Jerome's Commentary on Daniel
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel is in many ways one of the most interesting and significant of his expository works on the biblical prophets. Because of the wealth of factual information which he includes, the many details concerning obscure phases of ancient history, and the copious quotations from early authors whose works have long since perished, Jerome’s Daniel is a work frequently consulted by the learned even to this day. And yet, prior to Gleason L. Archer’s translation, this particular work of his has never been rendered in English, and thus made available to those Bible students who lack the patience or the training to examine it in the original Latin.
Now, you can study Jerome’s great commentary on Daniel, too. Archer bridges the interpretation and context of the early church fathers on Daniel with the assumptions and understandings of modern readers, giving readers a glimpse at some of the earliest Christian eschatological perspectives.
- References ancient and lost commentaries on Daniel
- Provides verse-by-verse commentary that will integrate with your Passage Guide
- Explores a text previously unavailable except to those trained in Latin
Top Highlights
“‘He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who acquire learning.’ This accords with the scripture: ‘The wise man will hear and increase his wisdom’ (Prov. 1:5). ‘For he who has, to him it shall be given’ (Matt. 25:29). A soul which cherishes an ardent love of wisdom is freely infilled by the Spirit of God. But wisdom will never penetrate a perverse soul (Wisdom 3).” (Page 27)
“The four winds of heaven I suppose to have been angelic powers to whom the principalities have been (p. 528) committed” (Page 71)
“We hold that it is the practice of Scripture not to relate all details completely, but only to set forth what seems of major importance. Those of our school insist also that since many of the details which we are subsequently to read and explain are appropriate to the person of Antiochus, he is to be regarded as a type of the Antichrist, and those things which happened to him in a preliminary way are to be completely fulfilled in the case of the Antichrist.” (Page 129)
“It was fitting that he be addressed as a man of desires, for by dint of urgent prayer and affliction of body and the discipline of severe fasting he desired to learn of the future and to be informed of the secret counsels of God. Instead of ‘man of desires,’ Symmachus rendered it as ‘desirable man.’ The term is apt, for every saint possesses a beauty of soul and is beloved by the Lord.” (Page 113)
“And then, after our Lord’s passion, the sacrifice and offering ceased in the middle of the week. For whatever took place in the Temple after that date was not a valid sacrifice to God but a mere worship of the devil, while they all cried out together, ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children’ (Matt. 27:25); and again, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’” (Page 102)
Saint Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, ca. 345–420) was baptized in 360 by Pope Liberius. He traveled widely in Gaul and Asia Minor, and in 379, went to Constantinople as an ordained presbyter. He was called to Rome in 382 to help Pope Damasus, at whose suggestion he began his revision of the Old Latin translation of the Bible (which came to form the core of the Vulgate version). Wrongly suspected of luxurious habits, he left Rome in 385, toured Palestine, visited Egypt, and then settled in Bethlehem, presiding over a monastery and translating the Old Testament from Hebrew. Saint Jerome was a great scholar and is considered the most learned of the Latin church fathers.
Gleason L. Archer Jr. was professor emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
