Traditionally, Lucifer ( /ˈluːsɪfər/ or /ljuːsɪfər/) is a name that in English generally refers to the Devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer (as a noun) means "light-bearer" (from the words lucem ferre). It was the name given to the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, which heralds daylight. For this meaning, English generally uses the names "Morning Star" or "Day Star", and rarely "Lucifer".
Use of the name "Lucifer" for the Devil stems from applying to the Devil what Isaiah 14:3–20 says of a king of Babylon whom it calls Helel (הֵילֵל, Shining One), a Hebrew word that refers to the Day Star or Morning Star (the Latin term[2] for which is lucifer)[3] In 2 Peter 1:19 and elsewhere, the same Latin word lucifer is used to refer to the Morning Star, with no relation to the Devil. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus himself is called the Morning Star, but not "Lucifer", even in Latin.
It is uncertain when precisely the Isaiah passage, which in its Latin translation contains the name "Lucifer", began to be applied to Satan, but it was certainly used in this way by 3rd-century Origen,[4] and some scholars claim that the identification of "Lucifer" with the Devil was first made by Origen, Tertullian and Augustine of Hippo.[5]
An ancient myth[6] of the fall of angels, associated with the Morning Star, was transferred to the Devil, as seen in the Life of Adam and Eve and the Second Book of Enoch,[7] which the Jewish Encyclopedia attributes to the first pre-Christian century.[8] In these writings, Satan-Sataniel (sometimes identified with Samael) is described as having been one of the archangels. Because he contrived "to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble 'My power' on high", Satan-Sataniel was hurled down, with his hosts of angels, and since then, he has been flying in the air continually above the abyss.[6]
The Early Christian writers Tertullian ("Contra Marcionem," v. 11, 17), Origen (Homilies on Ezekiel 13), and others identify Lucifer with the Devil, who also is represented as being "cast down from heaven" (Revelation 12:7–10; cf. Luke 10:18).[6]
Today, some contemporary exorcists and theologians, such as Father José Antonio Fortea and Father Amorth, assert that Lucifer and the Devil are different beings.[9]
In the New Testament the "adversary" has many names, but "Lucifer" is not among them. He is called "Satan" (Matt. 4:10; Mark 1:13, 4:15; Luke 10:18), "devil" (Matt. 4:1), "adversary" (1. Peter 5:8, ἀντίδικος; 1. Tim. 5:14, ἀντικείμενος), "enemy" (Matt. 13:39), "accuser" (Rev. 12:10), "old serpent" (Rev. 20:2), "great dragon" (Rev. 12:9), Beelzebub (Matt. 10:25, 12:24), and Belial (comp. Samael). In Luke 10:18, John 12:31 and Rev. 12:9 the fall of Satan is mentioned. The devil is regarded as the author of all evil (Luke 10:19; Acts 5:3; 2. Cor. 11:3; Ephes. 2:2), who beguiled Eve (2. Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:9). Because of Satan, death came into this world, being ever the tempter (1. Cor. 7:5; 1. Thess. 3:5; 1. Peter 5:8), even as he tempted Jesus (Matt. 4). The Christian demonology and belief in the devil dominated subsequent periods.[10] However, though the New Testament includes the conception that Satan fell from heaven "as lightning" (Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:7–10),[11] it nowhere applies the name Lucifer to him.
The Jewish Encyclopedia states that in the apocalyptic literature, the conception of fallen angels is widespread. Throughout antiquity, stars were commonly regarded as living celestial beings (Job 38:7).[11] Indications of belief in fallen angels, behind which probably lies the symbolizing of shooting stars, an astronomical phenomenon, are found in Isaiah 14:12.
