Lucifer: The Origin of the Word
by slaveofone
When we hear the word Lucifer
, what do we think of? Thanks to Milton’s Paradise Lost,
we usually think of the name the Satan bore previous to his fall from the throne of Yahweh. The word Lucifer appears in the Authorized Version, the King James, although virtually every translation since has removed it.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Isaiah 14:12
But where did the word Lucifer
come from? Is it in the Hebrew manuscripts? Where the King James says Lucifer, son of the morning,
the Hebrew is heilel ben shakhar. Heilel is a shining thing or something that shows off brightness. Some other Biblical uses of the word (shown in all caps where translated) are as follows:
O that I could be as I was in the months now gone, in the days when God watched over me, when he caused his lamp TO SHINE upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness.
Job 29:2-3
Its snorting THROWS OUT FLASHES of light; its eyes are like the red glow of dawn.
Job 41:18
Ben means son of and can mean direct descent from a person or relation to something. For instance, the ben of Israel would mean the sons or people that are the nation of Israel. Shakhar means morning, early, day, dawn, rising light.1 Some other Biblical uses of the word (shown in all caps where translated) are as follows:
Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the red glow of DAWN.
Job 41:18
So we labored in the work, with half holding spears, from the rising of THE MORNING till the stars appeared.
Nehemiah 4:21
Taken together, the Hebrew phrase in Isaiah 14:12 means the shining/brightness born of the morning/dawn. What is that shining brightness? It could be the rays of the sun but it could also be the day star or morning star, Venus, which is how some translations render it.
Notice that there is nothing like the word Lucifer in the Hebrew. In the Greek translation known as the Septuagint, heilel is rendered eosphorus. So even in the Greek, there’s nothing like the word.
How then did Lucifer
get into the Bible? The word is actually Latin. It comes from the words lux (light/fire) and ferre (to bear/to bring) and when put together means bearer of light or bringer of fire. Lucifer is also one the Latin names for the morning star, Venus. As it turns out, so is the Greek word Eosphorus.
At length as the Morning Star (Eosphorus) was beginning to herald the light which saffron-mantled Dawn was soon to suffuse over the sea, the flames fell and the fire began to die.
Homer, The Iliad, Book 23
And after these Erigenia bare the star Eosphorus, and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.
Hesiod, Theogony
When Jerome translated the biblical manuscripts in his Latin Vulgate, he believed the shining born of the dawn in Isaiah spoke of the morning star and so replaced the Hebrew and Greek meaning with the Latin name of the planet. If we were to do the same with our modern day translations, we would write how you have fallen from heaven, O Venus, son of the morning.
Jerome actually used the word lucifer in several places in his translation. The following are a few examples of its occurrence as taken from the Clementine Vulgate. Lucifer
appears in parentheses.
Et quasi meridianus fulgor consurget tibi ad vesperam; et cum te consumptum putaveris, orieris ut (lucifer).
Job 11:17
Quomodo cecidisti de cælo, (Lucifer), qui mane oriebaris ? corruisti in terram, qui vulnerabas gentes?
Isaiah 14:12
Et habemus firmiorem propheticum sermonem : cui benefacitis attendentes quasi lucernæ lucenti in caliginoso donec dies elucescat, et (lucifer) oriatur in cordibus vestries
2 Peter 1:19
Notice that Lucifer is used in 2 Peter 1:19 in Jerome’s Vulgate just as it is used in Isaiah 14:12 to replace the Hebrew heilel. Here is the English:
Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
2 Peter 1:19
The morning star rising in the hearts of Yahweh’s people is a direct reference to Numbers 24:172 and describes the coming of Christ. The Greek word for morning star in 2 Peter 1:19 is eosphoros. If you recall, this is the same word used by the writers of the Septuagint to translate heilel in Isaiah 14:12 and is the name of the planet Venus in Greek. If Lucifer
is a correct rendering in Isaiah 14:12, then it is correct in 2 Peter 1:19 also (just as Jerome translates it). And so we have the first place where scripture calls Yeshua Lucifer. But that is not the only place.
And to the one who conquers and who continues in my deeds until the end…I will give him the morning star.
Revelation 2:26a, 28b
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star!
Revelation 22:16
A word for the morning star in Latin, as we have seen, is Lucifer. So according to Yeshua’s own words, not only will those who follow him receive Lucifer, but Lucifer is a name for Yeshua himself. There is even more reason to believe that Lucifer is an appropriate translation in Revelation 22:16 because the Greek in that verse is orthrinos aster,
which is a Greek epithet for Venus.3
So in conclusion, Lucifer is another name for Venus, Eosphorus, and Heilel. It describes the second planet, the morning star. While Yeshua is metaphorically likened to it in 2 Peter and Revelation, King Nebuchadnezzar receives this honor in Isaiah 14. Unfortunately, Satan is never given such distinction.
1Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1990, Hebrew concordance number 7837.
2an early Messianic prophecy: A star shall shine forth out of Jacob and a scepter will rise out of Israel.
3Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1990, Greek concordance number 3720.