"They answered and said: 'True, O King!'
"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.'"
In regard to that the "Biblia pauperum" observes
(according to an old German incunabulum of 1471):
"One reads in the third chapter of the prophet Daniel that
Nebuchadnezar, the King, caused three men to be placed in a
glowing furnace and that the king often went there, looked in,
and that he saw with the three, a fourth, who was like the Son
of God. The three signify for us, the Holy Trinity and the
fourth, the unity of the being. Christ, too, in His explanation
designated the person of the Trinity and the unity of the being."
According to this mystic interpretation, the legend of
the three men in the fiery furnace appears as a magic
fire ceremony by means of which the Son of God reveals
himself. The Trinity is brought together with the unity,
or, in other words, through coitus a child is produced.
The glowing furnace (like the glowing tripod in
"Faust") is a mother symbol, where the children are
produced.[45] The fourth in the fiery furnace appears as
Christ, the Son of God, who has become a visible God
in the fire. The mystic trinity and unity are sexual symbols.
(Compare with that the many references in Inman:
"Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism.") It
is said of the Saviour of Israel (the Messiah) and of his
enemies, Isaiah x:17:
"And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One
for a flame."
In a hymn of the Syrian Ephrem it is said of Christ:
"Thou who art all fire, have mercy upon me."
