Masterful in her engagement of the topic, Emanuel takes her reader along while she wrestles with Paul and--more importantly--his interpreters. She asks the hard question of who benefits from interpreting Paul and shows how some contemporary understandings may be just as dangerous for Jews today as interpretations have been in the past. Elegantly written and astutely argued, this book should be read by scholars, students, and lay readers alike. --Shayna Sheinfeld, Augsburg University Helpfully pushing against biblical scholarship's tendency to separate the personal from the professional, Wrestling with Paul offers an engaging reading of Paul alongside a compelling historiography. Addressing how Paul's modern interpreters have turned him into a Paul productive for dealing with their own anxieties about anti-Judaism, Emanuel models how to eschew convenience and comfort for earnest and brave analysis. --Jill Hicks-Keeton, University of Southern California Helpfully pushing against biblical scholarship's tendency to separate the personal from the professional, Wrestling with Paul offers an engaging reading of Paul alongside a compelling historiography. Addressing how Paul's modern interpreters have turned him into a Paul productive for dealing with their own anxieties about anti-Judaism, Emanuel models how to eschew convenience and comfort for earnest and brave analysis. --Jill Hicks-Keeton, University of Southern California Sarah Emanuel's Wrestling with Paul challenges our usual exceptionalist readings of the apostle, excavating the ethnocentric and exclusionary eschatology that slots him within, and not against, ancient Judaism's varied textual landscape.

As clever as it is insightful, Emanuel's work does not shy away from hard questions--and even harder answers--about why New Testament Studies has worked so hard to erase Paul's rough edges. I dare you to put it down. --Isaac T. Soon, University of British Columbia.