Lucifer#Latin word lucifer

File:Lucifer (the morning star). Engraving by G.H. Frezza, 1704, Wellcome V0035916.jpg

In Roman folklore, Lucifer ("light-bringer" in Latin) was the name of the planet Venus, though he was often personified as a male figure bearing a torch. The Greek name for this planet was variously Phosphoros (also meaning "light-bringer") or Heosphoros (meaning "dawn-bringer").[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucifer-classical-mythology "Lucifer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124092904/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucifer-classical-mythology |date=2020-01-24 }}" in Encyclopaedia Britannica]. Lucifer was said to be "the fabled son of Aurora{{cite book | editor1-first=Christoph | editor1-last=Auffarth | editor1-link=Christoph Auffarth | editor2-first=Loren T. | editor2-last=Stuckenbruck | editor2-link=Loren T. Stuckenbruck | title=The Fall of the Angels | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhNyGFkT3QYC | date=2004 | publisher=BRILL | location=Leiden | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lhNyGFkT3QYC&pg=PA62&dq=%22Lucifer+who+in+Roman+mythology+is+the+son+of+Aurora%22%22This+corresponds+to+the+Greek+mythology+where+Eos,+the+goddess+of+dawn,+gives+birth+to+the+morning+star+Phosphorus%3B+see+Hesiod,+Theog.+986f.%22 62] |isbn=978-90-04-12668-8}} and Cephalus, and father of Ceyx". He was often presented in poetry as heralding the dawn.File:Mercury, Venus and the Moon Align.jpgThe Latin word corresponding to Greek {{transliteration|grc|Phosphoros}} is {{lang |la |Lucifer}}. It is used in its astronomical sense both in prose{{efn|Cicero wrote: {{lang |la |Stella Veneris, quae}} {{lang|grc|Φωσφόρος}} {{lang |la |Graece, Latine dicitur Lucifer, cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem Hesperos}}. ("The star of Venus, called {{lang|grc|Φωσφόρος}} in Greek and Lucifer in Latin when it precedes, Hesperos when it follows the sun".{{Cite web |url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/nd2.shtml#53 |title=De Natura Deorum 2, 20, 53 |access-date=2019-04-01 |archive-date=2007-03-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070316053820/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/nd2.shtml#53 |url-status=live }}}}{{efn|Pliny the Elder: {{lang |la |Sidus appellatum Veneris [...] ante matutinum exoriens Luciferi nomen accipit [...] contra ab occasu refulgens nuncupatur Vesper}} ("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".)[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0004&query=id%3D%23927 Natural History 2, 36].}} and poetry.{{efn|Virgil wrote:

{{poemquote|{{lang |la |Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura

carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent}}}}

("Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears, to the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy")[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vergil/geo3.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115200220/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vergil/geo3.shtml |date=2019-11-15 }}Georgics3:324–325.}}{{efn|Marcus Annaeus Lucanus:

{{poemquote|{{lang |la |Lucifer a Casia prospexit rupe diemque

misit in Aegypton primo quoque sole calentem}}}}

("The morning-star looked forth from Mount Casius and sent the daylight over Egypt, where even sunrise is hot")[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/lucan/lucan10.shtml Lucan, Pharsalia, 10:434–435] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190130021734/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/lucan/lucan10.shtml |date=2019-01-30 }}; [https://archive.org/stream/lucancivilwarboo00lucauoft/lucancivilwarboo00lucauoft_djvu.txt English translation by J. D. Duff (Loeb Classical Library)].}} Poets sometimes personify the star, placing it in a mythological context.{{efn|Ovid wrote:

{{poemquote|{{lang |la |[...] vigil nitido patefecit ab ortu

purpureas Aurora fores et plena rosarum

atria: diffugiunt stellae, quarum agmina cogit

Lucifer et caeli statione novissimus exit}}}}

("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")Metamorphoses 2.114–115; [http://etext.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/trans/Metamorph2.htm#476707492 A. S. Kline's Version.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609092100/http://etext.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/trans/Metamorph2.htm#476707492 |date=2012-06-09 }}}}{{efn|Statius:

{{poemquote|{{lang |la |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}}}}

