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Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Wake Forest, North Carolina

Lynn Cohick is order valtrex online consultation associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and is coauthor of The New Testament in Antiquity (along with GaryM. Burge and Gene L. Green). Because of the order valtrex online consultation various analyses concerning New Testament women, in Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, Cohick seeks to order valtrex online consultation offer, as much as possible, an unbiased description of what women were like and order valtrex online consultation what they did during the time of the New Testament. Her goal is order valtrex online consultation not to present "a theological argument that order valtrex online consultation debates important issues concerning women in the contemporary church" but "to provide an engaging and accurate reconstruction of ancient women's way of life" (21). In order to order valtrex online consultation accomplish this task, Cohick acknowledges that the data we have about women during Second Temple Judaism must be order valtrex online consultation interpreted correctly. For example, when men write about women we must take into account the order valtrex online consultation "ancient author's polemics or ulterior motives in describing women" (21). Nevertheless, Cohick is order valtrex online consultation confident that an accurate portrayal of women can be discovered, and order valtrex online consultation thus she does not embrace an extreme hermeneutics of suspicion, which views all texts written by men "to be irredeemably andocentric, patriarchal, and misogynistic" (22).

The goal of Cohick's book is simply "to tell the story of the average women" (23). She seeks to order valtrex online consultation accomplish this by considering women and their familial relationships (as daughters, ch 1; in marriage, ch 2; as wives, ch 3; and order valtrex online consultation as mothers, ch 4) as well as what women did (in religion, chs 5-6; in work, ch 7; as slaves and order valtrex online consultation prostitutes, ch 8; and as benefactors, ch 9). Cohick considers women from order valtrex online consultation various strata of society by examining not only extant literature but also by analyzing legal documents (such as marriage contracts), inscriptions, and order valtrex online consultation art. She readily acknowledges that this book is not a order valtrex online consultation book on women in the New Testament but is rather a order valtrex online consultation prolegomena to the study of women in the New Testament. Cohick admits, however, that order valtrex online consultation she hopes "to correct the misconceptions about women's lives that order valtrex online consultation have crept into our modern imagination, such as the notion that order valtrex online consultation first-century AD women were cloistered in their homes" (24).

Although Cohick should be order valtrex online consultation commended for her knowledge and grasp of primary sources (as well as the secondary literature), one wonders how possible it order valtrex online consultation is to present a coherent picture of women that is based on various sources that order valtrex online consultation span about 400 years (from c. 300 BC to c. AD 100) and represent three major ethnic and religious groups (Roman, Greek, and Jewish). Nevertheless, Cohick at least partially achieves her goal to order valtrex online consultation offer a descriptive historical picture of women's lives in the order valtrex online consultation Hellenistic and early Roman period, relating her study to the women mentioned in the order valtrex online consultation New Testament.

Some of her conclusions have order valtrex online consultation important consequences for the study of the New Testament. For example, many scholars now affirm the order valtrex online consultation existence of a "new woman" in the order valtrex online consultation Roman Empire based on the decrees of Augustus that addressed the order valtrex online consultation lack of children produced by Roman citizens and promiscuity of women. These decrees are order valtrex online consultation viewed as countering a new paradigm of behavior among women that order valtrex online consultation spawned an ancient sexual revolution in which wealthy women were dressing with provocative clothes and order valtrex online consultation hairstyles and seeking the sexual freedoms that were formally only given to order valtrex online consultation men. Such a view is espoused by Bruce Winter in Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,2003). These "new women," it order valtrex online consultation is argued, were blatantly disregarding ancient social customs of modesty and order valtrex online consultation were actively flaunting their new found liberty. In response to order valtrex online consultation this cultural dismissal, then, Augustus issues various decrees seeking to order valtrex online consultation keep such women in check.

