A new commentary on the book of Daniel explores how an ancient book about exile, political upheaval and hope remains relevant to the world today.
In Daniel, part of the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Prophetic Books series, Stephen Cook, Ph.D., Catherine N. McBurney Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Virginia Theological Seminary, offers a new approach to understanding one of the Bible’s most complex books, treating it as a profound theological work, rather than an end-times code.
Building on Hebrew and Aramaic scholarship and integrating insights from fields such as analytical psychology, comparative literature, and cosmology, takes Daniel’s visions seriously as glimpses of a deeper reality rather than reducing them to coded history or predictions about the future.
Written for both the academy and the Church, the volume combines rigorous biblical scholarship with pastoral and theological insight, inviting clergy, students, and thoughtful readers to rediscover Daniel as a book of hope, wisdom, and faithful witness.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary, said: “The remarkable achievement of Stephen Cook’s commentary on Daniel is that it is a genuinely creative way of transcending the current binary that dominates the literature around Daniel. On the one hand, we have largely secular interpretations of the text, which stress that the apocalyptic emerges in times of deep anxiety. On the other (hand, you have fundamentalists who interpret the text literally. Cook’s commentary opens up a new way of reading the text that sees the visions as descriptive of the ultimate spiritual nature of reality.”
M. Daniel Carroll R., Ph.D., Professor of Old Testament Emeritus, Wheaton College Graduate School, said: “The inspiring narratives and perplexing visions of the Book of Daniel have long challenged interpreters. Cook eschews both critical historicist and fanciful literalistic interpretations to argue that the book reveals the deep yet transcendent dimensions of reality. This is apocalyptic wisdom designed to reorientate one’s view of life and the world and point to the ultimate purposes of God. An innovative multidisciplinary approach to a mystifying, ever-relevant divine work for God’s people.”
Cook will continue the conversation this fall when he joins biblical scholars Tremper Longman III, John H. Walton, and Aubrey E. Buster for ‘Daniel for the Twenty-First Century,’ a special symposium and public conversation in Alexandria, Va. on October 12 to 13. The gathering brings together four leading interpreters of Daniel as three major new commentary volumes on the biblical book are published. The public event, Four Authors in Dialogue, will take place Tuesday, October 13, from 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at Old Town Community Church in Alexandria. Admission is free; advance registration is encouraged. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/daniel-for-the-twenty-first-century-four-authors-in-dialogue-tickets-1998998313768
You can purchase Daniel here: https://bakeracademic.com/products/9780801030796_daniel