Biography

Sarah Wisialowski is a Hebrew Bible scholar. Her research examines how ancient Jewish communities use stories about the past to create traditions that bind people together, particularly in moments of cultural change. She received her MA (hons) in Biblical Studies and Medieval History from the University of St Andrews (2017), an MA in Biblical Studies from King’s College London (2018), and an MSt Theology from the University of Oxford (2019). She also completed her DPhil in Theology at the University of Oxford (2025).

Project Abstract

This project examines how prayer was used during the Hellenistic-Jewish period to understand or change history through the relationship between prayer, revelation, and writing. In biblical scholarship, different generic categories are often treated as separate types of literature, which can limit understanding of the Hellenistic-Jewish world. In my thesis, I combine a range of texts from the Hellenistic-Jewish period to broaden our understanding of ancient Judaism.

While previous scholarship has read texts such as Nehemiah and Daniel based on their generic categories (history and apocalypse, respectively), I relate these texts as part of a broader reading framework. I present a narrative about the relationship between text, history, and liturgy, focusing on how prayer demonstrates scripturalization, second-order thinking, and expresses history. Prayer and associated reading practices become vital to the daily renewal of human beings, generative within texts, and offering growth and regeneration. Through this, prayer becomes part of the complex (re)creation of time.

In this project, I challenges the binary view of texts by exploring the convergence of prayer, revelation, and writing. It introduces a new perspective by emphasizing the central role of revelation in interpreting these texts. Prayer leads to moments of revelation, which transform into written forms and serve as a hermeneutical lens to understand how prayer interacts with time and history.

Curriculum vitae

Education  

2025 

DPhil in Theology, University of Oxford  

2019 

MSt in Theology, University of Oxford  

2018 

MA Biblical Studies (Language and Literature), King’s College London  

2017 

MA (hons) Biblical Studies and Medieval History, University of St Andrews  

Academic Positions  

2025 

Einstein Center Chronoi Fellow  

2024

Graduate Teaching and Research Scholar, Oriel College, University of Oxford