Friday, January 12, 2024

Stephen R. Miller on Prophecy and Naturalistic Presuppositions

  

THE NATURE OF PROPHECY. One’s overall view of Scripture generally and prophecy in particular will dramatically affect the decision concerning the date of the book. Porphyry denied predictive prophecy, and so for him it was not possible for a Daniel of the sixth century B.C. to have written of events four hundred years later in the Maccabean period. Those concurring with Porphyry’s unsupernatural presuppositions will of course accept the Maccabean thesis. Some scholars who support the late date while not rejecting the possibility of miraculous prediction nevertheless argue that “it is not the nature of biblical prophecy to give a literal account of events before they take place.” (Goldingay, Daniel, 305) . . . Driver’s charge that if Daniel was a sixth-century prophet, he showed “no interest in the welfare, or prospects of his contemporaries” (Driver, Literature, 509) is not valid. Although the Book of Daniel does include prophecies that concern future generations, Daniel’s messages were not without significance for the Jews suffering the exile with him. The supernatural deliverance of Daniel and his friends was a sign to the Jews of the diaspora that God was still concerned about them. Yahweh’s demonstrations of his sovereignty over the kings of Babylon and Persia also strengthened Jewish faith. Israel’s future (addressed by Daniel a number of times throughout this prophecy) would have been of the utmost interest to the downcast Jews of Daniel’s time. Daniel’s messages assured the Hebrews that Israel would continue to exist and prosper. Finally, the doctrine of the resurrection (12:2, 13) would have comforted the aged prophet as well as other believers who faced death. All of these factors rendered the Book of Daniel a most important message for sixth-century Jews.

 

Furthermore, other prophets concerned primarily with their own generation also uttered prophecies about the future that would encourage those believers in future generations (cf. Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years in 25:11-12 that encouraged Daniel’s prayer in Dan 9:2-3). The Old Testament is full of exhortations to faithfulness motivated by both past and future actions of God. (Stephen R. Miller, Daniel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture [The New American Commentary 18; Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994], 33, 34)