("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")[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/statius/theb2.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330205950/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/statius/theb2.shtml |date=2019-03-30 }}Statius, Thebaid2, 134–150{{cite book |url=http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/9781847183545-sample.pdf |author=P. Papinius Statius |volume=II |title=Thebaid and Achilleid |translator1=A. L. Ritchie |translator2=J. B. Hall |others=Collaboration with M. J. Edwards |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publisher |isbn=978-1-84718-354-5 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723181455/http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/9781847183545-sample.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-23}}}}

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 {{PIE|*h₂ewsṓs}}R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 492. (later {{PIE|*Ausṓs}}), "dawn", a stem that also gave rise to Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*Austrō}}, Old Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*Ōstara}} and Old English {{lang|ang|Ēostre/Ēastre}} (whence also Modern German "{{lang|de|Österreich|italic=no}}" meaning "Eastern Empire", as well as Modern English "east".) This agreement has led scholars to reconstruct a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess.{{cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |last2=Adams |first2=D. Q. |title=The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordintroducti00mall |url-access=limited |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-929668-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordintroducti00mall/page/n456 432]}}

The 2nd-century Roman mythographer Hyginus said of the planet:[https://topostext.org/work/207#2.42.4 Astronomica 2.42.4 (trans. Grant)].

{{blockquote|The fourth star is that of Venus, Luciferus by name. Some say it is Juno's. In many tales it is recorded that it is called Hesperus, too. It seems to be the largest of all stars. Some have said it represents the son of Aurora and Cephalus, who surpassed many in beauty, so that he even vied with Venus, and, as Eratosthenes says, for this reason it is called the star of Venus. It is visible both at dawn and sunset, and so properly has been called both Luciferus and Hesperus.}}

The Latin poet Ovid, in his 1st-century epic {{lang |la |Metamorphoses}}, describes Lucifer as ordering the heavens:[http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AstraPlaneta.html Metamorphoses 2. 112 ff (trans. Melville)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211053159/http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AstraPlaneta.html |date=2014-12-11 }}.

{{blockquote|Aurora, watchful in the reddening dawn, threw wide her crimson doors and rose-filled halls; the Stellae took flight, in marshaled order set by Lucifer who left his station last.}}

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. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.7.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=7&highlight=Lucifer Bibliotheca, 1.7.4] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225193925/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.7.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=7&highlight=Lucifer |date=2021-02-25 }}. while the Latin grammarian Servius makes him the father of the Hesperides or of Hesperis.{{cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AsterEosphoros.html |title=EOSPHORUS & HESPERUS (Eosphoros & Hesperos) – Greek Gods of the Morning & Evening Stars |access-date=2019-04-01 |archive-date=2019-07-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714105448/https://www.theoi.com/Titan/AsterEosphoros.html |url-status=live }}

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 ({{lang |la |Stellae Errantes}}) will have to be counted gods; and if so, then the Fixed Stars ({{lang |la |Stellae Inerrantes}}) as well."{{Cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AstraPlaneta.html |title=Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 19. |access-date=2018-11-01 |archive-date=2014-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211053159/http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AstraPlaneta.html |url-status=live }}

{{main|Venus in culture#Canaanite mythology}}

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.

A similar theme is present in the Babylonian myth of Etana. The Jewish Encyclopedia comments:

{{blockquote|The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars, but is not seen during the night, may easily have given rise to a myth such as was told of Ethana and Zu: he was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the star-gods on the northern mountain of the gods [...] but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian Olympus.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10177-lucifer |title=Lucifer |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |access-date=9 September 2013 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111171028/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10177-lucifer |url-status=live }}}}

