Joanna Become Junia?

Esther Yue L. Ng*

^* Esther Yue L. Ng is Senior Adjunct Professor of NT and Christian Ethics at Christian Witness Theological Seminary, 1975 Concourse Drive, San Jose, CA 95131. She may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: In 2002, Richard Bauckham argued that Joanna, the wife of Herod Antipas’s finance minister Chuza, adopted “Junia” as her Latin name. Usage of this name later facilitated her missionary travels in the western part of the Roman Empire in conjunction with Andronicus. This paper seeks to evaluate such a historical reconstruction by (1) addressing the evidence of Jews possessing, adding, or changing to, a Roman name, (2) discussing whether Joanna’s Jewish name would pose difficulties for Greeks and Romans such that she needed to use a similar-sounding “Junia” as her name, (3) viewing Roman legislation regarding the adoption of Roman names by foreigners in general, and (4) referring to the woman named Junia Theodora in a 1st-century inscription to shed light on our present discussion. I conclude that the hypothesis of “Joanna-becoming-Junia” is very unlikely, if not untenable, in spite of its attractiveness as a historical reconstruction.

Key words: Luke 8:3, Romans 16:7, Joanna, Junia, Chuza, Andronicus, Herod Antipas, Junia Theodora, Jewish adoption of Roman names, Suetonius

In a lengthy and impressive chapter in 2002,1 Richard Bauckham argued rather cogently that Joanna, the wife of Herod Antipas’s finance minister Chuza, probably came from a prominent and wealthy Jewish family. Thus she could have had financial resources of her own to contribute to Jesus and his followers as they travelled together around Galilee and later to Jerusalem, where she witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus. Moreover, her association (through Chuza) with Herod’s much Romanized court in Tiberias allowed her to acquire some Latin and to adopt Junia as her Latin name, which later facilitated her missionary travels in the western part of the Roman Empire in conjunction with Andronicus (whether her second husband or Chuza with a new name2). For this reason, when Paul referred to Junia in Romans 16:7, he described her as prominent among the apostles.

JETS 65:3 (September 2022) p. 524

Then in 2005, Ben Witherington came to the same conclusion,3 differing only in surmising that Joanna was divorced by Chu...