How we see God’s word and which version of Bible we use makes a very big difference in our lives because not much is more central to us than the Word of God. The Image of Gold in Daniel symbolically represents the Bible, and the two images Daniel mentions are actually connected.
Daniel 3:1, “Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore (60) cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.”
The image here is sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. 60 + 6 = 66. This represents the 66 books of the Bible.
The fact that the image is made of “gold” represents the extreme value and purity of what is in the Bible. Nonetheless it is just an “image,” The Bible itself is just an image of the WORD, The WORD is Jesus Christ himself! (John 1) Whoever did not bow down and worship this image was cast into a furnace and burned. This represents the opposition to finding the revelation outside the 66 books of the Bible. There are other sources of revelation such as prophecy and visions. Also, the people in the Bible used other works such as the book of Enoch and book of Jasher. There is wisdom and revelation hidden in the apocrypha, although it was never intended as a foundation for major doctrines. These books are not “written by the devil” as some may say. Let the 66 books of the Bible be your foundation, but not your limitation.
31 “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
The head of gold represents the King James translation of “the image” the Bible. The purity and beauty of God’s word in the King James stands alone and is unmatched by other translations. It takes effort at first to learn the King James Bible but then quickly gets easier as you get used to it. No translation is perfect, but King James is gold.
Matthew 13:51 “...every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
It should be noted that there are many advantages to using the New King James translation in addition to the old and switching back and forth at times. There are certain passages the old king does not quite translate correctly and studying the same passage in the NKJV will yield much insight. Further, the NKJV has many cross-references in the margins and often lists the literal meaning of the word when there is a difficulty translating directly. This makes the NKJV more useful as a study Bible. Lastly of course, it is simply easier to read, but not any less accurate than the old king. Currenly the NKJV is my primary translation of choice. The benifits to the old KJV on the other hand, is that the translators would often translate very literally, even if a passage seemed strange. For instance, if the Bible mentions Babylon would be a “den of dragons,” modern translators are embarrased by the concept of dragons and insert something more harmless such as “jackals,” but oftentimes God has a hidden revelation in in the raw meaning of the word and we miss it when we try to sanatize it according to western assumptions. This is where the old KJV can still be very useful. Whichever of these you use, you should sometimes switch every so often and begin reading the other, old or new. This provides a totally new and fresh perspective on a passage and a hidden revelation can be discovered. For instance, the passage in Genesis 2:10 mentions a river coming out of Eden which divides into four riverheads. Sounds simple enough right? But when you read the original KJV it simply says four HEADS, not four “riverheads.” Same thing though right? Well, actually not at all! Four heads links us to the beasts surrounding God's throne which have heads of a lion, ox, man, and eagle which surround God's throne. By inserting a naturalist human assuption that the verse is refering to riverheads and not actual heads the NKJV causes us to miss out on the hidden revelation. That is why it is important to be familiar with both old and new versions, so we do not miss out on any revelation.
As we go down the image, the next element is silver.
Silver, brass, and iron, they all become more common and less glorious. This represents the new translations. Scholars unsatisfied with God’s gold, perverting and changing the word into THEIR OWN IMAGE rather than the image of the Word Himself. Corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts are used for almost all translation except KJV and NKJV, these delete countless verses from scripture. The feet of iron and clay at the very bottom of the image represent the paraphrase bibles. The iron is the dull strength of the residual word not fully tampered with and the clay is the human additions.
34 “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”
The Stone cut without hands represents Christ and his Kingdom Age. The Word Himself! Christ Jesus!
1 Corinthians 13:10
“When that which is perfect (Christ; The Kingdom Age) is come….”“Then that which is in part (The Bible canon; the Church Age) will pass away”
12 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Although the King James Bible is gold, it is still like seeing through as glass darkly compared to the future reign of Christ on earth. It is still knowledge “in part.” The Bible itself is simply the path to what is perfect, knowing the Word Himself!