Lucifer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lucifer is a name frequently given to the Devil in Christian belief. This usage as a reference to a fallen angel stems from a particular interpretation of Isaiah 14:3-20, a passage that speaks of someone who is given the name of "Day Star" or "Morning Star" (in Latin, Lucifer) as fallen from heaven.^[2] 2 Peter 1:19 and elsewhere, the same Latin word lucifer is used of the morning star with no relation to the devil. However, in writings later than those in the Bible, the Latin word Lucifer has often been used instead as a proper name for the devil.

Contents 1 Satan as Lucifer 1.1 The Lucifer story 1.2 The Morning Star in Isaiah 14:12 1.3 Islamic point of view 1.4 Other Readings 2 Mentions of the Morning Star in the Bible 3 Astronomical significance 4 Latin name for the Morning Star 5 Non-Biblical use of "Morning Star" as a title 6 Alleged connection with Freemasonry 7 Occult beliefs 8 Other meanings 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links

[edit] Satan as Lucifer

[edit] The Lucifer story

A pagan myth of the fall of angels, associated with the morning star, was transferred to Satan already in the pre-Christian century, as seen in the Life of Adam and Eve and the Second Book of Enoch^[3], where 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.^[4]

Early Christian writers continued this identification of "Lucifer" with Satan. 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" (Revelation 12:7-10; cf. Luke 10:18).^[4]

The New Testament shows a high development of demonology. In consonance with the Gospels beliefs of the lower orders of society, the devil and his realm are regarded as an entire ubiquitousness in all the events of daily life. In accordance, he has many names: "Satan" (Matt. 4:10; Mark 1:30, 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, 2. Cor. 6:16, 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). Satan brought death itself into the world (Heb. 2:13), 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^[5]. However, though the New Testament includes the conception that Satan fell from heaven with the velocity of lightning (Luke x. 18; Rev. xii. 7-10), ^[6] it nowhere applies the name Lucifer to him.

The Jewish Encyclopedia states that in the apocalyptic writings, the conception of fallen angels is widespread. Throughout antiquity stars were commonly regarded as living celestial beings (Job 38:7).^[6] Indications of this belief, behind which probably lies the symbolizing of an astronomical phenomenon, the shooting stars, are met with in Isaiah 14:12.

[edit] The Morning Star in Isaiah 14:12

The Book of Isaiah has the following passage:

When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How his insolence has ceased! … How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: "Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who would not let his prisoners go home?"^[7]

The passage expressly refers to a "king of Babylon", a "man" who seemed all-powerful, but who has been brought low. Isaiah promises that the Israelites will be freed 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.^[8][4]

The phrase "O Day Star, son of Dawn" in the New Revised Standard Version translation given above corresponds to the Hebrew phrase "הילל בן־שׁחר" (Helel Ben-Shachar) in verse 12, meaning "morning star, son of dawn". 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.^[9]

In the Latin Vulgate, Jerome translated "הילל בן־שׁחר" (morning star, son of dawn) as "lucifer qui mane oriebaris" (morning star that used to rise early).^[10] Already, as early as the Christian writers Tertullian and Origen,^[8] the whole passage had come to be applied to Satan. Satan began to be referred to as "Lucifer" (Morning Star), and finally the word "Lucifer" was treated as a proper name. The use of the word "Lucifer" in the 1611 King James Version instead of a word such as "Daystar" ensured its continued popularity among English speakers.

Most modern English versions (including the NIV, NRSV, NASB, 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.^[11] In Christian tradition, it too has been applied to Lucifer, because of some of the expressions contained in it.^[12] 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.

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.^[8] Liberal Christian scholars often deny altogether the existence of a personal being called "Satan", rendering the Lucifer story irrelevant.^{[citation needed]} They argue that the name Satan itself (Hebrew: שָׂטָן) merely means "adversary" or "accuser", which may be a personification.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Islamic point of view

According to the Qur'an, Iblis (the Arabic name used) disobeyed an order from God to bow to Adam and as a result was forced out of heaven and given respite until the day of judgment from further punishment.

When God commanded all of the angels to bow down before Adam (the first Human), Iblis, full of hubris and jealousy, refused to obey God's command, seeing Adam as being inferior in creation due to his being created from clay as compared to him (created of fire).^[13]

It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels prostrate to Adam, and they prostrate; not so Iblis (Lucifer); He refused to be of those who prostrate.

