Subject: NIV...Gods...? |
Bible Note: Greetings Preston: Thanks for the clarification. Here is what the study note from the Net Bible says about this phrase: "The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic "like that of a son of the gods." Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., "the Son of God"). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase "like a son of the gods" is equivalent to "like a divine being."" So, there argument is that the plural is more faithful to what the phrase would have meant to this pagan king. In fact, most of the commentaries that I checked accepted the NIV's translation as the better choice. Personally, I probably would have used the singular and included the above information in the study note. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |