Tal Ilan explores the real, as against the ideal social, political and religious status of women in Palestinian Judaism of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The main conclusions of this investigations are that extreme religious groups in Judaism of the period influenced other groups, classes and factions to tighten their control of women and represent the ideal relationships beween men and women as requiring greater chastity, in order to prove their piety. However, the lives of real women, over and against their representation in the literature of the time, and their relationships to men as opposed to the ideals represented by legal codes, were much more varied and nuanced. This book integrates both Jewish and Early Christian sources together with a feminist critique. "This book is a tour de force - a major piece of research and a 'must read' for all concerned with the recovery of women's history." Judith Romney Wegner in Journal of Biblical Literature 2 (1997), pp. 354 "This fine collection of carefully analysed data will have lasting value..." Martin Goodman in Journal of Roman Studies vol. 88 (1998), p. 189 "The scope of the work is impressive." Joshua Schwartz in Journal of Jewish Studies 1 (1997), pp. 156