(Allah) said: "What prevented thee from prostrating when I commanded thee?" He said: "I am better than he: Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay."

Qur'an 7:11-12

It was after this that he was given the title of "Shaitan" which can be roughly translated as "Enemy," "Rebel," "Evil" or "Devil". He then claims that if the punishment for his act of disobedience is to be delayed until the Day of Judgment, he will divert many of Adam's own descendants from the straight path during his period of respite.^[14] God accepts the claims of Iblis and guarantees recompense to Iblis and his followers in the form of Hellfire. In order to test mankind and jinn alike, God allowed Iblis to roam the earth to attempt to convert others away from his path.^[15] He was sent to earth along with Adam and Eve, after eventually luring them into eating the fruit from the forbidden tree.^[16]

[edit] Other Readings

Joseph Campbell (1972: p.148-149) illustrates an unorthodox Islamic reading of Lucifer's fall from Heaven, which champions Lucifer's eclipsing love for God:

"One of the most amazing images of love that I know is in Persian – a mystical Persian representation as Satan as the most loyal lover of God. You will have heard the old legend of how, when God created the angels, he commanded them to pay worship to no one but himself; but then, creating man, he commanded them to bow in reverence to this most noble of his works, and Lucifer refused – because, we are told, of his pride. However, according to this Muslim reading of his case, it was rather because he loved and adored God so deeply and intensely that he could not bring himself to bow before anything else, and because he refused to bow down to something inferior to him (since he was made of fire, and man from clay). And it was for that that he was flung into Hell, condemned to exist there forever, apart from his love."

This interpretation of the satanic rebellion described in the Quran is seen by some Sufi teachers such as Mansur Al-Hallaj (in his 'Tawasin') as a predestined scenario in which Iblis-Shaitan plays the role of tragic and jealous lover who, unable to perceive the Divine Image in Adam and capable only of seeing the exterior, disobeyed the divine mandate to bow down. His refusal (according to the Tawasin) was due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticized the staleness of Iblis' adoration. Excerpts from Sufi texts expounding this interpretation have been included along with many other viewpoints on Shaitan (by no means all of them apologetic) in an important anthology of Sufi texts edited by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, head of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order.^[17]

The Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan taught that 'Luciferian Light' is Light which has become dislocated from the Divine Source and is thus associated with the seductive false light of the lower ego which lures humankind into self-centered delusion.^[18] Here Lucifer represents what the Sufis term the 'Nafs', the ego.

[edit] Mentions of the Morning Star in the Bible

The Vulgate (Latin) version of the Christian Bible used this word twice to refer to the Morning Star: once in 2 Peter 1:19 to translate the Greek word Φωσφόρος (Phosphoros),^[19] and once in Isaiah 14:12 to translate the Hebrew word הילל (Hêlēl).^[20] 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 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.

"Lucifer" (Morning Star) also appears twice in the Vulgate translation of the Book of Job, once to represent the word "בקר"^[21] (which instead means "morning") in Job 11:17, and once for the word "מזרות" (usually taken to mean "the constellations") in Job 38:32; and it appears also in Psalms 110:3 for "שׁחר" (dawn, the same word as in Isaiah 14:12).

Two references to the Morning Star in the Book of Revelation are not represented in the Vulgate by "lucifer". In both cases a circumlocution is used in the original Greek text, instead of the simple term "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.

The Vulgate uses "stella matutina" to translated "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρωϊνός" (or, according to some manuscripts, "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ ὀρθρινός") in Revelation 22:16, where it is Jesus who is described as the morning star. An echo of this Biblical use is found in the Roman Rite liturgy, in which the Exultet chant in praise of the paschal candle refers to Christ as the morning star (in Latin lucifer):

May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat: ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum, Christus Filius tuus qui, regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit, et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.