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 Ba'al and, finding he was unable to do so, descended and ruled the underworld.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-gfwlltlRwC|first=John|last=Day|title=Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|location=London|date=2002|isbn=978-0-8264-6830-7|pages=172–173}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj791_BeAF0C|first=Gregory A.|last=Boyd|title=God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict|publisher=InterVarsity Press|date=1997|isbn=978-0-8308-1885-3|pages=159–160}} 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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ns4UAAAAIAAJ&q=Pope+%22El+in+the+Ugaritic+texts%22 |title=El in the Ugaritic Texts |access-date=22 December 2012|last1=Pope |first1=Marvin H. |author-link=Marvin H. Pope |year=1955}}{{cite book|author1=Gary V. Smith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLN08jf_C2EC&q=%22several+attempts+to+find+mythical+allusions%22&pg=PA314|title=Isaiah 1–30|date=30 August 2007|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8054-0115-8|pages=314–315|access-date=23 December 2012}} 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.{{cite book|title=Creation And Chaos in the Primeval Era And the Eschaton. A Religio-historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNstLQ8i3nsC|chapter=Isa 14:12–14|pages=89–90|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNstLQ8i3nsC&q=%22Isa+14:12-14%22&pg=PA89|first=Hermann|last=Gunkel|author-link=Hermann Gunkel|translator-first=K. William Jr.|translator-last=Whitney|date=2006|orig-year=1895|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|isbn=978-0-8028-2804-0|quote=... it is even more definitely certain that we are dealing with a native myth!]|access-date=2016-01-27|archive-date=2023-10-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018054833/https://books.google.com/books?id=pNstLQ8i3nsC|url-status=live}}

This Jewish tradition has echoes also in Jewish pseudepigrapha such as 2 Enoch and the Life of Adam and Eve.{{cite book|last=Schwartz|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Schwartz|title=Tree of souls: The mythology of Judaism|date=2004|publisher=OUP|location=New York City|isbn=0-19-508679-1|page=108}} The Life of Adam and Eve, in turn, shaped the idea of Iblis in the Quran.{{cite book|first1=Iberdina|last1=Houtman|first2=Tamar|last2=Kadari|first3=Marcel|last3=Poorthuis|first4=Vered|last4=Tohar|title=Religious Stories in Transformation: Conflict, Revision and Reception|publisher=Brill Publishers|location=Leiden, Netherlands|date=2016|isbn=978-9-004-33481-6|url=https://brill.com/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004334816/B9789004334816_007.xml|page=66|access-date=2018-11-23|archive-date=2018-11-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123154225/https://brill.com/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004334816/B9789004334816_007.xml|url-status=live}}

{{main|Devil in Christianity}}

File:Lucifer Liege Luc Viatour new.jpg (1848) by Guillaume Geefs (Liège Cathedral), known in English as The Genius of Evil, The Spirit of Evil, The Lucifer of Liège, or simply Lucifer.]]

In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, the king of Babylon is condemned in a prophetic vision by the prophet Isaiah and is called {{lang|he|הֵילֵל בֶּן-שָׁחַר}} ({{transliteration|he|Helel ben Shachar}}, Hebrew for "shining one, son of the morning"),{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Vo-11umIZQC&q=%22any+Canaanite+myth%22&pg=PA511 |first1=James D. G.|last1=Dunn |first2=John William|last2=Rogerson |title=Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible |isbn=978-0-8028-3711-0 |page=511 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|date=2003 |access-date=23 December 2012}} who is addressed as {{lang|he|הילל בן שחר}} ({{transliteration|he|Hêlêl ben Šāḥar}}).{{cite web |url=http://interlinearbible.org/isaiah/14-12.htm |title=Isaiah 14 Biblos Interlinear Bible |publisher=Interlinearbible.org |access-date=22 December 2012 |archive-date=13 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813202038/http://interlinearbible.org/isaiah/14-12.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://wlc.hebrewtanakh.com/isaiah/14.htm |title=Isaiah 14 Hebrew OT: Westminster Leningrad Codex |publisher=Wlc.hebrewtanakh.com |access-date=22 December 2012 |archive-date=23 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123173517/http://wlc.hebrewtanakh.com/isaiah/14.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite encyclopedia|title=Astronomy – Helel, Son of the Morning|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2052-astronomy|encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|edition=1906|access-date=1 July 2012|archive-date=27 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927075003/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2052-astronomy|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Wilken|first=Robert|title=Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators|date=2007|publisher=Wm Eerdmans Publishing|location=Grand Rapids MI|isbn=978-0-8028-2581-0|pages=171}} The title {{transliteration|he|"Hêlêl ben Šāḥar"}} refers to the planet Venus as the morning star, and that is how the Hebrew word is usually interpreted.{{cite web|title=Isaiah Chapter 14|url=http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1014.htm|website=mechon-mamre.org|publisher=The Mamre Institute|access-date=29 December 2014|archive-date=26 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626222240/http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1014.htm|url-status=dead}}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." ([https://archive.org/details/schpfungundchao01zimmgoog/page/n151 Schöpfung und Chaos, p. 133]) The Hebrew word transliterated as {{transliteration|he|Hêlêl}}{{cite web | url=http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/heilel_1966.htm | title=Hebrew Concordance: hê·lêl – 1 Occurrence – Bible Suite | work=Bible Hub | publisher=Biblos.com | location=Leesburg, Florida | access-date=8 September 2013 | archive-date=26 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226034733/https://biblehub.com/hebrew/heilel_1966.htm%20 | url-status=live }} or {{transliteration|he|Heylel}},{{Cite web |url=http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1966&t=KJV |title=Strong's Concordance, H1966 |access-date=2012-06-27 |archive-date=2019-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118040624/http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1966&t=KJV |url-status=live }} occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint renders {{lang|he|הֵילֵל}} in Greek as {{lang|grc|Ἑωσφόρος}}{{cite web |url=http://www.septuagint.org/LXX/Isaiah/14 |title=LXX Isaiah 14 |publisher=Septuagint.org |access-date=22 December 2012 |language=el |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226034723/http://www.septuagint.org/LXX/Isaiah/14%20 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://bibledatabase.net/html/septuagint/23_014.htm |title=Greek OT (Septuagint/LXX): Isaiah 14 |publisher=Bibledatabase.net |access-date=22 December 2012 |language=el |archive-date=15 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115082309/http://bibledatabase.net/html/septuagint/23_014.htm |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://sepd.biblos.com/isaiah/14.htm |title=LXX Isaiah 14 |publisher=Biblos.com |access-date=6 May 2013 |language=el |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226034745/https://biblehub.com/sepd/isaiah/14.htm%20 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/sep/isa014.htm#012 |title=Septuagint Isaiah 14 |publisher=Sacred Texts |access-date=6 May 2013 |language=el |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226034720/http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/sep/isa014.htm#012 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isaiah&c=14&t=LXX |title=Greek Septuagint (LXX) Isaiah – Chapter 14 |publisher=Blue Letter Bible |access-date=6 May 2013 |language=el |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226034737/https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/isa/14/1/ |url-status=live }} ({{transliteration|grc|Heōsphoros}}),{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4W5gzptzfxUC&q=heosphoros+septuagint&pg=136 |title=The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth |author=Neil Forsyth |publisher=Princeton University Press| isbn=978-0-691-01474-6 |date=1989 |page=136 |access-date=22 December 2012}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SD6-YKBqGr0C&q=heosphoros+septuagint&pg=PA35 |title=The Devil: What Does He Look Like? |author=Nwaocha Ogechukwu Friday |publisher=American Book Publishing |isbn=978-1-58982-662-5 |date=30 May 2012 |page=35 |access-date=22 December 2012}} "bringer of dawn", the Ancient Greek name for the morning star.{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Bernard A.; with word definitions by J. Lust|title=Analytical lexicon to the Septuagint|date=2009|publisher=Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.|location=Peabody, Mass.|isbn=978-1-56563-516-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNaDupoSycMC&q=%E1%BC%91%CF%89%CF%83%CF%86%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82&pg=256|edition=Expanded|author2=Eynikel, E.|author3=Hauspie, K.|page=256|access-date=2020-11-15|archive-date=2020-12-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212182108/https://books.google.com/books?id=JNaDupoSycMC&q=%E1%BC%91%CF%89%CF%83%CF%86%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82&pg=256|url-status=live}} Similarly the Vulgate renders {{lang|he|הֵילֵל}} in Latin as {{lang |la |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.

