Book Review
“With the Clouds of Heaven: The book of Daniel in biblical theology”
by James M. Hamilton Jr.
Inter Varsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 2014
Of all of the books in the bible, Daniel ranks as one of the most controversial and most difficult to grasp and understand. In the fall of 2013 I preached through the book of Daniel for 12 weeks. It was an enormous task and yet an enormous blessing at the same time and the Lord used the book of Daniel in a great way within our church. I used 20 resources before and during that period and purchased and received several more since then. If I were to preach or teach through Daniel again (and Lord willing I will!) James M. Hamilton Jr’s With the Clouds of Heaven” would be the first resource I would turn to. In this book review I will give a brief summary of the book, discuss strengths and weakness, and provide come concluding thoughts. The New Studies in Biblical Theology is a fantastic series from Inter Varsity Press and I have read and reviewed several books within this series and Hamilton’s work on Daniel did not disappoint. The book is broken down into 10 chapters with a series and an author’s preface. Hamilton uses chapter one to lay out preliminaries for entire work and makes it very clear that his book is not a verse by verse commentary but instead “an evangelical and canonical biblical theology of Daniel.” (21) Hamilton states at the end of chapter one that his “…hope is to pay close attention to the text of Daniel, in both the original languages in which it was written and in the Greek and English translations, to set what Daniel wrote in the broader context of biblical theology, and to move readers toward a clearer understanding of biblical theology, and to move readers towards a clearer understanding of how we should live today in response to the message of Daniel.” (40) A difficult task, and yet at the completion of reading his work i believe he has accomplished such a great task.
Within the preliminaries Hamilton discusses his view of biblical theology, the canon of Scripture, and the details of his evangelical approach towards this study. It is an extremely helpful chapter of introduction. Hamilton is a seminary professor, but even more he is gifted at teaching. He does not miss the opportunity to cover issues that affect his point of view while simultaneously pointing and persuading his readers in the same direction. In this regard Hamilton is unapologetic of his positions and is passionate about defending the historical authenticity of the book of Daniel.
Chapters 2 and 3 continue more introductory matters but are both very helpful chapters. In chapter 2 Hamilton relates Daniel within the progression of the revelation of Scriptures and how the progression will continue until the end of time. Daniel reaches back to Genesis in his opening statements referring to Babylon as ’Shinar’ (1:2) and carries it forward until the ‘end of days’ (41). Hamilton does an excellent job showing how Daniel is heavily influenced by the Old Testament up to that point in time and how Daniel contributes to the continuing revelation of the coming of the end of days. In Chapter 3 Hamilton argues that the structure of Daniel should be viewed as a chiasm (A mirroring poetic form where the top and bottom correspond and where the middle is emphasized at times). Typically, scholars acknowledge 2 chasms within the book of Daniel but Hamilton’s argument for one chiasm is very convincing and very helpful. He has presented it in prior works and so I was already familiar with it but his chapter on the structure of Daniel is very helpful.
Next, in chapters 4-6 Hamilton gets into the nitty gritty of the Book of Daniel by addressing the visions, images, and dialogue between Daniel and the heavenly beings. Much could be said about the details and delicacy that Hamilton gives in dealing with these passages. In particular, his argument regarding the 3rd and 4th kingdoms are very helpful. Whereas many scholars argue for the 4th kingdom to be Rome, Hamilton argues that it should more be seen as a typological kingdom that continues (over and over again) until the coming of the Anti-Christ, who is pictured as a Nebuchadnezzar (and later Antiochus Epiphanes). Essentially, Daniel’s message was to encourage his readers to hold fast during these trying times and it is still applicable to Christians today.
In chapter 7, Hamilton goes through early Jewish literature to build his arguments about authorship and dating and to show how the writings of Daniel affected later authors to copy or incorporate Daniel’s style within their own writings. In chapters 8-10, Hamilton jumps into the New Testament and tackles passages that directly relate with the Book of Daniel from the Appendix IV in the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th edition (179-180). Then, he carefully handles how John uses Daniel in Revelation (though not exhaustive as he indicates has been done in several other books), even to the point of copying the chiasm of Daniel to drive home the point of the exaltation of Jesus opposed to the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar and Belteshazzar (205-206).
Hamilton accomplishes his goal of providing a biblical theology of the Book of Daniel. It no easy task to read let alone comprehend and communicate what exactly Daniel is conveying through his retelling of visions and dialogues with heavenly beings. Hamilton does an excellent job of teaching as he argues. His preliminary chapter is very helpful in preparing his readers for the following arguments without being exhaustive over introductory matters. Chapter 3 is beneficial even if you are not studying or preaching through Daniel because of the comprehensive presentation of the Scriptures.
Other strengths include his explanations on the early Jewish literature, the structure of the Book of Daniel as a chiasm and the corresponding nature that John uses the same pattern to organize Revelation, and the typological nature of Daniel and Joseph in chapter 10. I would recommend anyone, scholar, student, pastor, lay-person, to begin with Hamilton’s work before consulting any other work. I say this because of the consistency of Hamilton’s argument and the foundational issues such as structure and the typological patterns that create the bases in which Daniel writes. Of all of the other resources I have read on Daniel none compare to this volume from Hamilton when it comes to these issues. Other works have their strengths of course but consistently i found myself unable to rely on any particular commentary or resource throughout my study on Daniel. In my opinion, you will not find a better resource that balances the academic and the application purposes of the Book of Daniel.
It is rare that a reader can see progression of thought in the right way. Anyone who reads Hamilton’s earlier works (and I recommend that you make it priority to do so) will see how he has progressed from a literal interpretation of the 70 weeks in Daniel to a more symbolic (typological) interpretation of the 70 weeks. Though this progression does not change his final view of the 70 weeks (Hamilton takes a Historic Premillennialism point of view) it does show that he has continued to wrestle with the text. I appreciated words like ‘appears’, ‘seems’ and ‘possibly’ that Hamilton would use in referencing the difficult passages. He balances strong conviction with the limitations that every interpreter of Daniel faces. Though I am not persuaded completely to his arguments concerning the 70 weeks and the millennial reign (I would follow Gentry and Wellum’s argument in Kingdom through Covenant), I do believe it is the best (and only legitimate) alternative to the Amillenial view. It would appear the major differences between my view and Hamilton’s is the placement of the 1000 year reign and whether or not there is a gap between the 69th and 70th week. I will continue studying and pursuing the nature of these differences but am happy with either.
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