Is the name Lucifer a big fat lie, is he the Devil?

If the Netflix TV show is what brought you here, congratulations – you are one of many.

Brace yourselves, for there is a lot to compile until we reach the conclusions you are waiting for.

One (1)

In the English version of the Bible (King James Bible), the name Lucifer appears only once in Isaiah 14:12:

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!

The word “Lucifer” means Light Bringer (lux-lucis (light) and ferre (to bring)) and is the Latin name for the “Morning Star”, both in prose and poetry.

Two (2)

The original manuscript is in Hebrew. In that version, in chapter 14 of Isaiah, there is not a word about a fallen angel, but rather about the Babylonian king. The words used are “HeYLeL BeN-ShaCHaR”, which means “shining one, son of the dawn”.

Three (3)

The scholars, empowered by King James I to translate the Bible in the English language, spoken at the time, didn’t use the Hebrew originals. The used St. Jerome’s translations from 405, “The Latin Vulgate” Bible. Jerome translates the “shining one, son of the dawn” using the Latin word “lucifer”, which basically means a light-bringer, the morning star, Venus.

Four (4)

In the Greek translation from 3rd-century BC, the Hebrew “HeYLeL BeN-ShaCHaR” is translated as “heosphoros”, which means Venus, the morning star.

Five (5)

Jesus Christ refers to himself as the “morning star” in Revelation 22:15:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Six (6)

The early Christians did believe that “Lucifer” is not the Devil, but rather the state from which he had fallen. Thus, depending on the context, “lucifer” means Venus, or the Satan, Jesus, angel, the morning light, basically everything that can “bring light”.

Summary

So is the name Lucifer a big fat lie, is he the Devil?
In the original Hebrew texts, there is the story of the Babylonian king, who was the “shining one, son of the dawn”. This is not equivalent to a morning star, or Venus. It just shows the King’s excessive pride and the confidence which he had. In the later translations, we eventually get to use the adjective Latin word “lucifer”. Jesus claims that he saw Satan “fall like lightning from heaven”. It was these and other references that led the early Christian priests to conclude that HeYLeL in Isaiah 14:12 was the Devil. “The similarities between their beliefs, and what they saw in the Old Testament texts came together to form a lasting opinion. And when the Latin text named the being in Isaiah 14:12 as Lucifer, that tradition has been followed ever since.”

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Is the name Lucifer a big fat lie, is he the Devil?