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The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for Devil in Christian theology.
He appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible), Originally published New York: The MacMillan Co., 1923. not as the name of a devil but as the Latin word lucifer (uncapitalized), meaning "the morning star", "the planet Venus", or, as an adjective, "light-bringing". It is a translation of the Hebrew language word (meaning "Shining One"). Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary . As the Latin name for the morning appearances of the planet Venus, it corresponds to the Egyptian name Tioumoutiri, the Greek names Phosphoros Φωσφόρος ("light-bringer") and Eosphoros Ἑωσφόρος ("dawn-bringer"), and the Old English term Morgensteorra (morning star).
The entity's Latin name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the Devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage (), where the Greek Septuagint reads ὁ ἑωσφόρος ὁ πρωὶ ἀνατέλλων, as "morning star" or "shining one" rather than as a proper noun, Lucifer, as found in the Latin Vulgate.
As a name for the planet in its morning aspect, "Lucifer" (Light-Bringer) is a proper noun and is capitalized in English. In Greco-Roman civilization, he was often personification and considered a deity and in some versions considered a son of Aurora (the Dawn).
A similar name used by the Roman poet Catullus for the planet in its evening aspect is "Noctifer" (Night-Bringer). Catullus 62.8 . This name respectively corresponded to the Egyptian name Ouaiti, the Greek name Hesperus Ἕσπερος (star of the evening), and the Old English term Æfensteorra (evening star).
Lucifer's mother Aurora corresponds to goddesses in other cultures. The name "Aurora" is semantically akin to the name of the Vedic goddess Denu (more directly cognate to, e.g., "dawn"), the daughter of king Daksha, and is cognate to the names of the Lithuanian goddess Aušrinė and of the Greek goddess Eos, all three being also goddesses of the dawn. All four are considered to descend from the Proto-Indo-European stem R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 492. (later ), "dawn", a stem that also gave rise to Proto-Germanic *Austrō, Old Germanic *Ōstara and Old English Ēostre/Ēastre (whence also German language "italic=no" meaning "Eastern Empire", as well as English language "east".) This agreement has led scholars to reconstruct a Hausos.
The 2nd-century Roman mythographer De Astronomica said of the planet: Astronomica 2.42.4 (trans. Grant).
The Latin poet Ovid, in his 1st-century epic Metamorphoses, describes Lucifer as ordering the heavens: Metamorphoses 2. 112 ff (trans. Melville) .
Ovid, speaking of Phosphorus and Hesperus (the Evening Star, the evening appearance of the planet Venus) as identical, makes him the father of Daedalion. Metamorphoses, 11:295. Ovid also makes him the father of Ceyx, Metamorphoses, 11:271.Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 1.7.4 . while the Latin grammarian Servius makes him the father of the Hesperides or of Hesperis.
In the classical Roman period, Lucifer was not typically regarded as a deity and had few, if any, myths, though the planet was associated with various deities and often poetically personified. Cicero stated that "You say that Sol and Luna are deities, and the Greeks identify the former with Apollo and the latter with Diana. But if Luna is a goddess, then Lucifer (the Morning-Star) also and the rest of the Wandering Stars (Stellae Errantes) will have to be counted gods; and if so, then the Fixed Stars (Stellae Inerrantes) as well."
A similar theme is present in the myth of Etana. The Jewish Encyclopedia comments:
The fall from heaven motif also has a parallel in Canaanite mythology. In ancient Canaanite religion, the morning star is personified as the god Attar, who attempted to occupy the throne of Baal and, finding he was unable to do so, descended and ruled the underworld. The original myth may have been about the lesser god Helel trying to dethrone the Canaanite high god El, who lived on a mountain to the north. Hermann Gunkel's reconstruction of the myth told of a mighty warrior called Hêlal, whose ambition was to ascend higher than all the other stellar divinities, but who had to descend to the depths; it thus portrayed as a battle the process by which the bright morning star fails to reach the highest point in the sky before being faded out by the rising sun.
This Jewish tradition has echoes also in Jewish pseudepigrapha such as 2 Enoch and the Life of Adam and Eve. The Life of Adam and Eve, in turn, shaped the idea of Iblis in the Quran.
However, the translation of הֵילֵל as "Lucifer" has been abandoned in modern English translations of Isaiah 14:12. Present-day translations render הֵילֵל as "morning star" (New International Version, New Century Version, New American Standard Bible, Good News Translation, Holman Christian Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, Common English Bible, Complete Jewish Bible), "daystar" (New Jerusalem Bible, The Message), "Day Star" (New Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version), "shining one" (New Life Version, New World Translation, JPS Tanakh), or "shining star" (New Living Translation).
