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Satan, who in Milton's Paradise Lost is also called Lucifer,^[1] on his way to bring about the downfall of Adam. Gustave Doré's illustration for Paradise Lost, Book III, lines 739–742 by John Milton.

Traditionally, Lucifer ( /ˈluːsɪfər/ or /ljuːsɪfər/) is a name that in English generally refers to the Devil or Satan, especially in reference to his status as a fallen angel.

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 Morning Star, i.e. the planet Venus when seen at dawn.

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] This association developed in Early Christianity, in the 2nd or 3rd century.

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 (Vulgata stella splendida matutina).

The Devil as Lucifer[link]

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]

Jewish apocalyptic literature[link]

Gustave Doré's illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost, Book IV, lines 1013–1015: Satan (alias Lucifer) yielding before Gabriel

The association of Satan with the "Lucifer myth" develops in the tradition of Jewish pseudepigraphical texts of the 1st century BC such as Life of Adam and Eve and the Second Book of Enoch.^[6] 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.^[7]

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).^[8] Indications of belief in fallen angels, behind which probably lies the symbolizing of shooting stars, an astronomical phenomenon, are found in Isaiah 14:12.

Early Christian texts[link]

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).^[7]

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.^[9] However, though the New Testament includes the conception that Satan fell from heaven "as lightning" (Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:7–10),^[8] it nowhere applies the name Lucifer to him.

Isaiah 14:12[link]

The relevant passage is in chapter 14 of the Book of Isaiah: "And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ! ... 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! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (KJV, Isaiah 14:3-5, 12-15).

Isaiah here promises that the Israelites will be freed from their Babylonian captivity 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.^[7][10]

The phrase "O star of the morning, son of the dawn" in verse 12 translates the Hebrew הילל בן־שׁחר Helel Ben-Shachar. 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.^[11]

The Septuagint renders the phrase as ὁ ἑωσφόρος ὁ πρωὶ ἀνατέλλων "the early-rising Eosphorus". Jerome follows this in his Latin Vulgate text, translating lucifer qui mane oriebaris ("morning star that used to rise early").

This passage came to be applied to Satan in his role as the "fallen angel" by the Church fathers of the 3rd century, including Tertullian and Origen.^[10] However the word lucifer never came to be seen as a proper name of Satan in Latin, as it did in English. Lucifer was still used as a given name, as for 4th-century Lucifer of Cagliari (d. 370). As a title of Christ, it is still used in the Exsultet hymn sung during the Easter Vigil in the Roman Rite.

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.^[12] In Christian tradition, it too has been applied to Lucifer, because of some of the expressions contained in it.^[13] 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.

Lucifer (Le génie du mal) by Guillaume Geefs (Cathedral of St. Paul, Liège, Belgium)

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.^[10]

In the Latter Day Saint movement[link]

Some Mormon sects in the Latter Day Saint movement maintain that Lucifer was a name of the Devil before he rebelled against God 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^[14] and in the Pearl of Great Price.^[15] The Book of Mormon also contains sections from the King James version of Isaiah, including Isaiah 14:12–15.^[16] The Book of Mormon version references the Latin translation of “morning star” as “Lucifer” that is used, in some versions of The Bible.

The Book of Moses in "The Pearl of Great Price" in chapter 4, verses 1-4 states:

"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying— Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me— Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice."

In Judaism[link]

In Judaism, "morning star" refers to the king of Babylon, who is warned^[17] in Isaiah 14:12 of his coming demise at the hands of the Persians and the Medes.^[18] Isaiah was living in 586 BC, the time period shortly before the Babylonian Conquest of Kingdom of Judah. Isaiah had prophetic visions about the coming result of the Babylonian Exile on Jews and the nations. By contrast, Satan is considered an angel under the direct command of the God of Israel. Satan is considered an accuser appointed by God to test men's faith, similar to a prosecutor in a court of law.

Use of the word "lucifer" in the Bible[link]

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).^[19] 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"‎^[20] (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).

"Morning Star" as a title[link]

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:

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:

Mary Immaculate, Star of the Morning,

Chosen before the creation began,

Destined to bring, through the Light of your Dawning,

Conquest of Satan, and rescue to Man.

"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."^[21]

Astronomical significance[link]

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. Depending on the orbital locations of both Venus and Earth, it can be seen in the eastern morning sky for an hour or so before the Sun rises, or 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.^[22][23]

A 2nd-century sculpture of the moon goddess Selene accompanied by Hesperus and Phosphorus: the corresponding Latin names are Luna, Vesper and Lucifer.

"Lucifer" as Latin name for the Morning Star[link]

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.^[24]

stella Veneris, quae Φωσφόρος Graece Lucifer Latine dicitur cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem Ἕσπερος (De Natura Deorum, 2.53

"The star of Venus, called in Greek Phosphoros (the light-bringer) and in Latin Lucifer when it precedes the sun, but when it follows it Hesperos."^[25]

The Taxil Hoax: Lucifer's alleged connection with Freemasonry[link]

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,^[26] 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)^[27] 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:

With frightening cynicism, the miserable person we shall not name here [Taxil] declared before an assembly especially convened for him that for twelve years he had prepared and carried out to the end the most sacrilegious of hoaxes. We have always been careful to publish special articles concerning Palladism and Diana Vaughan. We are now giving in this issue a complete list of these articles, which can now be considered as not having existed.^[28]

Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.^[29]

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.

