The reader needs to consider my dissertation in light of three items:
(1) The dissertation as accepted by my committee is actually about 100-150 pages shorter than I would have liked. My department imposed a 250 page limit to the dissertation. Consequently, I feel as though it has been strip-mined of important material. However, it still presents a coherent argument.
(2) I was required to view the book of Isaiah as being composed of at least two authors. Evangelical readers may be confused by terminology like “Deutero-Isaiah” or “Second Isaiah” if they have never heard the view that Isaiah wasn’t entirely written by the prophet Isaiah. If they have, they have likely heard this view presented as a “liberal” view. That is only partially true in that current evangelical scholarship is quite open to multiple authorship in Isaiah. I actually have an “in between” view of this issue that I won’t bore you with here.
(3) I was also required to view the book of Daniel as having been composed in the second century BC rather than where the book itself appears to place itself (in the 6th century BC). The late date view is standard theologically liberal fare, though some conservatives had held to this date (e.g., F.F. Bruce). The controversy (for evangelicals) over the late date is basically over what it does to the concept of predictive prophecy. Since Daniel prophesies events that happen after Babylon falls, if Daniel were writing in the second century he’d be looking BACK at those events, and hence they would not be prophecies – he’d be (deliberately) making it sound like he was predicting the future when he wasn’t. This idea is difficult for many to reconcile with biblical inspiration. I’m not persuaded of the late date, though there is some evidence for it. There is a recognized genre in ancient Mediterranean literature known as “ex eventu prophecy” (“prophecy after the fact”), and so what is going on in Daniel MAY be a literary technique. Regardless of this possibility, even if Daniel were written in the second century BC, events in chapter 10 and 11 would still be predictive. Enough of the Bible lesson.