In a modern translation from the original Hebrew, the passage in which the phrase "Lucifer" or "morning star" occurs begins with the statement: "On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labour forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!" After describing the death of the king, the taunt continues:
For the unnamed "king of Babylon", a wide range of identifications have been proposed. They include a Babylonian ruler of the prophet Isaiah's own time, the later Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom the Babylonian captivity of the Jews began, or Nabonidus, and the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II and Sennacherib. Verse 20 says that this king of Babylon will not be "joined with them all in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever", but rather be cast out of the grave, while "All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house."Isaiah 14:18 Herbert Wolf held that the "king of Babylon" was not a specific ruler but a generic representation of the whole line of rulers.
Isaiah 14:12 became a source for the popular conception of the fallen angel motif. Rabbinic Judaism has rejected any belief in rebel or fallen angels. In the 11th century, the Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer illustrates the origin of the "fallen angel myth" by giving two accounts, one relates to the angel in the Garden of Eden who seduces Eve, and the other relates to the angels, the who cohabit with the daughters of man (Genesis 6:1–4).Adelman, Rachel (2009). pp. 61–62. An association of Isaiah 14:12–18 with a personification of evil, called the devil, developed outside of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism in pseudepigrapha, 'The Jewish Encyclopedia', Volume VIII, p. 204, Funk & Wagnalls, London, 1912. and later in Christian writings, particularly with the .
The metaphor of the morning star that Isaiah 14:12 applied to a king of Babylon gave rise to the general use of the Latin word for "morning star", capitalized, as the original name of the devil before his fall from grace, linking Isaiah 14:12 with Luke 10 ("I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven") and interpreting the passage in Isaiah as an allegory of Satan's fall from heaven.
Considering pride as a major sin peaking in self-deification, Lucifer () became the template for the devil.Litwa, M. David (2016). Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-046717-3. p. 46 As a result, Lucifer was identified with the devil in Christianity and in Christian popular literature, as in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Early medieval Christianity fairly distinguished between Lucifer and Satan. While Lucifer, as the devil, is fixated in hell, Satan executes the desires of Lucifer as his vassal.Jeffrey Burton Russell: Biographie des Teufels: das radikal Böse und die Macht des Guten in der Welt. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2000, retrieved 19 October 2020.Dendle, Peter (2001). Satan Unbound: The Devil in Old English Narrative Literature. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8369-2.p. 10
Some Christian writers have applied the name "Lucifer" as used in the Book of Isaiah, and the motif of a heavenly being cast down to the earth, to the devil. Sigve K. Tonstad argues that the New Testament War in Heaven theme of Revelation 12, in which the dragon "who is called the devil and Satan ... was thrown down to the earth", was derived from the passage about the Babylonian king in Isaiah 14. Origen (184/185–253/254) interpreted such Old Testament passages as being about manifestations of the devil.Auffarth, Christoph; Stuckenbruck, Loren T., eds. (2004). p. 62. Origen was not the first to interpret the Isaiah 14 passage as referring to the devil: he was preceded by at least Tertullian (), who in his Adversus Marcionem (book 5, chapters 11 and 17) twice presents as spoken by the devil the words of Isaiah 14:14: "I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High".Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. 2, cols. 500 and 514 Though Tertullian was a speaker of the language in which the word was created, "Lucifer" is not among the numerous names and phrases he used to describe the devil. Even at the time of Augustine of Hippo (354–430), a contemporary of the composition of the Vulgate, "Lucifer" had not yet become a common name for the devil.
Augustine's work Civitas Dei (5th century) became the major opinion of Western demonology including in the Catholic Church. For Augustine, the rebellion of the Devil was the first and final cause of evil. By this he rejected some earlier teachings about Satan having fallen when the world was already created.Schreckenberg, Heinz; Schubert, Kurt (1992). Jewish Historiography and Iconography in Early and Medieval Christianity. Augsburg Fortress, Publishers; ISBN 978-0-8006-2519-1. pg. 253 Further, Augustine rejects the idea that envy could have been the first sin (as some early Christians believed, evident from sources like the Cave of Treasures in which Satan has fallen because he envies humans and refused to prostrate himself before Adam), since pride ("loving yourself more than others and God") is required to be envious ("hatred for the happiness of others"). He argues that evil came first into existence by the free will of Satan. His attempt to take God's throne is not an assault on the gates of heaven, but a turn to solipsism in which the Devil becomes God in his world.Aiello, Thomas (28 September 2010). "The Man Plague: Disco, the Lucifer Myth, and the Theology of 'It's Raining Men': The Man Plague". The Journal of Popular Culture. 43 (5): 926–941. . . When the king of Babylon uttered his phrase in Isaiah, he was speaking through the sprite of Lucifer, the head of devils. He concluded that everyone who falls away from God are within the body of Lucifer, and is a devil.Hollerich, M. J.; Christman, A. R. (2007). Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian Medieval Commentators. Cambridge: Eerdmans. pp. 175–176
Adherents of the King James Only movement and others who hold that Isaiah 14:12 does indeed refer to the Devil have decried the modern translations. An opposing view attributes to Origen the first identification of the "Lucifer" of Isaiah 14:12 with the Devil and to Tertullian and Augustine of Hippo the spread of the story of Lucifer as fallen through pride, envy of God and jealousy of humans.
