Dr. Couch, is Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:8-9 speaking of the Holy Spirit or of the "spirit of the holy gods" when he refers to the ability of Daniel to give to him the interpretation of his dream?
ANSWER: The Aramaic is virtually the same as the Hebrew wording. The phrase reads: "Ruach Elahin Kede'Shen." I have always held what the Jewish Rabbis and Dr. Merrill F. Unger have stated about this phrase that is used several times in Daniel. The Rabbis say that Nebuchadnezzar was speaking a polytheistic expression that would be natural for one coming out of paganism as he was so doing. The idea that God was Spirit was known to the pagan world, though distorted by their sinfulness. The American Indians believed in the Great White Spirit! This would tell us that all religions, with distortion, go back to early Genesis. The Spirit of God is mentioned in the first few verses of the story of Creation.
Unger writes: "The difficulty of the passage lies in the fact that Nebuchadnezzar spoke like a pagan who had acquired some notions of the one true God, but whose spiritual history was still in the formative stages. So he employed the epithet 'holy,' which belongs solely to God."
Isaiah uttered his great words: "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of the armies (Hosts), the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isa. 6:3).
Thanks for asking.
—Dr. Mal Couch (2/11)
