The Lost Apostle.

THE LOST APOSTLE By Rena Pederson (Jossey-Bass, 2006)

Inspired by a question in a discussion group about Junia, whom she had never heard of, journalist Rena Pederson set out on an adventure in search of the illusive female apostle of Romans 16:7. The result is this book. The name in that passage is either Junias (male) or Junia (female, with a variant, Julia). Early church commentators unanimously understood this companion of Andronicus to be a female apostle, but medieval commentators concluded that no woman could be called an apostle. From then on, opinions were divided.

In her search the author consulted an amazing number of scholars, myself included, on both sides of the Atlantic. She reports that all were helpful and interested. The search widens to include other memorable female figures of early Christianity: Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2), Mary Magdalene, Theda, Philip's daughters (Acts 21:8), Tabitha (Acts 9:36), Lydia (Acts 16), Damaris (Acts 17:34), Chloe (1 Cor 1:11), Claudia (2 Tim. 4:21), Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4:2), and others. She then sets the neglect of these early women saints within the pattern of exclusion of women in the West through the Middle Ages and beyond. But in the Eastern Church, she learned, Mary Magdalene was always an apostle, never a prostitute. Saints Andronicus and Junia are venerated together as a missionary couple.

The author also speculates about the lives of these women based on what we know about women's lives in their world: birth, education, marriage, childbearing, widowhood, and death, along with their evangelizing activities. These reflections lead to the opening of some wider questions about what gets emphasized and what gets neglected in biblical interpretation, and why.

This is a very readable introduction to some of the characters and stories about women from early Christianity that are known to scholars but are often forgotten rather than celebrated in the rest of the church.--Carolyn Osiek, R.S.C.J.