Occult beliefs[link]

The Sigil of Lucifer ("Seal of Satan") a magical sigil^[30] used occasionally as an emblem by Satanists

In the modern occultism of Dolores North (alias Madeline Montalban),^[31] 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 has written on Lucifer as a "mask" of the Adversary, a motivator and illuminating force of the mind and subconscious.^[32]

Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer. The tradition, influenced by Gnosticism, usually reveres Lucifer not as the Devil, but as a liberator or guiding spirit^[33] or even the true god as opposed to Jehovah.^[34]

Gallery[link]

• 

  Lucifer, by Alessandro Vellutello (1534), for Dante's Inferno, canto 34

• 

  Lucifer, by William Blake, for Dante's Inferno, canto 34

• 

  cover of 1887 edition of Mario Rapisardi's poem Lucifero

• 

  Lucifer before the Lord, by Mihály Zichy (19th century)

• 

  Gustave Dore, illustration to Paradise Lost, book IX, 179–187

• 

  Mayor Hall and Lucifer, by an unknown artist (1870)

• 

  The planet Venus, either as the "Morning Star" (in Latin, Lucifer) or as the Evening Star (in Latin, Hesperus)

See also[link]

• Christianity
• Devil
• Earendel
• Eosphoros
• Inferno (Dante), the first of the three canticas of Divine Comedy
• Luceafăr
• Lucifer in popular culture
• War in Heaven

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Campbell, Joseph (1972). Myths To Live By. A Condor Book: Souvenir Press (Educational & Academic) Ltd. ISBN 0-285-64731-8

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article Lucifer.

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lucifer". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Lucifer

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)

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Sons of God (B'nai HaElohim, בני האלהים) is a phrase used in Levantine Bronze and Iron Age texts to describe the "divine council" of the major gods.^{[citation needed]}

The term "sons of God"[link]

In the pantheon of 2nd millennium Ugarit the El, the father-god and head of the pantheon, and the 70 "sons of El", make up a "Divine Council" which deliberates over major decisions. In the 1st millennium the El had been demoted and each of the "sons of El" was held to have been given a "nation" as his charge: Chemosh, for example, was the god of Moab. Yahweh, not originally included in the Ugaritic pantheon, was the God of Judah and of Israel. In the Book of Genesis, Yahweh is seen as the single deity, with "sons of elohim" as his assistants.

By the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC further hypotheses were developed to explain this passage in Genesis. One hypothesis was that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, the pure line of Adam, and the "daughters of men" as the descendants of Cain.^{[citation needed]}

In the Hebrew Bible the phrase "sons of God" occurs:

• Gen 6:2 b'ney ha-Elohim (בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים) sons of the God.
• Job 1:6 b'ney ha-Elohim (בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים) sons of the God.
• Job 38:7 b'ney elohiym (בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִֽים) without the definite article - sons of gods.^[1]
• Psalm 29:1 b'ney elim (בְּנֵי אֵלִים ) without the definite article - sons of elim.

Bronze Age Canaanite origins[link]

In Ugaritic one cognate phrase is bn 'il.^[2] This may occur in the Ugaritic Baal cycle.^[3] Scharbert assigns the text to later editorial activity,^[4] whereas Westermann claims that the text of Genesis 6 is based on an Ugaritic urtext.^[5]

• KTU² 1.40 demonstrates the use of bn il to mean "sons of gods".^[6]
• KTU² 1.65 (which may be a scribal exercise) uses bn il three times in succession: il bn il / dr bn il / mphrt bn il "El, the sons of gods, the circle of the sons of gods / the totality of the sons of gods."^[7]

The phrase bn ilm "sons of the gods" is also attested in Ugaritic texts.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} As is the phrase phr bn ilm "assembly of the sons of the gods".^[13]

History of interpretation of Genesis 6[link]

Second Temple Judaism[link]

In 1 Enoch and Book of Jubilees the Genesis 6 text was developed into a complicated mythology of fallen angels. The 3rd century BC Book of Enoch turns the "sons of God" into fallen angels, referred to as Watchers, who came to earth and had children with human women, resulting in a race of half-angel, half-human beings known as the "Giants" (Nephilim).^{[citation needed]} The view is found in Philo^[14] and in Josephus Antiquities 1:73 (or 1:3.1).^[15]

In the 1st century, CE Rabbi Shimeon ben Yochai pronounced a curse on any Jew teaching the Enochite interpretation^{[citation needed]}, and later, Trypho the Jew^[16] rejected the interpretation. This was followed by Rashi and Nachmanides. Some commentators^[17] on Luke 20:34-36 believe that Jesus was also familiar with the Enochic interpretation, and can be counted with Shimeon ben Yochai, since Jesus rejected that angels could marry and in the same passage equated the "sons of God" with humans.

Early Christianity[link]

The pseudepigraphic Epistle of Barnabas 4:3 appears to accept the Enochic version.^[18] As do Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Commodianus.^[19]

Against this first Julius Africanus, then Augustine in City of God, argued that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, the pure line of Adam, and the "daughters of men" as the descendants of Cain.^[20]

Some manuscripts of the Septuagint have emendations to read "sons of God" as "angels" in Genesis 6. Codex Vaticanus contains "angels" originally. In Codex Alexandrinus "sons of God" has been erased and replaced by "angels".^[21] The Peshitta reads "sons of God".^[22] The 5th century Christian work Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan follows this view.

Popular culture[link]

• Sons of God - A short video trilogy by British independent film producers Jaffa Entertainment, 2010.^[23]
• Sons of God MC - A Christian motorcycle club which is loosely affiliated with the Hells Angels in North America.^[24]

See also[link]

• Watcher (angel)
• Nephilim
• Son of God

References[link]

External links[link]

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Son of God
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Son of God