Customer Reviews

Daniel (International Critical Commentary)

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This is possibly the most often quoted of all commentaries on the Book of Daniel.

It's scholarly to the point of being intimidating. Montgomery usually leaves quotations from Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, German, and French untranslated. He uses abbreviations to cram 1000 pages of material into 500 pages.

Other commentaries from early in this century are getting hard to find (e.g., Driver, Boutflower, and C. H. H. Wright.) So you should buy this before it goes out of print.

I liked Montgomery's survey of the modern resurgence of literary criticism of Daniel. He sees Bertholdt's German commentary (1806) as the modern return to Porphyry's 3rd century criticisms of Daniel.

The book has wonderfully detailed histories of interpretations for controversial passages in Daniel. They are hard reading because of the abbreviations and untranslated quotations.

Why should you buy a Bible commentary written in the 1920s, especially when so many have been written since? I would not suggest that this should be the only commentary on Daniel that you buy. If you want only one at this level of technicality, I suggest the one by J J Collins; it is far more recent and easier to read. However, I recommend that you get this one as well, because Montgomery was a master of his craft. His discussion of the Greek versions of Daniel, for example, has not yet been superseded and is still well worth studying. Have both on your bookshelf, and you will know nearly everything that is worth knowing about the Book of Daniel.