A good companion resource with the work above. Bell gives a very basic overview of both the Jewish and Roman background to the NT. He includes bits of relevant extra-biblical texts as well. A great start for the beginning reader.

Bible dictionaries are essential for providing quickly found information on a wide range of subjects. This one is solely oriented to the cultural background of the NT and a very helpful resource. Most of the contributors are on the conservative end of the theological spectrum and are very informative and up-to-date in their fields of study.

Cohen is a gifted Jewish scholar who gives us here a helpful yet readable social/historical treatment of Jewish history from the "pre-NT era" of the Maccabees to the post-Temple era of the Mishnah. Substantial yet readable enough for most general readers.

For a highly regarded social sciences approach of the Palestinian/Jewish background at the time of Christ, this is recommended. It's great to know biblical "manners and customs" like how potters made a pot or how a shepherd interacted with his flock but the deeper entry point of understanding a culture is through exploring the dimensions of it's socially constructed values and perceptions.

Much information has been gathered about the particular area of Galilee, the chief area of Jesus' ministry. Galilee had it's own distinct flavor of Jewish life. Horsley provides a comprehensive and fascinating study that will illuminate much about the background that shaped Jesus. Also see Sean Freyne's classic study.

Crenshaw is a renowned OT scholar and this study would have most pertinence for OT studies. However, because of his comprehensive approach that includes perspectives from early Judaism and the classical world, I think the overall study would provide important insights for understanding Jewish education within the NT era.

There are quite a few books that are compilations of essays by Context Group scholars. This is a good one among the mix. Learn about everything from the "evil eye" to "deviancy and apostasy" and much, much more.

This continues the above discussion with more contributors and topics about family life for early Christian households. A good source for imagining what house churches may have been like.

A stimulating collection of essays of family related topics by a group of largely European scholars. Part one covers topics about the family within the context of the ancient world, part two deals with essays about family as metaphor in the NT and part three ends with issues on sexuality and asceticism.

The developments that brought about the Jewish synagogue were very influential for the genesis of the earliest churches. Again, the idea of "church" was not created out of a vacuum. This book includes much history that post-dates our concerns (yet still fascinating) but some that will be highly relevant.

As a supplement to Smith's work above, this is a valuable study of food and meals and their symbolic meanings within the early church and early Judaism. An interesting cultural anthropological approach.

Kee, a top notch NT scholar, has done much research in the areas of miracle and magic. This is another smaller overview of the subject, nearly the same length as Janowitz. For a larger work, one may want to read his "Miracle in the Early Christian World".

Covers travel in the Near East, Greece and Rome with fascinating sections on Roman roads, inns and restaurants, seafare, mail etc. etc. Christianity is a religion heavily indebted to two noted travelers, Jesus and the apostle Paul. Learn what it would have been like for them.

The early churches within the Roman world were often quite diverse, incorporating a broad strata of social life. Meeks sociological study is a classic award winning book that should be in the library of every serious student of the Bible.

A helpful discussion about the early Christians' very often positive roles as citizens of Roman society. Learn about things like the care of widows, civil litigation, the role and status of slaves etc. etc.

Learn about the Roman cultural context of women in society. May help shed light for you on the cultural reasoning for head coverings, dress codes and seemingly restrictive requirements for early Christian women in the writings of the NT.

A wonderful compendium of essays from an array of NT scholars about Paul within his cultural milieu. Whereas the Context Group may provide generalized cultural insight that is a bit over-simplified, this resource is more carefully nuanced, if a bit duller.

My last entries will be about methods of interpreting biblical texts in antiquity and also ancient writing and rhetorical strategies. Longnecker's book is very helpful in understanding the way that early Jewish Christians interpreted the Hebrew Bible by way of pesher, midrash and allegorical methods very different from our modern approaches.

We know Paul and other NT writers were active practitioners of letter writing in staying in touch with their churches. Stowers picks from over 9,000 known letters from antiquity to show the social functions that letters preformed in the ancient world. A great sourcebook for translations of selected ancient letters.

A great sourcebook to note the similarities and the differences of Paul's (and other NT writers') moral instructions and use of moral rhetoric compared to the Greco-Roman world. The moral admonitions from the letters of Paul and the Pastoral letters (however you view authorship) will find great context here.