Summary
This volume offers a firmly academic reading of Daniel, with sustained interest in historical setting, literary shape, and the way the book functions for communities living under pressure. The tone is confident with critical methods and frequently frames Daniel in terms of identity, empire, and endurance. It gives careful attention to the shift from court narratives to apocalyptic visions, treating that movement as purposeful rather than awkward.
Readers will find a strong emphasis on the social world of the text and the rhetorical force of its imagery. The commentary is often at its best when it slows down to observe patterns of testing, public confession, and the repeated insistence that the God of heaven rules over kings. It can help you see how Daniel forms courage and patience in a hostile environment.
At the same time, the theological centre is not consistently shaped by a confessional or canonical approach. Pastors will benefit from the questions it raises and the literary sensitivity it models, but they will need to weigh conclusions carefully and do additional work to preach Daniel with clear gospel trajectory.
Strengths
The strongest contribution is its alertness to pressure and power. Daniel is read as Scripture that speaks into displacement, threat, and the temptation to compromise. That can help preachers avoid sentimental readings and instead feel the heat of the furnace, the cost of prayer, and the peril of public faithfulness. The commentary also offers helpful observations on how the stories shape imagination, training hearers to trust God when visible structures look immovable.
There is also sustained attention to literary craft. The narrative scenes are handled with care, and the vision material is treated as a deliberate expansion of hope rather than mere puzzle. For advanced students, the engagement with scholarly discussion can be a useful map of key debates, even when you do not share the author’s assumptions.
Limitations
The main limitation for pastoral use is theological direction. The volume is stronger at describing functions of the text than at tracing the message of Daniel within the wider biblical storyline. It can underplay how Daniel teaches the church to wait for the kingdom of God, and how its hope finds clarity in the coming of Christ, His suffering, and His exaltation.
There is also a risk that historical reconstruction and modern categories begin to steer the reading more than the book’s own claims. That does not make the commentary useless, but it does mean you should treat it as a conversation partner rather than a guide you follow line by line into the pulpit.
How We Would Use It
We would use this as a secondary resource, especially when preparing to teach Daniel in an academic or training context. It can sharpen awareness of genre, context, and rhetorical force. For sermon preparation, we would consult it after doing primary exegesis, then pair it with a more confessionally aligned commentary that helps with biblical theology and proclamation. The best use is selective, extracting observations that clarify the text without adopting controlling assumptions.
Closing Recommendation
A substantial academic reading that will stretch and sometimes sharpen an advanced reader. It is not a safe primary companion for preaching, because it does not consistently move toward a canonical and Christ centred resolution. Use with caution, keep Scripture itself central, and pair it with a more theologically robust guide for pulpit work.
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher is an American Old Testament scholar of the late twentieth and early twenty first century, known for his critical and socially engaged reading of Scripture.
He has written widely on exile, trauma, and post exilic literature, especially in relation to Isaiah and the Persian period. His work often draws on sociology and political analysis to illuminate the lived realities behind biblical texts, seeking to recover voices shaped by displacement and imperial power.
His writing is valued for its attentiveness to historical context and its willingness to ask searching ethical questions of the text and its interpreters. Readers engage him not for confessional exposition but for probing analysis that challenges assumptions and widens interpretative horizons.
Theological Perspective: Non-Evangelical/Critical