Old Testament Use of Old Testament: A Book-by-Book Guide

Schnittjer offers an exceptionally useful reference work on the ways later Old Testament writers interpret and develop earlier Scripture. His book-by-book approach, attention to verbal, syntactical, and contextual evidence, and transparent grading of proposed allusions make it especially valuable for distinguishing genuine inner-biblical interpretation from merely possible parallels. For the study of Daniel, the volume is an unusually helpful companion to the major commentaries. Schnittjer draws attention to Daniel’s reuse of the Joseph traditions, especially the relationship between dreams, interpretation, wisdom, and divine disclosure in Genesis 41 and Daniel 2. He is particularly strong on Daniel 9, tracing the prayer’s relationship to Leviticus 26’s pattern of collective confession and covenant restoration, Daniel’s use of Deuteronomic language concerning covenant fidelity and the curses of the Torah, and the wider interpretive network surrounding Jeremiah’s seventy years. His treatment also helps illuminate Daniel’s engagement with Isaiah and other prophetic traditions, showing that Daniel’s visions and theology emerge within an extensive scriptural conversation rather than in isolation. Schnittjer is not a commentary and does not attempt sustained philological or historical exegesis, but he supplies something even excellent commentaries can underemphasize: a systematic account of Daniel as a reader and interpreter of earlier Scripture. For that reason, it is an outstanding supplementary resource for serious study of Daniel as well as an important work on inner-biblical interpretation more generally.