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Summary
- Lucifer is Latin for “light-bearer”, from lux, light, and ferre, to carry, and the Romans used it for the morning star, Venus.
- The name appears once in the King James Version, at Isaiah 14:12, in a taunt against the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4), where it translates the Hebrew helel, shining one.
- Most modern English Bibles translate the Hebrew instead: the NIV has “morning star, son of the dawn” and the ESV “O Day Star, son of Dawn”, while the Geneva Bible, the NKJV and the Douay-Rheims keep Lucifer.
- The Latin Vulgate also uses lucifer in Job 11:17, Job 38:32, Psalm 109:3 and 2 Peter 1:19, and the Easter Exsultet gives it to Christ, the morning star “qui nescit occasum”, that never sets.
- In Greek the Septuagint’s word at Isaiah 14:12 is heosphoros, dawn-bringer, and 2 Peter 1:19 has phosphoros, light-bearer; neither is a name for the devil in the New Testament.
- Early Christian writers read Isaiah 14 with Luke 10:18 as Satan’s fall, and Jerome made Lucifer the name of the chief fallen angel; John Calvin held that the verse is about the king of Babylon.
- The Bible’s own names for the devil include Satan, the devil, the tempter, Beelzebub, that old serpent, the prince of this world and Belial.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (Job 11:17; Job 38:32; Psalm 110:3; Isaiah 14:4, 12–15; Matthew 4:3, 10; Matthew 12:24; Luke 10:18; John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 6:15; Ephesians 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8; 2 Peter 1:19; Revelation 12:9; 22:16), BibleGateway. Isaiah 14:12 is also quoted from the Douay-Rheims Bible (1899 American edition), the Geneva Bible (1599), the New International Version, the English Standard Version, the New King James Version and the Luther Bible (1545), BibleGateway.
- Biblia Sacra Vulgata, Job 11:17; Job 38:32; Psalm 109:3; Isaiah 14:12; 2 Peter 1:19, BibleGateway.
- Septuagint, Isaiah 14:12, Greek text and Lancelot C. L. Brenton’s English translation, eBible.org (Greek) and eBible.org (English).
- SBL Greek New Testament, 2 Peter 1:19 and Revelation 22:16, BibleGateway.
- Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879), “lucifer”, Perseus Digital Library.
- “ἑωσφόρος”, in W. Pape, Griechisch-Deutsches Handwörterbuch; A. Bailly, Dictionnaire grec-français; and a modern Greek dictionary, lsj.gr.
- Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon: G5459 phosphoros, G1228 diabolos, G4567 Satanas, H1100 beliyya’al, H1966 helel, Blue Letter Bible.
- Exsultet (Easter Proclamation), Latin text of the Roman Missal with English translation, Preces Latinae.
- Anthony Maas, “Lucifer”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9 (New York: Robert Appleton, 1910), New Advent.
- Henri Leclercq, “Lucifer of Cagliari”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9 (1910), New Advent.
- Louis Saltet, “St. Jerome”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8 (1910), New Advent.
- John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, vol. 1, on Isaiah 14:12, trans. William Pringle (Calvin Translation Society, 1850), Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
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