It is preserved in five versions: one in Pali (Anguttara ii.37-30), one in the Gandharan Buddhist Texts and three in Chinese parallel translations (Taisho vol 2.717c, 2.28a and 2.467a).
Thus the original Indian versions are believed to have all contained the question of Dona in the future tense, as in the Pali bhavissati.
The alternative translation is based on this possible idiomatic usage of the future tense in Pali, and understands the brahmin Dona to be asking the Buddha in confusion or amazement what he is—a god (deva), a gandharva, a yaksha or human.
Of the several Chinese parallel versions, the one contained in the Ekottara-āgama, attributed to the Mahāsānghikas, preserves a simpler, shorter and older form of this sutra.
Here, the Buddha merely states that he knows that attachment and desire are the sources of the skandhas (the constituents of individual existence) and through that knowledge he has ended suffering.