Waking from the Dust: Daniel 12:2 and Resurrection Hope in Biblical Theology

＂And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.＂ --Daniel 12:2

Scholars commonly assert that the hope for bodily resurrection is absent in the Old Testament, with Daniel 12:2 providing the exception that proves the rule. But rather than an exception, Daniel 12 is a culmination. In Waking from the Dust, Mitchell L. Chase argues that Daniel 12:2 sprouts from the rich soil of Old Testament resurrection hope. Chase shows how Daniel 12 draws from earlier biblical texts and informs later intertestamental texts. Though rarely quoted explicitly, Daniel 12 nonetheless guided the New Testament authors as they expressed eschatological hope in light of Christ’s resurrection.

Mitchell L. Chase (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the preaching pastor at Kosmosdale Baptist Church and an associate professor of biblical studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of several books, including Short of Glory, Hope for All the Earth, and 40 Questions About Typology and Allegory.