Lucifer was the Roman name for the morning star: i.e., the planet Venus. In Christian mythology, the name Lucifer has become an epithet for the Devil and the fallen angel mentioned in Revelation 12. Thus, the name is connected to the deadly sin of pride for the Devil's attempt to overthrow God, after which he was banished to Earth.
The concept of a heavenly entity named after Venus attempting to overthrow the highest deity parallels ʿAṯtar's attempt to replace Baal on his throne in Canaanite religion, a story which is alluded to in the Book of Isaiah and thus transferred to Christian beliefs. Originally published New York: The MacMillan Co., 1923. As Lucifer is the antagonist of God in Christian beliefs, some sects of Satanism began to venerate his core characteristics as a bringer of freedom and enlightenment; meanwhile, Freemasons have been accused by anti-masonic literature, hoaxes and conspiracy theories as worshipping Lucifer as a deity.
Roman folklore and etymology
In Roman folklore, Lucifer ("light-bringer" in Latin) was the name of the planet Venus, though it was often personified as a male figure bearing a torch. The Greek name for this planet was variously Phosphoros (also meaning "light-bringer") or Heosphoros/Eosphoros (meaning "dawn-bringer")."Lucifer " in Encyclopaedia Britannica]. Lucifer was said to be "the fabled son of Aurora and Cephalus, and father of Ceyx". He was often presented in poetry as heralding the dawn. The Latin word corresponding to Greek is . It is used in its astronomical sense both in proseCicero. De Natura Deorum, Book 2, Ch. 20. 53 and poetry. Poets sometimes personify the star, placing it in a mythological context. As the Latin name for the morning appearances of the planet Venus, it corresponds not only to the Greek names Phosphoros and Eosphoros, but also to the Egyptian name Tioumoutiri, and the Old English term Morgensteorra (morning star).
A similar name used by the Roman poet Catullus for the planet in its evening aspect is "Noctifer" (Night-Bringer).Catullus 62.8 . This name respectively corresponded to not only the Greek name Hesperus Ἕσπερος (star of the evening), but also the Egyptian name Ouaiti, and the Old English term Æfensteorra (evening star).
Latin Lūcifer "light-bringer, morning star" (lux + ferre); used in the Vulgate for Isaiah 14:12 (Hebrew ; translates to "Shining One, Son of the morning/dawn"), later applied to Satan in Christian tradition. The translation of the Hebrew word means "Shining One".Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary .
The 2nd-century Roman mythographer Hyginus said of the planet:Astronomica Book 2, Ch. 42.4 (trans. Grant).
The Latin poet Ovid, in his 1st-century epic , describes Lucifer as ordering the heavens:Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 2, ln. 112 ff (trans. Melville) .
Ovid, speaking of Phosphorus and Hesperus (the Evening Star, the evening appearance of the planet Venus) as identical, makes him the father of Daedalion.Metamorphoses, Book 11, ln. 295 Ovid also makes him the father of Ceyx,Metamorphoses, Book 11, ln. 271Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 1.7.4 . while the Latin grammarian Servius makes him the father of the Hesperides or of Hesperis.
In the classical Roman period, Lucifer was not typically regarded as a deity and had few, if any, myths, though the planet was associated with various deities and often poetically personified. Cicero stated that "You say that Sol and Luna are deities, and the Greeks identify the former with Apollo and the latter with Diana. But if Luna is a goddess, then Lucifer (the Morning-Star) also and the rest of the Wandering Stars () will have to be counted gods; and if so, then the Fixed Stars () as well."
In the Bible
In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, the king of Babylon is condemned in a prophetic vision by the prophet Isaiah and is addressed as (, Hebrew for "shining one, son of the morning"), The title refers to the planet Venus as the morning star, and that is how the Hebrew word is usually interpreted.Gunkel expressly states that "the name Helel ben Shahar clearly states that it is a question of a nature myth. Morning Star, son of Dawn has a curious fate. He rushes gleaming up towards heaven, but never reaches the heights; the sunlight fades him away." (Schöpfung und Chaos, p. 133) The Hebrew word transliterated as or occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint renders in Greek as (), "bringer of dawn", the Ancient Greek name for the morning star. Similarly the Vulgate renders in Latin as , the name in that language for the morning star. According to the King James Bible-based Strong's Concordance, the original Hebrew word means "shining one, light-bearer", and the English translation given in the King James text is the Latin name for the planet Venus, "Lucifer", as it was already in the Wycliffe Bible.
However, the translation of as "Lucifer" has been abandoned in modern English translations of Isaiah 14:12. Present-day translations render as "morning star" (New International Version, New Century Version, New American Standard Bible, Good News Translation, Holman Christian Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, Common English Bible, Complete Jewish Bible), "daystar" (New Jerusalem Bible, The Message), "Day Star" (New Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version), "shining one" (New Life Version, New World Translation, JPS Tanakh), or "shining star" (New Living Translation).
