Beryl Rawson "Bruce Winter draws on a wide range of classical and Christian sources to illuminate both Roman society and early Christian society. Placing New Testament texts in the wider social and cultural setting of the Mediterranean in early imperial Roman times, he makes a highly readable contribution to recent scholarship that is bringing about closer integration of Roman and early Christian studies, to the benefit of both. " Themelios "This is a fresh and in many ways persuasive study, which should be consulted when studying the background of the NT, in the discussion of the role of women in earliest Christianity and in the exegesis of the passages discussed."