posted on May, 9 2010 @ 08:28 PM
Isaiah 14: 12-14: “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.”
Early Christian tradition interpreted the passage as a reference to the moment Satan was thrown from Heaven. This view was popularized by John Milton
in his epic “Paradise Lost” and so the term “Lucifer” became another name for Satan and has remained so due to Christian dogma and popular
tradition to this day.
First, the passage expressly refers to a “king of Babylon”, a “man” who seemed all-powerful, but who has been brought low. Second, it should
be pointed out that the words ‘devil’, ’satan’ and ‘angel’ never occur in this chapter. This is the only place in Scripture where the word
‘Lucifer’ occurs. Thirdly, why is Lucifer punished for saying, “I will ascend into heaven” (v. 13), if he was already there?
It should be noted that the idea of ‘morning star’ is translated ‘Lucifer’ in the Vulgate [Latin] translation of the Bible made by Jerome.
Significantly, he uses ‘Lucifer’ as a description of Christ, as the ‘morning star’ mentioned in Revelation. Indeed, some early Christians took
the name ‘Lucifer’ as a ‘Christian name’ in order to identify themselves with Jesus (1). It wasn’t until Origen (200 A.D.) that the term
‘Lucifer’ took on any connotation of ‘Satan’ or a force of evil. ‘Lucifer’ in its strict meaning of ‘bearer of the light’ actually was
applied in a positive sense to Christian communities, e.g. the followers of Lucifer of Cagliari were called ‘Luciferians’. As an aside, it’s
worth pointing out that they were one of the groups who insisted that the devil was not a personal being and held to the original Biblical picture of
sin and the devil being one and the same.
Isaiah 14 is a proverb (parable) against the king of Babylon, the star represents the king’s royal majesty. Daniel chapter 4 explains how
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, proudly surveyed the great kingdom he had built up, thinking that he had conquered other nations in his own
strength, rather than recognizing that God had given him success. “Thy greatness (pride) is grown, and reacheth unto heaven” (v.22). Because of
this the king was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles
feathers, and his nails like birds claws (v. 33). This sudden humbling of one of the world’s most powerful men to a deranged lunatic was such a
dramatic event as to call for the parable about the falling of the morning star from heaven to earth. Stars are symbolic of powerful people, e.g.
Genesis 37: 9; Isaiah 13:10 (concerning the leaders of Babylon); Ezekiel 32: 7 (concerning the leaders of Egypt); Daniel 8:10, cp. v. 24. Ascending to
heaven and falling from heaven are Biblical idioms often used for increasing in pride and being humbled respectively – see Job 20: 6; Jeremiah 51:53
( about Babylon); we even find this in the New Testament, Matthew 11:23 (about Capernaum): “Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be
brought down to hell”(the grave).
There’s a good reason why the King of Babylon is described as “the morning star”, or Venus. The Babylonians believed that their king was the
child of their gods Bel and Ishtar, both of whom were associated with the planets- they thought that their King was the planet Venus.
In conclusion, it was not until post-Biblical times that Lucifer was associated with Satan, or that Satan was thought to have been cast out of heaven
before the creation of Adam and Eve, or that Satan had some connection with Adam and Eve. While they may be mainstream Christian memes today, they
were not shared by the Hebrews who wrote the Bible.