Early Sexist Textual Variants, and Claims That Prisca, Junia, and Julia Were Men

Abstract

There are numerous textual variants in early NT manuscripts that reverse the order of females and males, with the effect of giving precedence to the males. The expectation that males should be named first, the rarity of the name Prisca in the east, and the grammatical ambiguity of the name in Rom 16:3 likely led interpreters to assume that the person referred to there was male. Several textual variants can be explained as attempts to bolster the claim that Prisca, Junia, and Julia were in fact men. The author of the Pastoral Epistles probably shared the mistaken assumption that Prisca was a man.