Andronicus

ANDRONICUS (ăn'drō-nīkŭs, Gr. Andronikos). A Jewish believer, once a fellow-prisoner of Paul, to whom the apostle sent a greeting (Rom.16.7).

2. An officer whom Antiochus Epiphanes, after sacking Jerusalem, left in charge at Gerizim (2 Macc 5:23).

3. A Christian at Rome whom Paul greets in Romans 16:7. He was an early Christian, converted before Paul. Paul calls him and Junias “my kinsmen.” This may mean blood relatives, members of the same (Jewish) civic tribe at Tarsus, or simply fellow Jews. The plain meaning of the term favors the first view. “My fellow prisoners” apparently denotes a literal imprisonment, but where they shared imprisonment with Paul is not known. They are further called “men of note among the apostles.” This may mean that they were held in high esteem by the apostles, taking “apostles” in the narrow sense of the Twelve; their activities had won the praise of the apostles. Others take it to mean that they were themselves distinguished “apostles,” in the wider sense of the term, early authorized preachers of the Gospel. The first view is more probable if Junia (KJV) is a fem. name. See Junias.

Bibliography

J. T. L. Maggs, The Spiritual Experience of St. Paul (1901), 111-121; T. Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament (1909), I, 417, 418; B. W. Bacon, ExpT, XLII (1931), 300ff.; G. A. Barton, ExpT, XLIII (1932), 359ff.; W. M. Ramsay, The Cities of St Paul (1949 reprint), 176-178; Com. in loc.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(Andronikos):

(1) A deputy of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, while ruling at Antioch, excited the Jews by the murder of Onias, and, upon their formal complaint, was executed by his superior (2 Macc 4:32-38); generally distinguished from another officer of the same name, also under Antiochus (2 Macc 5:23).

(2) A kinsman of Paul, residing at Rome (Ro 16:7). He had been converted to Christianity before Paul, and, like Paul, had suffered imprisonment, although when and where can only be surmised. When he and Junias, another kinsman of Paul, are referred to as "of note among the apostles," this may be interpreted as either designating the high esteem in which they were held by the Twelve, or as reckoning them in the number of apostles. The latter is the sense, if "apostle" be understood here in the more general meaning, used in Ac 14:14 of Barnabas, in 2Co 8:23 of Titus, in Php 2:25 of Epaphroditus, and in the Didache of "the traveling evangelists or missionaries who preached the gospel from place to place" (Schaff, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 67; see also Lightfoot on Philippians, 196). On this assumption, Andronicus was one of the most prominent and successful of the traveling missionaries of the early church.