by Pastor Emanuel Rodriguez
Daniel 3:25 in the KJV and the RVG declare that THE Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, delivered the 3 Jewish men in the furnace.
KJV Daniel 3:25 "He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
RVG Daniel 3:25 "él y dijo: He aquí yo veo cuatro varones sueltos, que se pasean en medio del fuego, y ningún daño hay en ellos; y el parecer del cuarto es semejante al Hijo de Dios."
In the 1960 version of the Reina Valera Spanish Bible it reads just like the NIV and other corrupt Bibles.
RV1960 Daniel 3:25 "Y él dijo: He aquí yo veo cuatro varones sueltos, que se pasean en medio del fuego sin sufrir ningún daño; y el aspecto del cuarto es semejante a hijo de los dioses."
NIV Daniel 3:25 "He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
This difference between the KJV/RVG and the 1960RV/NIV is not a matter where a change was made based upon a variant in the Critical Text. This is a translational issue. It is interesting, however, to note that all Critical Text Bibles render it as "a son of the gods" rather than "the Son of God".
The underlying words are in Aramaic. While almost the entire Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, everything in Daniel chapter 2 verse 46 to chapter 7 verse 28 was written in Aramaic. The Aramaic words “bar Elohin” can be translated in two ways. It can be translated as “a son of the gods”. It can also be translated “the Son of God”. It all depends upon the context.
For example, in Genesis 1:1 it says “In the beginning God”. The underlying Hebrew word “Elohim” can be translated as either “gods” or “God”. Yet, both cannot be right. Either the heaven and the earth were created by "gods" or they were created by "God". I believe we would all agree that the context demands for it to be rendered “God”.
There is a big difference between "the Son of God" and "a son of the gods". Both cannot be right. Therefore, we must allow the context of the passage to determine for us which of the 2 options is correct.
KJV and RVG opponents argue that it should be "a son of the gods" because they don’t believe Nebuchadnezzar would have known anything about the Jewish God nor His Son to be able to recognize the fourth individual as "the Son of God". They are wrong, however, because you don’t have go any further than the very next verse to see that Nebuchadnezzar knew enough about the God of the Jews to recognize Him as their deliverer.
Daniel 3:26 “Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.”
Nebuchadnezzar called Him "the most high God". This was the way many Gentiles referred to the God of Israel. Why didn’t he say “a son of the gods” in verse 26?
As if that wasn't enough, the Bible confirms multiple more times in the same conversation that Nebuchadnezzar understood well that the Jews in the furnace were delivered by their God.
Daniel 3:28 “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.”
In Daniel 3:28 Nebuchadnezzar makes a distinction between the God of the Jews and the pagan gods, showing that he knew the difference. In fact, in the next verse he recognizes the superiority of the Jewish God.
Daniel 3:29 “Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.”
Some have pointed out that Nebuchadnezzar calls the deliverer God's angel in verse 28. If anything, this should demonstrate that the king knew more about the Jewish God than modern scholars want to give him credit for. It has always been understood that God could sometimes manifest Himself through an angelic proxy, called in the Bible "the Angel of the Lord" (Gen. 16:7-14, 21;17-18, 22:11-18, 31:11-13, Exo . 3:2, Judges 2:1-4, 5:23 , 6:11-22, 13:3-22, 2 Sam. 24:16, Zech. 1:12-13).
Some would refer to such an appearance as a Theophany. Since in this case it is in reference to the Son of God, some would refer to it as a Christophany. In other words, this was a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This preincarnate appearance of Christ demonstrates several things. First of all, it proves the preexistence of Jesus Christ. At the same time, it refutes Arianism, named after Arius. Arius (250-336 AD) was a heretic who denied the Trinity and taught that Jesus was a created god, thus not eternal. JWs and Mormons are modern-day Arians.
The Bible easily refutes Arianism, in Daniel 3:25, and in the following:
John 8:56-59 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”
Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Another reason why this preincarnate appearance of Christ was so special is because it foreshadows future events in end times prophecy.
