Daniel: An Expositional Commentary

by James Montgomery Boice

An expositional commentary on the book of Daniel, explaining in clear and practical terms its timely message.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity, Biblical Studies

136 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2004

About the author

James Montgomery Boice was a Reformed theologian, Bible teacher, and pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until his death in 2000. He was also president and cofounder of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, the parent organization of The Bible Study Hour on which Boice was a speaker for more than thirty years.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel: "God is my judge."
Hananiah (Shadrach) : "Yah is gracious."
Mishael (Meshach): "Who is what El is?"
Azariah (Abednego) "Yah has helped"
These young men were given names based on Babylonian gods, but they refused to worship anyone but God, nor did they even eat nor drink the pagan food and wine offered to them. And the Lord saved them from Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace. I want to be that strong in my faith.

What better time than now to give your life to the "Son of man." I chose to serve myself for years and it brought me nothing but misery and pain. Separation from God is just that.

"...For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven;

by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end."
- from The Nicene Creed

[Vincent Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Montgomery Boice was pastor at 10th Presbyterian church in Philadelphia and an expository preacher for most of that time. He also has a huge number of messages that are available through the Bible Study Hour. Apparently, he preached through the book of Daniel twice and this book was prepared, at least partially based on those sermons.

It is a good book, as far as it goes. I will say that some of it feels a bit dated (it was initially released in 1989) and much of the discussion feels cursory at best. If you are looking for something that goes below a superficial level and delves into the intricacies of Daniel, this is not the book for you.

On the positive side, it is a short read, does not say anything controversial and is written in an easily readable style.

[James Horgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know where you are with Boice. A master expositor and faithful preacher whose gravelly voice reflected the seriousness of his faith and the greatness of God.

A volume of Christ-centred sermons on a book where there will always be diffeent views on how to take the later chapters. Read it (and Boice) to gaze at Christ and his glory.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the plus side of good. This is the only book of the Bible that Boice preached through twice with his congregation. This particular commentary leaves much to be desired in terms of the technical aspect of the book of Daniel. However, the practical and exegetical work through the book was good and helpful.

[Laurell Dowling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short little commentary on the book of Daniel. He did do a good job of hitting all the major themes in Daniel but not in a lot of depth. He does talk about some of the historical events that could be tied to some of the prophecies but again not in a lot of detail like other commentaries. It is a good little commentary it you want the jest of things.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable short commentary on Daniel. It mostly deals with the major themes of each section and never gets bogged down in the weeds. He frequently admits what is confusing and what he doesn't understand. It's a good commentary to refer to if you want a more pastoral one.

[Luke McEwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boice’s commentary on Daniel helped me read Daniel like I never have before. It was such a Christ centered exposition that helped me see Him more clearly in each chapter.

[Philip Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was wanting some more detail on chapter 9, and the author was super brief on that. Good overall though.

[Steve Herreid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, a compendium of sermons on the book of Daniel. Devotional as one might expect. I listened to the audio version.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and readable, not overly academic but not at the expense of scholarship. Each chapter reads like a message. Helpful to me in sermon prep.

[William Balint · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish he dove into the intricacies or the prophecies a bit more. But in terms of practical application and understanding the themes of the book I thought it was awesome.

[MaryLucille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent commentary on the fascinating Book of Daniel. I highly recommend.

[Ming Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to it via Audible+.

Solid Biblical wisdom. Boice applies the lessons from Daniel to our own times.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book. I used it as an additional study when we were going through Daniel with church. It's short and readable which is unique for a book on an OT prophet. Boice is good at simplifying and drawing out key specific points. He often ties in NT passages which is key for the format of applicability he is using with each section. Some of his cultural trends are a bit dated, but that is to be expected from a book over 20 years old. That said, it's not hard to draw a line from them and realize how pointient he was in his cultural observations.

The best part off the book is his humility. As someone who has come out of Dispensational teaching, this book was refreshing. He is quite clear when he doesn't know what a specific passage means or lays out why he sees it the way he does because of his specific view of eschatology (historic pre-milleninial). He barely argues for his eschatological view, instead taking a rather 'mere Christianity' view of what are things all can take out of these passages.

Examples from the last chapter that are typical of what is in the other chapters:
Page 126: ''Then it skips ahead (according to my understanding) to the time of the great persecution at the end of history...''
Page 130: ''...or the special period of 1,290 or 1,335 days (which we cannot yet explain)...''

[SJ Barakony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly insightful!
Having not read the Book of Daniel in the O/T before reading Mr. Boice's analysis, am surely more prepared to learn more nuggets of pure truth from God's inerrant word when I do read through all 39 books of the O/T end to end, inc. Daniel, in the near future.

What prompted me to pull this book off the liber education shelf? Two things - first, one of my pastors preached from Daniel in the past month, and it was very powerful to hear how God intervened to save Daniel's friends! secondly, a great friend of mine (John) told me of the 'Daniel prophecy' ( Daniel 9 ) and that knowledge really opened my eyes even before the message from Pastor (Brad)

Well worth the read - this is the second book of Mr. Boice's which I've read ( see my bookshelf for the other ), and one more is still pending.

[Stacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Mongomery Boice does it again! He is excellent at taking books of the Bible and writing exegetical commentaries (which are based off of the sermons he preached to his church) and making them understandable to the lay person. Daniel is a difficult book to understand because of all of the prophecy but Boice does a good job of explaining them with the different popular views without getting too heady. He does tend to get off the text every so often, but I don't mild over looking that as it usually has a good lesson in the rabbit trail. I love his writings and wish he were around today to continue to preach more sermons and write more commentaries!

[Lee Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't miss this one! Clear, short, chapter-by-chapter expositional unfolding of the prophecy of Daniel. Boice says that Daniel 9:24-27 contains the "backbone" prophecy for almost all other prophecy in Scripture. Jesus verified the book of Daniel in Matthew 24:30 & 26:64.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a solid commentary. I haven't read a lot of commentaries, so I can't really compare it to anything though. I always recommend testing historical statements against other sources, but I found nothing here to criticize.

[Allen Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A message for our times. How do we live under brazen hedonism/humanism and moral relevancy. A must read for all who care about truth and virtue.

[Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Biblical exegesis by Boice. Walking through each chapter of Daniel as well as explaining the historical significance, setting and even defense of the dating of the writing of Daniel.