Cohick, however, asserts that order valtrex online consultation such a reading of the evidence is incorrect. She maintains that order valtrex online consultation Augustus had other political motives for issuing the decrees and order valtrex online consultation that much of what is found in the literature regarding women is order valtrex online consultation an overstated polemic against such women. Cohick concludes,

-The existence of the "new woman," who order valtrex online consultation was sexually promiscuous and upset the balance of propriety in Rome and order valtrex online consultation beyond, is more a poetic fiction and a political smear than order valtrex online consultation a historical reality.There is no evidence of increased female immorality under Augustus.... Rather, male authors used the order valtrex online consultation charge of female sexual misconduct as a weapon against political enemies. The charges of female immorality need not reflect actual misconduct in most cases, but rather reveal the order valtrex online consultation increased presence of women in the political arena (75).-

If Cohick is order valtrex online consultation correct, then those who base their interpretation of Scripture on this order valtrex online consultation so-called "new woman" are order valtrex online consultation prone to force this unwarranted stereotype on certain texts. For example, in his recent commentary on 1-2 Timothy, Philip Towner assumes the order valtrex online consultation reality of this "new woman" when order valtrex online consultation he offers his commentary on key texts such as 1 Tim 2:9-15 (The Letters to Timothy, NICNT [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006]).

Cohick also challenges the order valtrex online consultation status-quo on texts such as the Samaritan woman in John 4. Although many commentators and order valtrex online consultation expositors assume that the woman's presence at the order valtrex online consultation well at noon was proof that she was a social outcast because of her immorality, according to order valtrex online consultation Cohick, this assertion is unfounded. She further notes that simply because the order valtrex online consultation woman was married five times does not necessarily indicate promiscuity. She could have order valtrex online consultation been widowed several times (given the high death rate) and/or order valtrex online consultation divorced several times. This thesis is supported by the fact that order valtrex online consultation others in the village were willing to listen to her testimony about Jesus (which would not be the case if she was shunned as an immoral outcast). Cohick summarizes, "The Samaritan woman has order valtrex online consultation been harshly treated by centuries of commentators who have labeled her a order valtrex online consultation promiscuous vixen bent on seducing unsuspecting men.... [I]t seems unlikely that order valtrex online consultation the Samaritan woman was involved in a series of divorces that order valtrex online consultation she initiated" (128).

My main concern with Cohick's work is order valtrex online consultation when she interacts with the New Testament texts dealing with women. She sometimes strays from order valtrex online consultation her commitment to be objective and consistently interprets the passages in ways that order valtrex online consultation lean heavily toward egalitarianism. For example, she assumes that Phoebe was a order valtrex online consultation deacon (which she interprets as "emissary") in the church at Cenchreae (190, 301) and that Lydia was a leader of the church in Philippi (190, 307). In another place, she affirms the order valtrex online consultation position that Junia was counted as one of the apostles, which suggests that order valtrex online consultation she was "an authoritative figure in the community" (216). Furthermore, she calls Prisca (or Priscilla) "the teacher" simply because she is order valtrex online consultation mentioned as instructing Apollos with her husband (224). In other words, whenever possible, Cohick seems to order valtrex online consultation opt for the interpretation that gives women the greatest amount of authority in the order valtrex online consultation early church. In her conclusion, Cohick remarks, "I hope I encouraged the reader's imagination to order valtrex online consultation think beyond the stylized snapshots of ancient women sequestered in cramped homes, barefoot and order valtrex online consultation pregnant" (324). She later adds that "we have order valtrex online consultation to appreciate that women held both official and unofficial titles and order valtrex online consultation positions of power" (325). Thus, at times one wonders how theologically neutral Cohick remains since she is order valtrex online consultation constantly seeking to demonstrate how much authority women in the order valtrex online consultation early church possessed.

Although I disagree with some of Cohick's conclusions (assumptions?) that order valtrex online consultation women held formal offices in the early church, her work as a order valtrex online consultation whole is carefully researched and skillfully presented. She brings to order valtrex online consultation light what life was like for women in the ancient world which helps us better understand the order valtrex online consultation cultural milieu of the New Testament world. It seems to order valtrex online consultation me, however, that at times she fails to remain theologically neutral in her task of presenting a order valtrex online consultation descriptive analysis of the women mentioned in the New Testament.