Roman Wives, Roman Widows. The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities.

AuthorSmith, II, Carl B.
PositionBook review

Roman Wives, Roman Widows. The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities. By BRUCE W. WINTER. Grand Rapids, Mich.: WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING Co., 2003. Pp. xvii + 236. $26 (paper).

A significant scholar in both ancient history and New Testament studies, Bruce Winter holds academic and administrative posts at Tyndale House, Cambridge, St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge, and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. The present volume manifests his thorough acquaintance with linguistic issues and familiarity with relevant materials from a variety of domains, including legal, philosophical, poetic, epigraphic, and statuary, and presents evidence for what is classified in current research as the "new woman" of Roman society. It is this "new woman," Winter argues, with her legal standing, economic strength, and liberated social and, at times, moral perspectives, that provides the backdrop to Paul's counter-cultural instruction to women in the churches at Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, and Crete.

Following other ancient historians, Winter argues that around 44 B.C. the image of a "new woman" emerged in Roman society. It is in response to this "new woman" that Augustus, attempting moral reformation and social engineering, created legislation to curtail its influence and uphold and restore traditional familial roles and responsibilities. Winter presents a strong case for the influence of this new social perspective on Christian communities, but is careful to clarify several concerns. The first is that his purpose in this volume is not to expose authorial responses to secular influences on Christian wives and widows, but rather to define the Sitz im Leben of the recipients of their writings. Thus, the book should not be understood to be a commentary on relevant New Testament passages, but rather a backdrop that should inform one's interpretation. Secondly, the author finds Paul not merely mimicking traditional patriarchy or Augustan conservatism. Instead, Paul provides careful guidelines that enabled women to exert their influence within the Christian community without transgressing the boundaries of biblical morality and social mores or offending the sensibilities of those who were seeking to discern, in an official capacity, the nature of this new religious movement.

Winter divides his argument into three parts. First, he presents evidence for the "new woman" in the cultural expressions of the poets, legislators, and philosophers...

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