SOURCE: Gammie, John G. “A Journey through Danielic Spaces: The Book of Daniel in the Theology and Piety of the Christian Community.” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 39, no. 2 (April 1985): 144-56.

In the following excerpt, Gammie examines the ways in which interpretation of The Book of Daniel affected the theology and worldview of Christians from the second century up to the Protestant Reformation.

I

Irenaeus (c130-c200), bishop of Lyons, utilized the Book of Daniel extensively in his treatise, “Against Heresies,” to expound his doctrine of Christ, the Bible, and the millenium. The stone not hewn with hands of Daniel 2 which smashes the great statues is a figure of Christ in that Jesus was not conceived through any human agent (3.21.7).¹ Jesus, indeed, will be the one who will destroy temporal kingdoms and will himself fill the earth as foretold in Daniel 2 (4.20.11) and thus establish an eternal kingdom...