The 1409 Lollard manuscript titled Lanterne of Light associated Lucifer with the deadly sin of pride.
Protestantism theologian John Calvin rejected the identification of Lucifer with Satan or the Devil. He said: "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." Martin Luther also considered it a gross error to refer this verse to the Devil.
Counter-Reformation writers, like Albertanus of Brescia, classified the seven deadly sins each to a specific Biblical demon.Patrick Gilli (ed.). La pathologie du pouvoir: vices, crimes et délits des gouvernants: antiquité, moyen âge, époque moderne (2016). Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, vol. 198. Brill. pg. 494 He, as well as Peter Binsfield, assigned Lucifer to the sin of pride.Levack, B. (2013). The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West. Yale University Press. pg. 278
After becoming Satan by his fall, Lucifer "goeth up and down, to and fro in the earth, seeking to destroy the souls of men." Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider Isaiah 14:12 to be referring to both the king of the Babylonians and the Devil.
In LaVeyan Satanism, Lucifer is described by The Satanic Bible as one of the four crown princes of hell, particularly that of the East, the 'lord of the air', and is called the bringer of light, the morning star, intellectualism, and enlightenment.
Supporters of Freemasonry assert 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, the search for light; the very antithesis of dark. Pike says in Morals and Dogma, "Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not!"(Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 321). Much has been made of this quote.( Masonic information: Lucifer ).
Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.
In Devil-Worship in France, Arthur Edward Waite compared Taxil's work to today's tabloid journalism, replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.
Here, the motions of Diana and Lucifer once again mirror the celestial motions of the moon and Venus, respectively.Magliocco, Sabina. (2006). Italian American Stregheria and Wicca: Ethnic Ambivalence in American Neopaganism . Pp. 55–86 in Michael Strmiska, ed., Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio. Though Leland's Lucifer is based on the classical personification of the planet Venus, he also incorporates elements from Christian tradition, as in the following passage:
In the several modern Wiccan traditions based in part on Leland's work, the figure of Lucifer is usually either omitted or replaced as Diana's consort with either the Etruscan god Tagni, or Dianus (Janus, following the work of folklorist James Frazer in The Golden Bough).
In Supernatural Lucifer is the main antagonist of the fifth season. The conflict between the good and evil angels is portrayed as a conflict between brothers. Despite being the villain in the story, he is held in higher regards than the antagonistic deities, as Lucifer defeats the pagan gods alone, in one episode. His background story further adds to his moral ambiguity. His evil motivations are said to stem from his love to God: When God shows love for humanity and orders the angels to bow before them, Lucifer refuses because he could only love God. His depictions are inspired by the traditions about Iblis, and Satanael as a son of God in Bogomilism.
Notable examples include the television series Lucifer (2016–2021), where he is a suave nightclub owner who rebelled against his lord-father and abandoned the role as Hell's warden, and The Sandman comics, which present him as a refined ruler of hell seeking independence, both stemming from DC Comics' interpretation of the religious figure. These portrayals emphasize his free will, disdain for authority, and struggle with his identity, often blending elements of myth, theology, and contemporary storytelling.
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Planet Venus, Sumerian folklore, and fall from heaven motif
The motif of a heavenly being striving for the highest seat of heaven only to be cast down to the underworld has its origins in the motions of the planet Venus, known as the morning star.
