Studies of women in antiquity tend in two directions: first, academic presentations of complex, often conflicting, evidence from across the Mediterranean, or second, more perfunctory presentations aimed at a wide audience that smooth out irregular data sets into a convenient trendline. Susan Hylen, associate professor of New Testament at Emory University, expertly splits the difference providing a complex yet accessible picture of the status and position of women in the “New Testament World.”

This recent addition to the Essentials of Biblical Studies series of Oxford University Press begins with brief methodological introduction that laudably reduces fifty years of the academic study of ancient women into twenty-five pages preserving the concision of this series while demonstrating its value as more than an introductory textbook. The second chapter addresses common misconceptions about ancient women. Here Hylen explains the deficits in homogenizing conclusions drawn from intractably multiple and conflicting data. Adapting Ann Swidler's notion of “cultural repertoire,” Hylen proposes to reconstruct these diverse expressions of gendered norms and values.

The remaining five chapters all tackle aspects of women's lives as evidenced in sources from the Principate period. Appeal is regularly made to the work of relevant classicists; nevertheless, Hylen offers novel interpretations of Greek and Roman authors in lucidly organized arguments. This book is structured not around topics in classical studies but those especially relevant to students of the New Testament and early Christianity. This orientation serves the pedagogical purpose as each chapter concludes by elucidating the relevance of its survey for the study of New Testament women or passages.

Scholars will no doubt periodically find opportunity to take exception with Hylen's readings. Nonetheless, Women in the New Testament World is a remarkable advance on previous work. Undergraduate and seminary students alike will be well-served by Hylen's incisive approach and perspicuous analysis of women's position(s) in ancient society, positions mirrored in our earliest evidence of ancient Christianity.