The Book of Isaiah has the following passage:
When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How his insolence has ceased! … How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of congregation on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: "Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who would not let his prisoners go home?[12]
The passage refers to the king of Babylon, a man who seemed all-powerful, but who has been brought down to the abode of the dead ("Sheol"). Isaiah promises that the Israelites will be freed and will then be able to use in a taunting song against their oppressor the image of the Morning Star, which rises at dawn as the brightest of the stars, outshining Jupiter and Saturn, but lasting only until the sun appears. This image was used in an old popular Canaanite story that the Morning Star tried to rise high above the clouds and establish himself on the mountain where the gods assembled, in the far north, but was cast down into the underworld.[6][13]
The phrase "O Day Star, son of Dawn" in the New Revised Standard Version translation given above corresponds to the Hebrew phrase "הילל בן־שׁחר" (Helel Ben-Shachar) in verse 12, meaning "morning star, son of dawn". As the Latin poets personified the Morning Star and the Dawn (Aurora), as well as the Sun and the Moon and other heavenly bodies, so in Canaanite mythology Morning Star and Dawn were pictured as two deities, the former being the son of the latter.[14]
In the Latin Vulgate, Jerome translated "הילל בן־שׁחר" (morning star, son of dawn) as "lucifer qui mane oriebaris" (morning star that used to rise early).[15] Already, as early as the Christian writers Tertullian and Origen,[13] the whole passage had come to be applied to Satan. Satan began to be referred to as "Lucifer" (Morning Star), and finally the word "Lucifer" was treated as a proper name. The use of the word "Lucifer" in the 1611 King James Version instead of a word such as "Daystar" ensured its continued popularity among English speakers.
Most modern English versions (including the NIV, RSV, NRSV, NASB, NABRE, NJB and ESV) render the Hebrew word as "day star", "morning star" or something similar, and never as "Lucifer", a word that in English is now very rarely used in the sense of the original word in Hebrew (Morning Star), though in Latin "Lucifer" was a literal translation.
A passage quite similar to that in Isaiah is found in Ezekiel 28:1–19, which is expressly directed against the king of Tyre, a city on an island that had grown rich by trade, factors alluded to in the text.[16] In Christian tradition, it too has been applied to Lucifer, because of some of the expressions contained in it.[17] But, since it does not contain the image of the Morning Star, discussion of it belongs rather to the article on Satan than to that on Lucifer.
The same holds for the Christian depiction of Satan in other books of the Old Testament as, for instance, in the Book of Job, where Satan, who has been wandering the Earth, has a discussion with God and makes a deal with him to test Job.
The Tyndale Bible Dictionary states that there are many who believe the expression "Lucifer" and the surrounding context in Isaiah 14 refer to Satan: they believe the similarities among Isaiah 14:12, Luke 10:18, and Revelation 12:7–10 warrant this conclusion. But it points out that the context of the Isaiah passage is about the accomplished defeat of the king of Babylon, while the New Testament passages speak of Satan.[13]
Some Mormon sects in the Latter Day Saint movement maintains that Lucifer was a name of the Devil before he fell and was cast out of heaven. Accounts of the fall of Lucifer/Satan are found in several places within LDS canonical scripture, including the Doctrine and Covenants[18] and in the Pearl of Great Price.[19] The Book of Mormon also contains sections from the King James version of Isaiah, including Isaiah 14:12–15.[20] The Book of Mormon version references the Latin translation of “morning star” as “Lucifer” that is used, in some versions of The Bible.
The Vulgate (Latin) version of the Christian Bible used the word "lucifer" (with lower-case initial) twice to refer to the Morning Star: once in 2 Peter 1:19 to translate the Greek word φωσφόρος (phōsphoros), a word, from φῶς (phōs) meaning "light" and φέρω (pherō̄) meaning "to carry", that has the same meaning of Light-Bringer that the Latin word has, and once in Isaiah 14:12 to translate the Hebrew word הילל (Hêlēl).[21] In the latter passage the title of "Morning Star" is given to the tyrannous Babylonian king, who the prophet says is destined to fall. This passage was later applied to the prince of the demons, and so the name "Lucifer" came to be used outside the Bible for the devil, and was popularized in works such as Dante Alighieri's Inferno and John Milton's Paradise Lost, but for English speakers the greatest influence has been its use in the King James Version of Isa 14:12 to translate the Hebrew word הילל, which more modern English versions render as "Morning Star" or "Day Star". A similar passage in Ezekiel 28:11–19 regarding the "king of Tyre" was also applied to the devil, contributing to the traditional picture of the fallen angel.
