Daniel - Concordia Commentary

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In this Volume

Daniel confesses of the Lord, “he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.” (2:22) This is good council for any serious interpretation of the Scriptures. Through His clear Word, God reveals truths about himself not gnostic riddles for the faithful to solve. In this commentary, Steinmann identifies themes of God as the powerful protector of his people, of the uselessness of idols and false gods, and of the integrity of faith. Against those who would make unwarranted mystic interpretations of the visions in Daniel, Steinmann takes a measured exegetical approach, firmly committed to the principle that obscure passages of Scripture can be faithfully interpreted by clearer passages and attention to the original languages

Features

• Overview of the Law and Gospel in Daniel
• Arguments for a traditional date and authorship for Daniel
• Analysis of the interlocked chiastic structure of Daniel as a synthesis of visionary and narrative genres
• An overview and rebuttal of dispensational and premillennial interpretations of Daniels visions.

Additional Essays

• The Messiah in Daniel: An Overview
• Daniel’s View of the Exile
• The Lutheran Confessions on the Anti-Christ in Daniel

View the rest of the series.

About the Author

Dr. Andrew E. Steinmann is Professor of Theology and Hebrew, as well as University Marshal, at Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois. He studied at the University of Cincinnati (B.S.), Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana (M.Div.), and the University of Michigan, where he earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies.

Endorsments

“I can’t remember how I stumbled across the volume on Daniel while leading a PhD seminar on Daniel last fall, but it is the most detailed recent evangelical treatment of the book of Daniel available–and in my opinion, those who date Daniel to the Maccabean era (Goldingay) or those who think it doesn’t matter (Lucas) are not evangelical commentaries. The book of Daniel is calling those who know God to be strong and take action (cf. Dan 11:32-35), even if it gets them killed. Daniel seeks to motivate people to trust God and risk their lives for God’s kingdom by demonstrating God’s ability to predict the future. If the book was written after the events “predicted,” God has not predicted the future but some scoundrel has attempted to convince people to risk their lives because God can predict the future. Said scoundrel knows that no predictions of the future have happened since he is “predicting” these things after they took place. So if the book was written in the Maccabean era, it is not merely worthless but dangerous. People could get killed for nothing if the scoundrel who wrote it succeeds in duping them. But Steinmann holds the evangelical position, which is that there really is a God who really did predict the future through the prophet Daniel, and so faithfulness to this one true and living God really is worth more than life. “

–Dr. James Hamilton, Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky on his blogFor His Renoun

About the series

The Concordia Commentary Series: A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture is written to enable pastors and teachers of the Word to proclaim the Gospel with greater insight, clarity, and faithfulness to the divine intent of the Biblical text.

The series will cover all the canonical books of the Old and New Testament, with an original translation and meticulous grammatical analysis of the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek of each text. The foremost interpretive lens centers on the unified proclamation of the person and work of Christ across every Scriptural book.

The Commentary fully affirms the divine inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of Scripture; Each passage bears witness to the confession that God has reconciled the world to Himself through the incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ His Son.

Authors expose the rich treasury of language, imagery, and thematic content of the Scripture, while supplementing their work with additional research in archaeology, history, and extrabiblical literature. Throughout, God’s Word emanates from authors careful attention and inculcates the ongoing life of the Church in Word, Sacrament, and daily confession.

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