Daniel

Baldwin holds to traditional veiw of authorship and give good support for it. Good defense of an exilic date. Baldwin said, "The predominate message is that God's people will experience suffering and be threatened with extinction, but that will not be the end of the story because their God is living and all-powerful God who will get glory by vindicating His name and who will save them" (66). She points out that God is sovereignly ruling over the affairs of men to bring about His purpose, and will one day establish His perfect kingdom. Baldwin has called the seventy sevens the most difficult text of the book. She takes a symbolic interpretation. According to her, the seventy sevens are symbolic periods of time starting at Cyrus's decree and ending with Christ's second advent. There is no gap in the seventy sevens. The sixty-ninth seven corresponds to Christ's first coming. This forces the last seven to be very disproportional The strength of Baldwin's commentary is the introduction. It makes up roughly one third of the commentary. She gives strong support for the historicity of Daniel and the traditional view of authorship and date. Her additional note on the "Son of Man" is another strong point of her book. If someone is looking for a good introduction and a brief commentary, Baldwin is a good fit. The brevity, however, is the weakness of the commentary. The author overlooks some intriguing parts of the text. For example, there is no discussion about the identity of the "prince of the Persian kingdom" in chapter 10 verse 13. One of the strangest verses in the Bible only gets one little paragraph with no detail. She has little to say about the stone cutout without human hands. Such interesting details deserve more attention than is given in this commentary. As a whole this is a good conservative commentary, although, it is a little dated. Not recommend for an in-depth study of Daniel. I strongly recommend Stephen R. Miller's commentary on Daniel in the New American Commentary series.

They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3I used several commentaries for teaching a very small group bible study on Daniel and preferred Baldwin's book over them all. The NIV commentary was too simplistic for my taste, and is geared mainly for direct use in small group studies. For Old Testament studies, the NIV version of the Bible has numerous errors on critical verses, some on messianic prophecies, as in Isaiah 7:14. I have numerous jewish commentaries which I have acquired from Brookline, MA, and the English translation is closest to the New American Standard Bible which is used, thankfully, at most seminaries. For my study of Daniel, I used the jewish commentary from Soncino press. Daniel is probably the easiest book of the Bible to read, (my favorite), yet, carefully read, has some of the most difficult passages to interpret in all of scripture. Baldwin deals with these in sections entitled additional notes and presents all of the differing interpretations regarding them which I believe is wise when dealing with prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled.I love the Tyndale series too, but, if anything, I encourage you to read the book of Daniel itself.As a postscript, I must add that William Tyndale gave us the English Bible. He was martyred in Antwerp, Belgium in 1536. He spoke much about the "powers that be" which is actually taken from Romans 13:1.

I purchased this commentary as a young lawyer teaching Sunday School in 1980, and it has helped me communicate the stories in this book to many. I found the book useful as a layman and after attending seminary found it remained helpful at the scholarly level as well. Baldwin breathes life into the fabulous stories with which Daniel begins - stories usually taught to children and rarely preached or made the subject of adult Bible study, and the book is most helpful in illuminating these stories - the four Hebrew youths in captivity, the fiery furnace, the lions' den, and the writing on the wall. The more eschatological material that forms the latter part of the prophet's book is well treated, and the author avoids falling into the abyss of too closely pressing the details. It is a sound book in a sound series (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries), and should help anyone teach, preach or simply enjoy the faith stories of Daniel and his friends.

Joyce Baldwin did an excellent job on historic research and culture, and provides excellent analysis of interpretation of the Book of Daniel and what problems arise. A must read for anyone interested in Bible History and/or Prophecy.