The literature covered in this chapter is diverse both in its generally accepted date and in its audience. Mark's Gospel may have been written as early as A.D. 66 – 8 in and for a Roman congregation. The Fourth Gospel may date to as late as A.D. 96 – 100 and could hail from an Asian province. The First Gospel probably dates between these two extremes and if it is dependent upon Mark then we should date it at least to A.D. 76. Finally, the Gospel called Matthew has a certain Jewish Christian flavor and may have been written to a Syrian audience. To anticipate our conclusions, it appears that: (1) Mark has only a moderate interest in women and their roles; (2) Matthew has some interest in this theme but also wishes to stress informed and reformed male leadership for the community that follows Jesus; and (3) John has a real interest in portraying certain key women as models of awakening faith and as witnesses of the Christian community. Again, our interest is not on thorny historical problems but on how the Evangelists present material that bears on the question of women and their roles in the earliest churches.