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Wrestling the Word: The Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Believer
This lively book for introductory Old Testament classes offers an appealing illustration of how faith and academic study can work together, motivating and equipping Christian believers to turn to the Old Testament as a profound resource for their daily negotiations of faith, identity, and culture. Throughout, Carolyn J. Sharp focuses on the basic fundamentals that are a necessary part of every student's education.
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2025
3.5 Helpful overview of some of the basic discourse in Biblical interpretation.
Covering historical criticism vs post-structural and literary analysis, basic facets of the source criticism debate on the Documentary Hypothesis (four authors of the Pentateuch J, E, P, D) - which the author finds rife with tautological reasoning -and introductions to alternative readings of the text, including feminist/womanist readings, queer readings, Black/Latine/Asian liberation readings, and more.
She discusses the work of Emmanuel Lévinas and their ethical philosophy of “the Other” as disruption to discourse. To “not let the other die alone” is our fundamental calling, and that should inform the way we read the text. She also discusses Bakhtin and the heteroglossia of the text, as in, its inability to be contained and the resultant multivocality of its significance in ever-evolving dimensionality.
She works to recognize her own situatedness and affirms both a historical criticism and a literary criticism in that there’s necessary contextual information and truth is a perception contextual to all readers, even at the time of writing. Her willingness to sit in tensions and acknowledge valuable contributions across the spectrum of interpretation is refreshing.
But I think she fails to fully acknowledge her own lack of relatedness to what I perceive to be her intended audience, even if it isn’t stated as such: the evangelical student wary of critical theory in Biblical interpretation. I believe she longs to call them into invitation to reconsider and reevaluate, but unintentionally does so with an air of condescension, though I believe she was attempting to avoid that. Nonetheless, this book is a helpful intro to biblical studies in the academy, and it holds both a rigorously academic and pastoral quality simultaneously.
Covering historical criticism vs post-structural and literary analysis, basic facets of the source criticism debate on the Documentary Hypothesis (four authors of the Pentateuch J, E, P, D) - which the author finds rife with tautological reasoning -and introductions to alternative readings of the text, including feminist/womanist readings, queer readings, Black/Latine/Asian liberation readings, and more.
She discusses the work of Emmanuel Lévinas and their ethical philosophy of “the Other” as disruption to discourse. To “not let the other die alone” is our fundamental calling, and that should inform the way we read the text. She also discusses Bakhtin and the heteroglossia of the text, as in, its inability to be contained and the resultant multivocality of its significance in ever-evolving dimensionality.
She works to recognize her own situatedness and affirms both a historical criticism and a literary criticism in that there’s necessary contextual information and truth is a perception contextual to all readers, even at the time of writing. Her willingness to sit in tensions and acknowledge valuable contributions across the spectrum of interpretation is refreshing.
But I think she fails to fully acknowledge her own lack of relatedness to what I perceive to be her intended audience, even if it isn’t stated as such: the evangelical student wary of critical theory in Biblical interpretation. I believe she longs to call them into invitation to reconsider and reevaluate, but unintentionally does so with an air of condescension, though I believe she was attempting to avoid that. Nonetheless, this book is a helpful intro to biblical studies in the academy, and it holds both a rigorously academic and pastoral quality simultaneously.
November 25, 2025
While there were a few interesting insights, I didn't find this book particularly compelling or readable.
July 15, 2025
A great overview of OT scholarship. Nothing necessarily surprised or shocked me but I did love the comparative nature of the issues presented, and I feel like Sharp was fair to both sides on majority of issues. Great introduction for people wanting to learn more about OT scholarship and the debates that happen within it. Tensions are held well within this work which usually does not happen. Enjoyed!
March 25, 2025
A really helpful guide to the current issues in modern biblical scholarship. I appreciated how the author does not shy away from challenging topics but also keeps orthodox faith at the heart of the conversation.
April 1, 2025
Anyone interested in a general introduction to Old Testament interpretation will benefit from this. It’s designed more for scholars and seminary students. The author does well to hold controversial views of the OT in tension with one another — and is charitable to both sides.
December 6, 2025
Wrestling with the Word makes for an insightful work—especially useful for seminary contexts—which (as its name suggests) wrestles with some of the toughest questions involving the Hebrew Scriptures. Sharp frequently voices positions that run contrary to mainstream Evangelical thought, yet she does so with an aura of commendable humility. She is someone who I think would be delightful to dialogue with.