Daniel is a book on end times prophecy. Nebuchadnezzar is a type of the Antichrist. Think about it. He is a global dictator over a world empire, just like the Antichrist will be. He sets up a golden image and demands everyone to worship it. The future Antichrist will do the same thing according Revelation chapter 13. Those who do not comply is threatened with the death penalty, just as the Antichrist will do (Rev. 6:9) He persecutes the Jews, declares war against them, and drives them out of Jerusalem, just like the Antichrist will do according to Revelation 12:11-17.
Then in Daniel 3:25 the Lord Jesus Christ shows up to deliver the Jews from the persecution of the world emperor just like He is going to do for the entire nation at His 2nd coming to the earth according to Zechariah chapters 12 to 14, Revelation chapter 19, and many other places.
We can go on and on about all the correlations between this story and the end times events that it foreshadows. This is why it is so important for God's words to be translated correctly. Incorrectly translating Daniel 3:25 as "the son of the gods" diminishes the doctrinal and prophetic gold that is to be mined by the serious Bible student.
It should not surprise anyone who read chapters 1 and 2 of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar had knowledge of the Jewish God. We read in the first chapter that Daniel and his 3 Jewish friends became the king's personal counselors. Surely they discussed God with Nebuchadnezzar. It wouldn’t be farfetched to imagine that the Jewish counselors taught the king of Babylon about their coming Messiah.
Daniel 1:19-20 “And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”
These ancient kings were no dummies. They were very educated. They studied their enemies well. Nebuchadnezzar should had known a lot about the Jews and their religion and beliefs. He would have learned even more about them once he made them part of his team of counselors. Educating him on the customs, beliefs, and ways of the Jews was their job as he had to deal with the Jewish people that were now a part of his community in Babylon.
In Daniel chapter 2, as Daniel is about to reveal and interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream he exalts God in front of the king.
Daniel 2:27-28 “Daniel answered in the presence of the king… there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets”
Daniel took advantage of the opportunity to show the difference between the power of his true God and the impotency of the false gods of the other counselors.
During his revelation and interpretation of the dream, he talks about God again and about God's future kingdom on earth.
Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed”
Daniel 2:45 “the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter”
During the revealing of the dream Daniel talks about a great stone that strikes the image in Nebuchanezzar's dream and destroys it. Then the stone grows into a great mountain that fills the whole earth. The stone is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who during His 2nd coming will replace the Gentile kingdoms of the earth with His own worldwide kingdom which will last forever. Would it be too hard to believe that Nebuchadnezzar had more conversations with His Jewish counselors about all this? From the details of the story in chapter 2 he seemed very passionate in his desire to understand this dream.
Nebuchadnezzar then acknowledges the God of Israel after the interpretation of his dream.
Daniel 2:47 “The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.”
We are reading about the development of Nebuchadnezzar's education on the God of Israel in real time.
Something else that is manifested in chapter 2 in verse 11 is that the pagans didn’t believed that the gods intervened among men.
Daniel 2:11 “And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
Understanding the Babylonian point of view on the gods, Nebuchadnezzar would have never thought that one of their gods, or a son of their gods, would have broken protocol to deliver 3 Jews.
Returning to chapter 3, the 3 Jews just got done telling the king in no uncertain terms in verses 15-17 that their God was going to deliver them! How dense would Nebuchadnezzar have to be to assume that they were delivered by someone else?
The false pagan gods were actually devils.
Deuteronomy 32:17 “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.”
1 Corinthians 10:20 “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.”)
Consequently, by saying “a son of the gods”, Bibles like the NIV and the 1960 Reina Valera give the glory that belongs to God to the devil! The KJV and RVG gives the glory to the Son of God.
When you diligently study all the wonderful truths the Holy Spirit gives us in chapters 1 to 3, it becomes clear that the context demands for Daniel 3:25 to be translated "the Son of God" rather than "a son of gods". The 1960 Reina Valera revisers got it wrong. The KJV and RVG has it right.
At the end of day, I thank God for a Bible that exalts Christ and gives me the comfort of knowing that when we go through the fiery trials of life (1st Peter 4:12) my Saviour will be right there in the midst of the fire to deliver me from all evil. Blessed be His holy name!
If you're counting on "a son of the gods" to help you out, you're in trouble!
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