However, the translation of {{lang|he|הֵילֵל}} as "Lucifer" has been abandoned in modern English translations of Isaiah 14:12. Present-day translations render {{lang|he|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!"{{bibleverse|Isaiah|14:3–4|NIV}} After describing the death of the king, the taunt continues:

{{blockquote|How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?"{{bibleverse|Isaiah|14:12–17|NIV}}}}

For the unnamed "king of Babylon",{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf-BVeN6TbIC&q=Dempsey+%22king+remains+obscure%22&pg=PA34 |title=Isaiah: God's Poet of Light |author=Carol J. Dempsey |publisher=Chalice Press |page=34 |isbn=978-0-8272-1630-3 |date=2010 |access-date=22 December 2012 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054411/https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf-BVeN6TbIC&q=Dempsey%20%22king%20remains%20obscure%22&pg=PA34 |url-status=live }} a wide range of identifications have been proposed.{{cite book|editor-last=Manley|editor-first=Johanna|title=Isaiah through the Ages|date=1995|publisher=St Vladimir's Seminary Press|location=Menlo Park, Calif.|isbn=978-0-9622536-3-8|pages=259–260|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y17fkvqXOBcC&q=manley+%22assyrian+rather+than+a+Babylonian%22&pg=PA260|access-date=22 December 2012|archive-date=2022-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054402/https://books.google.com/books?id=y17fkvqXOBcC&q=manley%20%22assyrian%20rather%20than%20a%20Babylonian%22&pg=PA260|url-status=live}} 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,{{cite book|editor-last=Breslauer|editor-first=S. Daniel|title=The seductiveness of Jewish myth : challenge or response?|url=https://archive.org/details/seductivenessjew00bres|url-access=limited|date=1997|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=0-7914-3602-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/seductivenessjew00bres/page/n280 280]}} or Nabonidus,{{cite book|author=Roy F. Melugin|title=New Visions of Isaiah|date=1996|publisher=Continuum International|location=Sheffield|isbn=978-1-85075-584-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wA_odaujfPMC&q=%22specific+ruler+of+Babylon%22&pg=PA116|author2=Marvin Alan Sweeney|access-date=22 December 2012|page=116|archive-date=16 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054414/https://books.google.com/books?id=wA_odaujfPMC&q=%22specific+ruler+of+Babylon%22&pg=PA116|url-status=live}} and the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II and Sennacherib.{{cite book|last=Laney|first=J. Carl|title=Answers to Tough Questions from Every Book of the Bible|date=1997|publisher=Kregel Publications|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0-8254-3094-7|page=127|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sIWn6lYS-MQC&q=Laney+%22king+of+babylon++mentioned%22&pg=PA127|access-date=22 December 2012|archive-date=9 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509165712/https://books.google.com/books?id=sIWn6lYS-MQC&q=Laney+%22king+of+babylon++mentioned%22&pg=PA127|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Doorly|first=William J.|title=Isaiah of Jerusalem|date=1992|publisher=Paulist Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8091-3337-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPGVPbOXbccC&q=Doorly+%22identification+of+the+king%22&pg=PA93|access-date=22 December 2012|page=93|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407215810/https://books.google.com/books?id=oPGVPbOXbccC&q=Doorly+%22identification+of+the+king%22&pg=PA93|url-status=live}} Verse 20 says that this king of Babylon will not be "joined with them [all the kings of the nations] 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.{{cite book|last=Wolf|first=Herbert M.|title=Interpreting Isaiah: The Suffering and Glory of the Messiah|date=1985|publisher=Academie Books|location=Grand Rapids, Mich.|isbn=978-0-310-39061-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQ6YdyS_ATEC&q=herbert+wolf+%22refer+to+a+specific+ruler%22&pg=PA112|page=112|access-date=2020-11-15|archive-date=2022-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054404/https://books.google.com/books?id=hQ6YdyS_ATEC&q=herbert+wolf+%22refer+to+a+specific+ruler%22&pg=PA112|url-status=live}}