June 7, 2014
3.5 stars
I really enjoyed this book even though I felt like I needed a dictionary and thesaurus with me to read it. :) I didn't realize, when I requested the book, that it was written by a Yale Associate Prof so it reads more like an academic textbook than a layperson book. Nevertheless I wasn't deterred and I enjoyed it very much.
Sharp is a Prof of Hebrew Scriptures at Yale's Divinity School and she knows her stuff. She is a well-educated and well-spoken woman. She is very good at walking the balance beam of debate between two major views when it comes to the Hebrew Scriptures. I really appreciated her style of addressing the views, even the ones she doesn't personally hold to. She also surprised me with her open faith in God. She has a deep love for her Creator and expresses it often. Part of her expression comes in wanting to help people read the scriptures outside of the box that perhaps they have been in. Enter this book she wrote.
Sharp takes time to discuss how people read the scriptures. How they read them with their own bias, cultural viewpoints, etc. She then lays out the case for setting those aside so that the scriptures open up in ways we may not have ever anticipated. We can, she says, lay aside our personal bias and preference so that we can read the scriptures in a fuller and perhaps more accurate context. She talks about how to read passages that are troubling, how to examine and be mindful of historical content, how to understand when literary play is at work in the text, etc. Truth be told, a lot of the book went right over my head due to it's academic bent BUT I do feel that I got the overall message of the book which is to wrestle with the word much as Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and to not give up wrestling with the word and to be open to it saying something different than what I was told it meant way back in the day or even last week. Sharp also beautifully discoursed on how it is beneficial to have different kinds of readers for the scriptures. Some will always read it academically, some historically, some in story form, some for personal application, etc and she encourages the reader to not be threatened by the way people approach the scripture but to glean from them as they are hopefully gleaning from how the reader takes it in. She rightly points out that we need all the different perspectives on the scriptures to bring it to fullness. I'm very glad I tackled this book, it gave me a lot to consider and it even affirmed some of my own viewpoints which I have discoursed on myself but at the elementary level, not at the level Sharp does.
I really enjoyed this book even though I felt like I needed a dictionary and thesaurus with me to read it. :) I didn't realize, when I requested the book, that it was written by a Yale Associate Prof so it reads more like an academic textbook than a layperson book. Nevertheless I wasn't deterred and I enjoyed it very much.
Sharp is a Prof of Hebrew Scriptures at Yale's Divinity School and she knows her stuff. She is a well-educated and well-spoken woman. She is very good at walking the balance beam of debate between two major views when it comes to the Hebrew Scriptures. I really appreciated her style of addressing the views, even the ones she doesn't personally hold to. She also surprised me with her open faith in God. She has a deep love for her Creator and expresses it often. Part of her expression comes in wanting to help people read the scriptures outside of the box that perhaps they have been in. Enter this book she wrote.
Sharp takes time to discuss how people read the scriptures. How they read them with their own bias, cultural viewpoints, etc. She then lays out the case for setting those aside so that the scriptures open up in ways we may not have ever anticipated. We can, she says, lay aside our personal bias and preference so that we can read the scriptures in a fuller and perhaps more accurate context. She talks about how to read passages that are troubling, how to examine and be mindful of historical content, how to understand when literary play is at work in the text, etc. Truth be told, a lot of the book went right over my head due to it's academic bent BUT I do feel that I got the overall message of the book which is to wrestle with the word much as Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and to not give up wrestling with the word and to be open to it saying something different than what I was told it meant way back in the day or even last week. Sharp also beautifully discoursed on how it is beneficial to have different kinds of readers for the scriptures. Some will always read it academically, some historically, some in story form, some for personal application, etc and she encourages the reader to not be threatened by the way people approach the scripture but to glean from them as they are hopefully gleaning from how the reader takes it in. She rightly points out that we need all the different perspectives on the scriptures to bring it to fullness. I'm very glad I tackled this book, it gave me a lot to consider and it even affirmed some of my own viewpoints which I have discoursed on myself but at the elementary level, not at the level Sharp does.
August 15, 2018
A good book: a sensitive introduction to historical criticism which takes seriously the spiritual freight which these questions have, and the relationship of scholarship to faith. One must note, though, that questions of theological interpretation or the history of interpretation are largely left unconsidered here: the primarily disciplinary conflict around which the book is structured is that between the historical-critical scholars and postmodern literary critics.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews