"In this study, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E. Bringing to bear the latest analytical methods on her subject, she pays close attention to the way that literary texts presented early Christianity, combining this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with the most recent work on Judaism in late antiquity and the Graeco-Roman world." "The book addresses key questions in current New Testament scholarship, including the formation of early Christian identity, how best to describe and understand the processes by which the Christian movement became separate from its Jewish origins, the role of women in Judaism and early Christianity, and the part which martyrdom played in the construction of Christian identity."--BOOK JACKET.