The Message of Daniel

Written by Dale Ralph Davis Reviewed By Thomas J. Finley

Dale Ralph Davis was previously professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi (USA). He has also authored, among numerous other books, a guide to preaching from narrative texts (The Word Became Fresh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts [Fearn, Scotland: Mentor, 2006]). His work replaces the earlier volume in The Bible Speaks Today series by Ronald S. Wallace (1991). Davis’s popular-level commentary begins with an introduction to the book of Daniel and then moves to a chapter-by-chapter exposition. As indicated by the title, Davis focuses on the message of Daniel rather than detailed verse-by-verse analysis.

The author takes a standard conservative position on the date of the book, placing it at approximately 530 BC. He is not unaware, though, of the “dominant stream of scholars” (p. 15) who place the final composition around 165 BC. He lists five “major problems” (pp. 16–21) that he sees with that view, under the headings of language (both the Hebrew and Aramaic dating from an earlier period), time (documents from Qumran that are too close to the alleged late date), propriety (some contents that do not fit a late date and make a supposed editor “inept” or “stupid”), psychology (“quasi-prophecy” would give only “quasi-comfort”), and presuppositions (a denial of predictive prophecy and of Yahweh’s ability to predict the future in detail). That makes for a nice summary of conservative arguments, though scholars holding to the critical consensus would respond to some of the objections using an earlier dating for the court stories of chapters 2–6 than for the apocalyptic of chapters 7–12. Davis also covers in his introduction the structure of Daniel and its general purpose. As for a brief summary of the message of Daniel as a whole, Davis calls the book “a realistic survival manual for the saints” (p. 26).

For each chapter of Daniel (or sub-chapters in the cases of Dan 9 and 11), Davis provides a brief summary of the content and focuses on the theology and modern applications from the text. He often brings in theological parallels with other Scriptures. Each chapter concludes with a short, pithy summary (“So we can meet ‘burning fiery furnace’ with three other words: old rugged cross,” p. 58). Any technical matters are relegated to footnotes, which are on occasion somewhat lengthy, but always informative. For example, a note of fifteen lines deals with the thorny issue of Darius the Mede. Davis here accepts the influential suggestion of D. J. Wiseman that Darius the Mede is another name for Cyrus. He is obviously well-read in the technical literature despite the somewhat homiletical style of the exposition. For the heavily controversial section of Dan 9:24–27, Davis gives a fair representation of various views and puts forward, “at the risk of displeasing most everyone” (p. 134), his own view and even his own translation.

Davis writes in an engaging style that makes frequent use of alliteration (“reveals,” “rescues,” “rules,” p. 24), catchy phrases (“the scope of the hope,” p. 129), anecdotes (a newspaper story about a woman who ate dirt, p. 59), humor (the “miracle” of Dan 6 is “a squeaky clean politician,” p. 82), and colloquial language (“all-fired,” p. 105). The reader will find here many gems of wisdom. I will give two as illustrations:

Evil can never manufacture enough glue to keep itself together; it has no lasting cohesion, the dissension always seems to surface. (p. 103)

The gifts of God are not excuses for sloth but demands for sweat. (p. 126)

Davis’s views on eschatology raise the most possibility for controversy, but his discussion is general enough and his tone generous enough to welcome any reader with divergent views to explore the subject further. Davis rightly avoids dogmatic claims about eschatology, and he is careful to lay out alternative viewpoints. His views fall within the evangelical mainstream for taking the second of the four kingdoms as Media-Persia and linking Dan 9:26 to the crucifixion of Christ. He does not mention, though, some of the conservative writers who have argued that the four kingdoms are Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece (e.g., John H. Walton, “The Four Kingdoms of Daniel,” JETS 29 [1986]: 25–36).

While this commentary is an easy read, on occasion the “folksiness” of the style can be distracting. Some students of theology might prefer more detailed examination of the theology and less application and anecdotes. But pastors will find here a wealth of illustrations and hints for how to preach the book of Daniel. Davis’s book could well form the basis for a small-group Bible study, whether for students of theology or lay people in a church. As one who is working on a detailed commentary of Daniel, I found help for my own exegesis, particularly in the footnoted material but also in the applications and theological musings. Davis has produced a helpful work on Daniel that represents well the message of the book.


Thomas J. Finley

Thomas J. Finley
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
La Mirada, California, USA

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