From a team of more than 50 international scholars comes the Word Biblical Commentary Series.

Its more than 60 volumes offer the best in critical scholarship firmly committed to the authority of Scripture as divine revelation.

For more than two millennia the Book of Daniel has attracted continuous study and exposition. In fact, says author John E. Goldingay, 'for a book of only twelve chapters, Daniel must be one of the most studied and the most written on in the entire old Testament.'

Dr Goldingay shows the distinctive formal feature of Daniel to be its combination, in nearly equal proportion, of a series of stories about Daniel and his friends and a series of visions attributed to Daniel. It is the second of these two foci that has usually determined how scholars define the book's form - an apocalypse. Dr. Goldingay's significant contribution to a long history of commentary literature on Daniel probes the interaction between story and vision.

Discussion topics include:

* Comparison of linguistic and cultural style, influences, and idioms
* Shared, complementary, and conflicting elements of story and vision in Daniel

* Perspectives in Daniel on God's relationships with people and his involvement in the world - his approachability and transcendency
* Daniel's central theme of the kingdom of God on earth

* Alternative readings of Daniel as wisdom or as prophecy.

Dr Goldingay's commentary has given us a highly responsible, well-researched, fresh look at a book that 'raises all the central questions about scriptural authority and inspiration, about history and faith, about pseudonymity and inerrancy, about criticism and hermeneutics.' Above all, he has successfully achieved his goal of helping readers understand Daniel's messages to his original audience and thereby providing a basis for acurate interpretation of the text for today.