Christianity
In the Bible
In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, the king of Babylon is condemned in a Prophecy by the prophet Isaiah and is called הֵילֵל בֶּן-שָׁחַר (, Hebrew language for "shining one, son of the morning"), who is addressed as הילל בן שחר (). The title refers to the planet Venus as the morning star, and that is how the Hebrew word is usually interpreted.Gunkel expressly states that "the name Helel ben Shahar clearly states that it is a question of a nature myth. Morning Star, son of Dawn has a curious fate. He rushes gleaming up towards heaven, but never reaches the heights; the sunlight fades him away." ( Schöpfung und Chaos, p. 133) The Hebrew word transliterated as or , occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek language as Ἑωσφόρος (), "bringer of dawn", the Ancient Greek name for the morning star.Bernard A.; with word definitions by J. Lust Taylor (2025). 9781565635166, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.. . ISBN 9781565635166 Similarly the Vulgate renders הֵילֵל in Latin as Lucifer, the name in that language for the morning star. According to the King James Bible-based Strong's Concordance, the original Hebrew word means "shining one, light-bearer", and the English translation given in the King James text is the Latin name for the planet Venus, "Lucifer", as it was already in the Wycliffe Bible.
Interpretations
Aquila of Sinope derives the word , the Hebrew name for the morning star, from the verb (to lament). This derivation was adopted as a proper name for an angel who laments the loss of his former beauty.Bonnetain, Yvonne S (2015). Loki: Beweger der Geschichten Loki: . Roter Drache; ISBN 978-3-939459-68-2 / OCLC 935942344. pg. 263 The Christian church fathers – for example Jerome, in his Vulgate – translated this as Lucifer.
Gnosticism
Since Lucifer's sin mainly consists of self-deification, some Gnostic sects identified Lucifer with the creator deity in the Old Testament.Litwa, M. David (2016). Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking. Oxford University Press. . p. 46 In the Bogomilism and Catharism text Gospel of the Secret Supper, Lucifer is a glorified angel but fell from heaven to establish his own kingdom and became the Demiurge who created the material world and trapped from heaven inside matter. Jesus descended to earth to free the captured souls.Michael C. Thomsett (2011). Heresy in the Roman Catholic Church: A History. McFarland. p. 71Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer (2009). The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition. Shambhala. . p. 745–755, 831 In contrast to mainstream Christianity, the Christian cross was denounced as a symbol of Lucifer and his instrument in an attempt to kill Jesus.Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer (2009). The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition. Shambhala. . p. 745–755, 751
Latter Day Saint movement
Lucifer is regarded within the Latter Day Saint movement as the pre-mortal name of the Devil. Latter-day Saint theology teaches that in a heavenly council, Lucifer rebelled against the plan of God the Father and was subsequently cast out. The Doctrine and Covenants reads:
Other occurrences
Satanism
Luciferianism is a belief structure that venerates the fundamental traits that are attributed to Lucifer. The custom, inspired by the teachings of Gnosticism, usually reveres Lucifer not as the Devil, but as a savior, a guardian or instructing spirit or even the true god as opposed to Jehovah.
Anthroposophy
Rudolf Steiner's writings, which formed the basis for Anthroposophy, characterised Lucifer as a spiritual opposite to Ahriman, with Christ between the two forces, mediating a balanced path for humanity. Lucifer represents an intellectual, imaginative, delusional, otherworldly force which might be associated with visions, subjectivity, psychosis and fantasy. He associated Lucifer with the religious/philosophical cultures of Egypt, Rome and Greece. Steiner believed that Lucifer, as a supersensible Being, had incarnated in China about 3000 years before the birth of Christ.
Freemasonry
Léo Taxil (1854–1907) claimed that Freemasonry is associated with worshipping Lucifer. In what is known as the Taxil hoax, he alleged that 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. Taxil promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by himself, as he later confessed publicly) that purported to reveal a highly secret ruling body called the Palladists, which controlled the organization and had a satanic agenda. As described by Freemasonry Disclosed in 1897:
Charles Godfrey Leland
In a collection of folklore and magical practices supposedly collected in Italy by Charles Godfrey Leland and published in his Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, the figure of Lucifer is featured prominently as both the brother and consort of the goddess Diana, and father of Aradia, at the center of an alleged Italian witch-cult.Magliocco, Sabina. (2009). Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character. Pp. 40–60 in Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon. Hidden Publishing. In Leland's mythology, Diana pursued her brother Lucifer across the sky as a cat pursues a mouse. According to Leland, after dividing herself into light and darkness:
Modern popular culture
In modern popular culture, Lucifer is often depicted as a charismatic, complex, and sometimes sympathetic figure rather than a purely evil being. He is frequently portrayed as a fallen angel with a rebellious streak, and may be intelligent, witty, and even morally conflicted.
See also
Notes
Further reading
(2025). 9781598564914, Hendrickson. ISBN 9781598564914
External links
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