The Vulgate translation uses "lucifer" (Morning Star) twice to translate words in the Book of Job that meant something different: once to represent the word "בקר"[22] (which instead means "morning") in Job 11:17, and once for the word "מזרות" (usually taken to mean "the constellations") in Job 38:32. The same Latin word appears also in the Vulgate version of Psalms 110:3, where the original has "שׁחר" (dawn, the same word as in Isaiah 14:12).
The Vulgate did not use the Latin word lucifer to represent the two references to the Morning Star in the Book of Revelation. In both cases the original Greek text uses a circumlocution instead of the single word "φωσφόρος", and a corresponding circumlocution is used in the Latin. Thus "stella matutina" is used for "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρωϊνός" in Revelation 2:28, which promises the Morning Star to those who persevere, and for "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρωϊνός" (or, according to some manuscripts, "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ ὀρθρινός") in Revelation 22:16, where Jesus calls himself "the bright morning star".
The English word "Lucifer" is used in none of these places (other than Isaiah 14:12), where the Latin translation uses the Latin word "lucifer" (i.e., morning star).
Jesus is referred to as "the bright and morning star" (ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ λαμπρὸς καὶ ὀρθρινός) in Revelation 22:16, but not as Phosphorus (Lucifer).
The Exultet chant in praise of the paschal candle in the Roman Rite calls Christ the Morning Star, using the Latin word, lucifer:
|
Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat: |
May this flame be found still burning |
In the Litany of Loreto the Blessed Virgin Mary is invoked as "Stella matutina" (Morning Star), and a popular English hymn addressed to her has the stanza:
"Morning Star" was also applied as a title to Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II in 968. Liutprand, Bishop of Cremona, reports that the emperor was greeted on his arrival at Hagia Sophia with the chant: "Behold the morning star approaches, Eos rises; he reflects in his glances the rays of the sun – he the pale death of the Saracens, Nicephorus the ruler."[23]
Because the planet Venus is an inferior planet, meaning that its orbit lies between the orbit of the Earth and the Sun, it can never rise high in the sky at night as seen from Earth. It can be seen in the eastern morning sky for an hour or so before the Sun rises, and in the western evening sky for an hour or so after the Sun sets, but never during the dark of midnight.
It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. As bright and as brilliant as it is, ancient people did not understand why they could not see it at midnight like the outer planets, or during midday, like the Sun and Moon. It outshines the planets Saturn and Jupiter, which do last all night, but it soon disappears. Canaanite mythology has a story of an unsuccessful attempt by Athtar, the Morning Star pictured as a god, to take over the throne of Baal.[24][25]
In Classical Latin, Lucifer was used as a translation of Greek Phosphoros (lit. "light-bearer"), a term for the morning star. It is first found in Varro and Cicero.[26]
Léo Taxil (1854–1907) claimed that Freemasonry is associated with worshipping Lucifer. In what is known as the Taxil hoax, he claimed that supposedly leading Freemason Albert Pike had addressed "The 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of the world" (an invention of Taxil), instructing them that Lucifer was God, and was in opposition to the evil god Adonai. Apologists of Freemasonry contend that, when Albert Pike and other Masonic scholars spoke about the "Luciferian path," or the "energies of Lucifer," they were referring to the Morning Star, the light bearer,[28] the search for light; the very antithesis of dark, satanic evil. Taxil promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by himself, as he later confessed publicly)[29] that purported to reveal a highly secret ruling body called the Palladium, which controlled the organization and had a Satanic agenda. As described by Freemasonry Disclosed in 1897:
Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.[31]
In Devil-Worship in France, Arthur Edward Waite compared Taxil's work to what today we would call a tabloid story, replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.
See also "Lucifer and Satan" at the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon website.
In the modern occultism of Dolores North (alias Madeline Montalban),[33] Lucifer's identification as the Morning Star (Venus) equates him with Lumiel, whom she regarded as the Archangel of Light, and among Satanists he is seen as the "Torch of Baphomet" and Azazel.
In the Satanic Bible of 1969, Lucifer is acknowledged as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell, particularly that of the East. Lord of the Air, Lucifer has been named "Bringer of Light, the Morning Star, Intellectualism, Enlightenment."
Author Michael W. Ford[34] has written on Lucifer as a "mask" of the Adversary, a motivator and illuminating force of the mind and subconscious.[35]
| Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article Lucifer. |