Daniel: A Textual Commentary

Ian Young provides a commentary on the Masoretic Text of the book of Daniel, focusing on issues of language and text and presenting an investigation of the Masoretic Text as a product of scribal art. Young uses an contrastive approach in order to outline the specific scribal characteristics of the book, looking at both text and language. With respect to the former, Young looks at the many textual versions and minor variations of other textual traditions in addition to the Masoretic Text, asking not only what variations exist, but what difference these formulations make to the interpretation and understanding of a text. With respect to language, Young introduces the reader to the richness of the use of language in Daniel in two ways. First, by presenting the essential linguistic data of the book in a manner accessible to all readers with more than beginners’ Hebrew and Aramaic, and with a focus on what makes Daniel’s Hebrew distinctive. Second, Young uses linguistic contrasts to describe how Daniel’s Hebrew fits in with other Biblical Hebrew books.