Customer Reviews

Daniel and Revelation: A Study of Two Extraordinary Visions

There is more of the Biblical texts (RSV) than there is the author's actual exegesis thereof, and his "exegesis" is little more than a bare-bones restatement of the obvious. When he does go into the rare interpretation, he tends to ignore the possibility that there might be other scholars who disagree with him: he will generally state what he believes the text means without offering either a defense or alternative views. He leans towards the "idealist" interpretive approach of the texts and includes reflective questions at the end of each section which might be useful for generating discussion in the context of a group study (e.g. "What kinds of situations can you think of that are in some ways comparable to the plight of the three youths depicted in this story [Dan. 3]?").

The only thing good I can think about this approach is that it shows the reader what exactly the authors wrote and not what theologians have said about it, which is often difficult for the average reader with preconceptions from the Left Behind series or other such works to see on his own. However, the careful and perceptive reader should be able to do this on his own. Efird really offers little more than what one can find in most decent study Bibles. For Revelation I recommend instead Bruce M Metzger's Breaking the Code. I am unaware of a good recent commentary on Daniel, but one would be hard pressed to find that does not offer more.