[edit] Astronomical significance

Because the planet Venus (Lucifer) 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. It can be seen in the eastern morning sky for an hour or so before the Sun rises, and 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]

[edit] Latin name for the Morning Star

In Latin, the word "Lucifer", meaning "Light-Bringer" (from lux, lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), is a name for the "Morning Star" (the planet Venus in its dawn appearances).^[24]

Lucifer is the Latin name^[25] for the "Morning Star", both in prose and poetry, as seen in works by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), Cicero (106-43 BC) and other early Latin writers^[26]

Cicero wrote:

Stella Veneris, quae Φωσφόρος Graece, Latine dicitur Lucifer, cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem Hesperos^[27]

The star of Venus, called Φωσφόρος in Greek and Lucifer in Latin when it precedes, Hesperos when it follows the sun.

And Pliny the Elder:

sidus appellatum Veneris … ante matutinum exoriens Luciferi nomen accipit … contra ab occasu refulgens nuncupatur Vesper^[28]

The star called Venus … when it rises in the morning is given the name Lucifer … but when it shines at sunset it is called Vesper.

Poets also used the word "Lucifer". Ovid uses this name at least 11 times, as when he wrote:

... vigil nitido patefecit ab ortu

purpureas Aurora fores et plena rosarum

atria: diffugiunt stellae, quarum agmina cogit

Lucifer et caeli statione novissimus exit.^[29]

Aurora, awake in the glowing east, opens wide her bright doors, and her rose-filled courts. The stars, whose ranks are shepherded by Lucifer the morning star, vanish, and he, last of all, leaves his station in the sky.^[30]

Virgil wrote:

Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura

carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent^[31]

Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears,

To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy.

Lucan:

Lucifer a Casia prospexit rupe diemque

misit in Aegypton primo quoque sole calentem^[32]

The morning-star looked forth from Mount Casius and sent the daylight over Egypt, where even sunrise is hot.^[33]

And Statius:

And now Aurora rising from her Mygdonian couch had driven the cold darkness on from high in the heavens, shaking out her dewy hair, her face blushing red at the pursuing sun – from him roseate Lucifer averts his fires lingering in the clouds and with reluctant horse leaves the heavens no longer his, until the blazing father make full his orb and forbid even his sister her beams[34]

et iam Mygdoniis elata cubilibus alto impulerat caelo gelidas Aurora tenebras, rorantes excussa comas multumque sequenti sole rubens; illi roseus per nubila seras aduertit flammas alienumque aethera tardo Lucifer exit equo, donec pater igneus orbem impleat atque ipsi radios uetet esse sorori[35]

[edit] Non-Biblical use of "Morning Star" as a title

"Morning Star" appears to have been used as a poetic description of Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II in 968. Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, reported the greeting sung to the emperor arriving at Hagia Sophia: "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."^[36]

[edit] Alleged connection with Freemasonry

Léo Taxil (1854-1907) originated a perception that Freemasonry was associated with worshipping Lucifer. In what is known as the Taxil hoax, he claimed that leading Freemason Albert Pike had addressed "The 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of the world" (Taxil's invention), instructing them that Lucifer was God, and was in opposition to the evil god Adonai. When Albert Pike and other Masonic scholars spoke over a century ago about the "Luciferian path," or the "energies of Lucifer," they were referring to the morning star, the light bearer,^[37] the search for light; the very antithesis of dark, satanic evil. Taxil also promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by him) 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.^[38]

Despite the fraud having been revealed for over a century, Pike's spurious address and other details of the hoax continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.^[39]

Arthur Edward Waite wrote an exposé of this hoax, titled Devil-Worship in France, producing evidence that it was 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.

[edit] Occult beliefs

In the modern occultism of Madeline Montalban (died 1982)^[41] 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 this modern occult teaching, an obvious appropriation of Christian soteriology, it is stated that it is Lucifer's destiny to incarnate in human form at certain key times in world history as a savior and redeemer for humanity. A symbol for this process is the Tudor Rose. The Tudor Rose can be red, representing Lucifer, or white, representing Lilith.

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."

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 (II Petr. 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).

[edit] Other meanings

Use of the term "Lucifer" in reference to a morning star is hinted at in Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two and 2061: Odyssey Three. The word Lucifer in this context refers to the mini-sun of Jupiter.

In William Nicholson's 'Jango' novel, "Morning Star" is a name given to one of the main characters.

[edit] See also

• Luciferianism
• Devil
• Satan
• Christianity
• War in Heaven
• Luceafarul
• Lucifer in popular culture
• Earendel
• Eosphoros

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

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

[edit] External links

"Lucifer" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Lucifer