We meet with this name Isa. 14. 12. Various have been the opinions of commentators, who is meant by it. Some have supposed it refered to the morning star, because to the name Lucifer is added son of the morning;" and in confirmation they refer to that passage, (Job 38. 7.) where at the creation, the morning stars are said to have sung together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." But it should seem, that this is a total perversion of the passage, for Lu - cifer is said to be fallen; and moreover, Jesus is, in a specialand personal manner, called the morning star." (Rev. xx2: 16.) Other commentators, with much greater probability of truth, have supposed, that by Lucifer is meant the Devil, who once was among the bright ornaments of heaven, but by apostacy is fallen; and this agrees with the whole context. Hell from beneath is said to have moved; at his coming. (Isa. 14 9.) And agreeably to this opinion) we find that the general name of Lucifer hath been assigned to the devil in all the christian church, But there are others, who intheir comments on this part of Isaiah’s prophecy, accept the whole passage as referring literally to the king of Babylon, with which the subject opens at the fourth verse. If read in this light, the whole passage is solemn, magnificent; and striking. The greatness and power of the king of Babylon is described in very lofty characters: his city is called the golden city. He is said to have made the earth to tremble, and to have shaken kingdoms. The prophet next describes his tyranny, despotism, and cruelty. He smote the people inwrath, and that not occasionally, but continually; and so irresistible was his power, that none could hinder. At length he falls. The earth gains instant rest, and by a beautiful figure of rhetoric, is said to break forth into singing. Then comes in the awful account of the succeeding state to the present life. "Hell from beneath is moved at his coming." The territories of the damned are represented as opening to receive a more than ordinary guest, now come to take up his eternal dwelling there; and the dead, and the chief ones of the earth, who when alive trembled at his power, now all brought together into one common level of horror and misery, are represented as insulting over his calamity. "Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Perhaps there never was a finer piece of imagery in any description ever given. The movement of hell to meet this stranger, this great one, is beyond all conception sublime, as if those infernal regions of horror felt convulsed at his approach, and thus testified their welcome. And the taunting compliments from the kings and great men of the earth, whom the monarch of Babylon had hastened and sent there before their time, is wonderfully conceived, to shew what deep and bitter malignity the conversation of hell is made up of, to aggravate the torments of the damned, and to fill up the full - heaped measure of corrosive andeverlasting misery. But when the reader hath done with his observation on this awful prospect, I beg yet more earnestly to call his attention to another, by way of finishing the subject, which comes home to every breast, or ought at least so to do, and which is not confined to person or character, but universally concerns all mankind. Whether this Lucifer, son of the morning, be or be not either of the characters before mentioned, yet for every character and for every person, the entrance into the world of spirits is opened atdeath. Whether, hell from beneath is moved at the unawakened sinner’s coming, or heaven from above opens her golden gates to receive the redeemed regenerated saint in Jesus, this Scripture, with others to the same amount, plainly testify that that thinking faculty, that immortal incorporeal part, which at death separates from the body, hastens into the world of spirits like its own, and exists in a state perfectly distinct from and unconnected with the body, and will so continue until the general resurrection. What a solemnthought, if properly attended to, and yet increasingly more solemn to every inhabitant of the earth when considered also, that the time of this separation may be the next moment for ought we know, when the disembodied soul shall receive the summons for departure.
And there is another thought connected with it, which gives solemnity to the former, and which this Scripture tends to prove, namely, that in that world of spirits they think and speak, have conversation and fellowship, with each other, as familiarly as we have with each other that are yet in the body. How remote from hence is not said. It may be immensely distant; it may be very near. One thing is certain, as this Scripture shews, namely, that they are intimately acquainted with the past circumstances of their own lives, and thelives of others with whom they dwelt. And hence, though they cease for ever from us, and we from them, in respect to farther communion; though as the Scripture saith, "Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, " (Isa. l13. 16.) yet the existence is made up of identity, consciousness, and unceasing thinking, and acting, and the most lively perception. Hence, in either state, and in both states, the happiness of the blessed, and the misery of the damned, infinitely surpasseth the utmost conception our presentfaculties can form. Oh, the multitude, the unnumbered, unknown, unanswerable arguments which the Scriptures hold forth to seek the things which make for our everlasting peace, and to flee from the wrath to come."
Lu´cifer, a word that occurs once in the English Version in the lines—
’How art thou fallen from heaven,
Lucifer, son of the morning!
How art thou felled to the ground,
That didst weaken the nations!’
(Isa 14:12). The meaning of the Hebrew word seems to be ’brilliant,’ ’splendid,’ ’illustrious,’ and it appears to have been the Hebrew name of the morning star. Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to Satan; and this is now the usual acceptation of the word. But Dr. Henderson, who in his Isaiah renders the line, ’Illustrious son of the morning!’ justly remarks in his annotation: ’The application of this passage to Satan, and to the fall of the apostate angels, is one of those gross perversions of Sacred Writ which so extensively obtain, and which are to be traced to a proneness to seek for more in any given passage than it really contains, a disposition to be influenced by sound rather than sense, and an implicit faith in received interpretations. The scope and connection show that none but the king of Babylon is meant. In the figurative language of the Hebrews a star signifies an illustrious king or prince (Num 24:17; comp. Rev 2:28; Rev 22:16). The monarch here referred to, having surpassed all other kings in royal splendor, is compared to the harbinger of day, whose brilliancy surpasses that of the surrounding stars. Falling from heaven denotes a sudden political overthrow—a removal from the position of high and conspicuous dignity formerly occupied (comp. Rev 6:13; Rev 8:10).
