IS LUCIFER SATAN?

If there is any misconception about the origin and nature of Satan that occupies the minds of people, then Lucifer being the name of Satan before the fall is one. The 17^th  century poet, John Milton popularized the idea that Satan is called Lucifer in his epic poem, Paradise Lost. Milton wrote:

Know then, that, after Lucifer from Heaven(

So call him, brighter once amidst the host

Of angels, than that star the stars among,)

Fell with his flaming legions through the deep

Into his place, and the great Son returned

Victorious with his saints, the Omnipotent

Eternal Father from his throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.¹

False teachers and religious literature have captained this concept in the minds of people. In the Doctrines and Covenant of the Mormons, the writer wrote,

“And was called Perdition, for the heavens wept over him—he was Lucifer, a son of the morning. And we beheld, and lo, he is fallen! is fallen, even a son of the morning!”²

The televangelist Jimmy Swaggart commenting on Isaiah 14:12 wrote; “Lucifer is the name of Satan. Actually, he is an angel, originally created by God, who served the Lord in righteousness for an undetermined period of time”³. These and host of literature have been published teaching the concept that Lucifer is the name for Satan that we read in the Bible before his fall. But does the Bible teach that concept? To ask is to answer!

The word ‘Lucifer’ appears in two passages in some standard Bible versions. In Isaiah 14:12, the KJV reads, “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!” (Isa.14:12 KJV). And in Revelation 2:4, The Message reads, “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall!” It’s sadly intriguing why some of the translators of the Bible have little respect for inspiration and integrity of the scriptures. Clearly, the translators of the Message Bible version have crossed the work of translation to commenting on a passage. There is no shred of evidence that warrant inserting the word ‘Lucifer’ in Revelation 2:4. However, they did, deceiving multitude of uninformed readers of that particular version.

The word “lucifer” in the Isaiah 14:12 passage is a borrowed word from the Latin Vulgate instead of translation. The word “helel” which is the Hebrew word translated simply means “to shine or to bear light”. As such the Hebrew phrase “helel ben shachar” literally means “son of the morning dawn”. The KJV translators looking at the passage picked the Latin word from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate with the intention that lucifer is a befitting name for Satan. Jerome, perhaps believing that the term refers to the planet Venus employed the Latin word “lucifer” which comes from the roots ‘lux’ which means light and ‘ferre’ which means ‘to bear’. Therefore, lucifer simply means light bearer. But the literature and proponents of this false concept veils the truth of it with a deceitful cloak. When one examines even the Latin Vulgate, it is clear that lucifer occurs about 4 times in the Latin version and it is never used as a proper noun (cf. Isaiah 14:12, Job 11:17, Job 38:32 and 2 Peter 1:19). In Job 11:7, the KJV rendered it morning. In Job 38:32, the KJV transliterated the Hebrew word into Mazzaoth. In 2 Peter 1:19, the KJV rendered it as the day star. All these indicates that the word ‘lucifer’ in the Latin Version is not a proper noun, but the Latin word for ‘morning star’ or ‘day star’. The word is often employed for the planet Venus, which is also known as the morning star. This is settled when other translations of the Bible are consulted. Isaiah 14:12 reads in the NASB; “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to earth, you have weakened the nations!” The NIV reads; “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!”

The truth cannot be any clearer!

The context of Isaiah 14:12 militates against the idea of Satan being the Lucifer. The context has God taking issues with the king of Babylon. The larger context begins from chapter 13 – 24 where God judges the nations: Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt etc. In the 14th chapter, God’s judgement is on Babylon and her king. In verse 4 it reads; “That you shall take up this proverb against the King of Babylon, and say, How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city ceased!” The proverb is against the king of Babylon not the devil, the prince of darkness. The king of Babylon had been a tyrant and bully ruler of nations causing violence across the earth. Isaiah depicted the king’s exaggerated exaltation of self, and his grotesque pride; the description given in the context refutes the Lucifer-Devil concept.

The fallen star is identified as a man (v.16). “They who see you shall narrowly look upon you, and consider you, saying, is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who did shake kingdoms”. The fallen star will die in disrepute and be buried not with kings but in a pit reserved for the downtrodden mass (v.19-20). The body of this fallen star will be consumed by worms (vs.11,23). It is not strange that the fall of monarchs in the Bible is often described figuratively using heavenly bodies- Isaiah 13. The advocates of this error often tie Isaiah 14:12 with the words of the Master in Luke 10:18. In Luke 10:18, the Master’s words clearly point to Satan’s defeat during  His personal ministry. One cannot agree any more with the reformer John Calvin, when he wrote:

“The exposition of this passage, which some have given, as if it referred to Satan, has arisen from ignorance: for the context plainly shows these statements must be understood in reference to the king of the Babylonians. But when passages of scripture are taken up at random, and no attention is paid to context, we need not wonder that mistakes of this kind frequently arise.”⁴

There is no shred of evidence in Holy Writ that suggests that Satan was once called Lucifer. A text taken out of its context is always a pretext.

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WORKS CITED

¹Milton, J.,2005. Paradise Lost. New York: Oxford University Press.

²Smith, J., 1990. Doctrine and Covenants. 4th ed. Independence, Missouri: Joseph Smith, Jr.’s Rare Reprints, pp.76:26-27.

³Swaggart, J., 2010. Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized King James Version. Baton Rouge, La.: Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, p.1125.

⁴Calvin, J., 1850. Commentary on the book of the Prophet Isaiah. Edinburgh, pp.1:404.