Papers by Thomas J . Elms
Misusing Scripture: What Are Evangelicals Doing with the Bible?, ed. Mark Elliott, Kenneth Atkinson, and Robert Rezetko; Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies (London: Routledge, 2023), 200–25.
This chapter focuses on the dating of the visions in Daniel chapters 2 and 7–12 by those Evangeli... more This chapter focuses on the dating of the visions in Daniel chapters 2 and 7–12 by those Evangelical scholars who defend a sixth century BCE authorship of the whole book. It is the references to the second century bce in these visions and their interpretation which is at the core of the scholarly consensus about the dating of the current forms of the book, and is therefore a focus of evangelical response to the mainstream approach. We present two of the major points of the scholarly argument for the second century date of the visions and discuss the evangelical response to each. Each of these points is organized in three parts. We first try to explain clearly the basic literary observation that leads to the mainstream scholarly case, and second, review attempts by evangelicals to respond to this case, with a view to understanding the key issues of why evangelicals feel they must dispute it and what strategies they use to do so. Then we present further evidence to suggest the problems evangelicals are trying to avoid are due to lack of understanding of Daniel in its ancient literary context. Next, we discuss the role Porphyry, the ancient enemy of Christianity, plays in evangelical discourse. Finally, we discuss that for evangelicals, the understanding that the book was written by Daniel himself is an integral component of why they feel compelled to reject the mainstream approach to the book, and we describe the way ancient authorship is understood in recent mainstream scholarship.
Avoiding the Apocalypse in the Book of Daniel
Routledge eBooks, Feb 27, 2023
Uploads
Papers by Thomas J . Elms