In a modern translation from the original Hebrew, the passage in which the phrase "Lucifer" or "morning star" occurs begins with the statement: "On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labour forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!" After describing the death of the king, the taunt continues:
For the unnamed "king of Babylon", a wide range of identifications have been proposed. They include a Babylonian ruler of the prophet Isaiah's own time, the later Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom the Babylonian captivity of the Jews began, or Nabonidus, and the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II and Sennacherib. Verse 20 says that this king of Babylon will not be "joined with them [all the kings of the nations] in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever", but rather be cast out of the grave, while "All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house."Isaiah 14:18 Herbert Wolf held that the "king of Babylon" was not a specific ruler but a generic representation of the whole line of rulers.
Christian interpretations
Isaiah 14:12 became a source for the popular conception of the fallen angel motif. Rabbinic Judaism has rejected any belief in rebel or fallen angels. In the 11th century, the Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer illustrates the origin of the "fallen angel myth" by giving two accounts, one relates to the angel in the Garden of Eden who seduces Eve, and the other relates to the angels, the who cohabit with the daughters of man (Genesis 6:1–4).Adelman, Rachel (2009). pp. 61–62. An association of Isaiah 14:12–18 with a personification of evil, called the devil, developed outside of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism in pseudepigrapha, and later in Christian writings, particularly with the apocalypses.
The metaphor of the morning star that Isaiah 14:12 applied to a king of Babylon gave rise to the general use of the Latin word for "morning star", capitalized, as the original name of the devil before his fall from grace, linking Isaiah 14:12 with Luke 10 ("I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven") and interpreting the passage in Isaiah as an allegory of Satan's fall from heaven.
Considering pride as a major sin peaking in self-deification, Lucifer () became the template for the devil.Litwa, M. David (2016). Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-046717-3. p. 46 As a result, Lucifer was identified with the devil in Christianity and in Christian popular literature, as in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Early medieval Christianity fairly distinguished between Lucifer and Satan. While Lucifer, as the devil, is fixated in hell, Satan executes the desires of Lucifer as his vassal.Jeffrey Burton Russell: Biographie des Teufels: das radikal Böse und die Macht des Guten in der Welt. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2000, retrieved 19 October 2020.Dendle, Peter (2001). Satan Unbound: The Devil in Old English Narrative Literature. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8369-2.p. 10
Aquila of Sinope derives the word , the Hebrew name for the morning star, from the verb (to lament). This derivation was adopted as a proper name for an angel who laments the loss of his former beauty.Bonnetain, Yvonne S (2015). Loki: Beweger der Geschichten [Loki: Movers of the stories] . Roter Drache; ISBN 978-3-939459-68-2 / OCLC 935942344. pg. 263 The Christian church fathers – for example Jerome, in his Vulgate – translated this as Lucifer.
Some Christian writers have applied the name "Lucifer" as used in the Book of Isaiah, and the motif of a heavenly being cast down to the earth, to the devil. Sigve K. Tonstad argues that the New Testament War in Heaven theme of Revelation 12, in which the dragon "who is called the devil and Satan [...] was thrown down to the earth", was derived from the passage about the Babylonian king in Isaiah 14. Origen (184/185–253/254) interpreted such Old Testament passages as being about manifestations of the devil.Auffarth, Christoph; Stuckenbruck, Loren T., eds. (2004). p. 62. Origen was not the first to interpret the Isaiah 14 passage as referring to the devil: he was preceded by at least Tertullian (), who in his (book 5, chapters 11 and 17) twice presents as spoken by the devil the words of Isaiah 14:14: "I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High".Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. 2, cols. 500 and 514 Though Tertullian was a speaker of the language in which the word was created, "Lucifer" is not among the numerous names and phrases he used to describe the devil. Even at the time of Augustine of Hippo (354–430), a contemporary of the composition of the Vulgate, "Lucifer" had not yet become a common name for the devil.
Augustine's work (5th century) became the major opinion of Western demonology including in the Catholic Church. For Augustine, the rebellion of the Devil was the first and final cause of evil. By this he rejected some earlier teachings about Satan having fallen when the world was already created.Schreckenberg, Heinz; Schubert, Kurt (1992). Jewish Historiography and Iconography in Early and Medieval Christianity. Augsburg Fortress, Publishers; ISBN 978-0-8006-2519-1. pg. 253 Further, Augustine rejects the idea that envy could have been the first sin (as some early Christians believed, evident from sources like the Cave of Treasures in which Satan has fallen because he envies humans and refused to prostrate himself before Adam), since pride ("loving yourself more than others and God") is required to be envious ("hatred for the happiness of others"). He argues that evil came first into existence by the free will of Satan. His attempt to take God's throne is not an assault on the gates of heaven, but a turn to solipsism in which the Devil becomes God in his world. When the king of Babylon uttered his phrase in Isaiah, he was speaking through the sprite of Lucifer, the head of devils. He concluded that everyone who falls away from God are within the body of Lucifer, and is a devil.Hollerich, M. J.; Christman, A. R. (2007). Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian Medieval Commentators. Cambridge: Eerdmans. pp. 175–176