Light-bringer, the Latin name of the morning-star, or "son of the morning." In the figurative language of Scripture, a brilliant star denoted an illustrious prince, Num 24:17 . Christ was given to men as the "bright and morning Star," Jer 2:28 ; 22:16. The word Lucifer is used once only in the English Bible, and then of the king of Babylon, Isa 14:12 . It is now commonly, though inappropriately, given to the prince of darkness.\par
Lu’cifer. (light-bearer). Found in Isa 14:12 coupled with the epithet "son of the morning", clearly signifies a "bright star", and probably what we call the morning star. In this passage, it is a symbolical representation of the king of Babylon, in his splendor and in his fall.
Its application, from St. Jerome downward, to Satan in his fall from heaven, arises probably from the fact that the Babylonian empire is, in Scripture, represented as the type of tyrannical and self idolizing power, and especially connected with the empire of the Evil One in the Apocalypse.
"light bringer", "the morning star": Isa 14:12 (
Lucifer (lû’si-fer), light-bringer. The original word signifies brilliant star, i.e., the morning star. The title is applied to the king of Babylon in Isa 14:12, R. V., day star; he had outshone other kings, as the bright star of the morning surpasses other stars. Falling from heaven denotes a sudden political overthrow or catastrophe. In popular language Lucifer is regarded as an appellation of Satan.
[Lu’cifer]
Name, signifying in Latin ’light-bringer,’ being a translation of the Hebrew word, helel, associated with ’morning star,’ given in irony to the king of Babylon, because in his pride he said he would exalt his throne above the stars of God. Isa 14:12. He resembles the leader of this world in the last days. Rev 13:1-10.
Satan, especially as the leader of the revolt of the angels before his fall from heaven
By: Kaufmann Kohler
Septuagint translation of "Helel [read "Helal"] ben Shaḥar" (= "the brilliant one," "son of the morning"), name of the day, or morning, star, to whose mythical fate that of the King of Babylon is compared in the prophetic vision (Isa. xiv. 12-14). It is obvious that the prophet in attributing to the Babylonian king boastful pride, followed by a fall, borrowed the idea from a popular legend connected with the morning star; and Gunkel ("Schöpfung und Chaos," pp. 132-134) is undoubtedly correct when he holds that it represents a Babylonian or Hebrew star-myth similar to the Greek legend of Phaethon. The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars, but is not seen during the night, may easily have given rise to a myth such as was told of Ethana and Zu: he was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the star-gods on the northern mountain of the gods (comp. Ezek. xxviii. 14; Ps. xlviii. 3 [A.V. 2]), but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian Olympus. Stars were regarded throughout antiquity as living celestial beings (Job xxxviii. 7).
The familiarity of the people of Palestine with such a myth is shown by the legend, localized on Mount Hermon, the northern mountain of Palestine and possibly the original mountain of the gods in that country, of the fall of the angels under the leadership of Samḥazai (the heaven-seizer) and Azael (Enoch, vi. 6 et seq.; see Fall of Angels). Another legend represents Samḥazai, because he repented of his sin, as being suspended between heaven and earth (like a star) instead of being hurled down to Sheol (see Midr. Abḳir in Yalḳ. i. 44; Raymund Martin, "Pugio Fidei," p. 564). The Lucifer myth was transferred to Satan in the pre-Christian century, as may be learned from Vita Adæ et Evæ (12) and Slavonic Enoch (xxix. 4, xxxi. 4), where Satan-Sataniel (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 (comp. Test. Patr., Benjamin, 3; Ephes. ii. 2, vi. 12). Accordingly Tertullian ("Contra Marrionem," v. 11, 17), Origen ("Ezekiel Opera," iii. 356), and others, identify Lucifer with Satan, who also is represented as being "cast down from heaven" (Rev. xii. 7, 10; comp. Luke x. 18).
Bibliography:
Cheyne, Encyc. Bibl.;
Duhm, Das Buch Jesaiah, 1892, p. 96.
LUCIFER.—In Isa 14:12 occurs the phrase ‘helçl (helâl) ben shachar,’ commonly but incorrectly rendered ‘Lucifer son of the morning,’ as if the expression helçl (helâl) must mean ‘the morning-star’ (cf. AVm
N. A. Koenig.
(Latin: light-bearer; the morning star, the sun)
Although it sometimes refers to a King of Babylon (in Isaiah 14), the Fathers apply it in a spiritual sense to the leader of the fallen angels, or Satan. In Christian literature it is a synonym for the devil, the prince of darkness, and alludes to the high estate from which he fell. In the blessing of the Easter candle it signifies Christ, the "light of the world."
(Hebrew helel; Septuagint heosphoros, Vulgate lucifer)The name Lucifer originally denotes the planet Venus, emphasizing its brilliance. The Vulgate employs the word also for "the light of the morning" (Job 11:17), "the signs of the zodiac" (Job 38:32), and "the aurora" (Psalm 109:3). Metaphorically, the word is applied to the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:12) as preeminent among the princes of his time; to the high priest Simon son of Onias (Ecclesiasticus 50:6), for his surpassing virtue, to the glory of heaven (Apocalypse 2:28), by reason of its excellency; finally to Jesus Christ himself (2 Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16; the "Exultet" of Holy Saturday) the true light of our spiritual life. The Syriac version and the version of Aquila derive the Hebrew noun helel from the verb yalal, "to lament"; St. Jerome agrees with them (In Isaiah 1:14), and makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory bright as the morning star. In Christian tradition this meaning of Lucifer has prevailed; the Fathers maintain that Lucifer is not the proper name of the devil, but denotes only the state from which he has fallen (Petavius, De Angelis, III, iii, 4).-----------------------------------A.J. MAAS Transcribed by Tomas Hancil The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Another name for Satan.
» See: Satan
—New Believer’s Bible Glossary