Isaiah 14:12 became a source for the popular conception of the fallen angel motif.{{cite book|last=Herzog|first=Schaff-|title=The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought: Chamier-Draendorf|date=1909|publisher=Funk & Wagnalls Co.|location=USA|isbn=1-4286-3183-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCc4MjCe7B4C&q=heylel&pg=PA400|edition=Volume 3|editor=Samuel MacAuley Jackson|editor2=Charles Colebrook Sherman|editor3=George William Gilmore|page=[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc03/Page_400.html 400]|quote=Heylel (Isa. xiv. 12), the "day star, fallen from heaven," is interesting as an early instance of what, especially in pseudepigraphic literature, became a dominant conception, that of fallen angels.}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Rabbinic Judaism has rejected any belief in rebel or fallen angels.{{cite book|last=Bamberger|first=Bernard J.|title=Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm|date=2006|publisher=Jewish Publ. Soc. of America|location=Philadelphia, Pa.|isbn=0-8276-0797-0|edition=1. paperback|pages=148, 149}} 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 {{transliteration|he|benei elohim}} who cohabit with the daughters of man (Genesis 6:1–4).Adelman, Rachel (2009). pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7Ue5kAkw20C&pg=PA62&dq=%22+Book+of+Enoch%22 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,[https://archive.org/details/the-jewish-encyclopedia-vol.-8/page/203/mode/2up?view=theater 'The Jewish Encyclopedia', Volume VIII, p. 204, Funk & Wagnalls, London, 1912.] and later in Christian writings,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7R0IGTSvIVIC&q=Origen+name+Lucifer&pg=PA199 |author=David L. Jeffrey |title=A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature |isbn=978-0-8028-3634-2 |page=199 |publisher=Eerdmans |date=1992 |access-date=23 December 2012 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054410/https://books.google.com/books?id=7R0IGTSvIVIC&q=Origen+name+Lucifer&pg=PA199 |url-status=live }} particularly with the apocalypses.{{cite book |editor-first=Adele |editor-last=Berlin |editor-link=Adele Berlin |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKAaJXvUaUoC&q=%22expanded+role%22 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=hKAaJXvUaUoC&pg=651&dq=%22cast+out+of+heaven+as+a+fallen+angel+(a+misinterpretation+of+Is.%22 651] |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-973004-9 |quote=The notion of Satan as the opponent of God and the chief evil figure in a panoply of demons seems to emerge in the Pseudepigrapha ... Satan's expanded role describes him as ... cast out of heaven as a fallen angel (a misinterpretation of Is 14.12)." |access-date=2020-11-15 |archive-date=2022-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054406/https://books.google.com/books?id=hKAaJXvUaUoC&q=%22expanded+role%22 |url-status=live }}

File:Lucifer from Petrus de Plasiis Divine Comedy 1491.png's Divine Comedy. Woodcut for Inferno, canto 33. Pietro di Piasi, Venice, 1491.]]

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"){{bibleverse|Luke|10:18|NIV}} and interpreting the passage in Isaiah as an allegory of Satan's fall from heaven.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/merriamwebsterne00merr |url-access=registration |quote=name Lucifer was born -magazine. |title=The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories |isbn=978-0-87779-603-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebsterne00merr/page/280 280] |publisher=Merriam-Webster |date=1991 |access-date=23 December 2012}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5-pmLBcw44C&q=%22the+name+Lucifer+was+given%22&pg=PA57 |author=Harold Bloom |title=Satan |publisher=Infobase Publishing |date=2005 |isbn=978-0-7910-8386-4 |page=57 |access-date=23 December 2012 |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921023616/https://books.google.com/books?id=X5-pmLBcw44C&q=%22the+name+lucifer+was+given%22&pg=PA57 |url-status=live }}

Considering pride as a major sin peaking in self-deification, Lucifer ({{transliteration|he|Hêlêl}}) 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.{{cite book|last=Adelman|first=Rachel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7Ue5kAkw20C|title=The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe De-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha|date=2009|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-17049-0|location=Leiden|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7Ue5kAkw20C&pg=PA67&dq=heosphoros+%22Dante+and+Milton%22 67]}}{{cite web|url=https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/john-milton-satan-reign|website=libertyfund.org|title=John Milton on Satan's Reign in Hell|quote=“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”}} 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

File:Lucifer3.jpg, illustration to Paradise Lost, book IX, 179–187: "he [Satan] held on / His midnight search, where soonest he might finde / The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found"]]

File:Cathedral Fribourg vitrail Georg Michael Anna Maria 04.jpg, fallen Lucifer and the hound of hell]]

Aquila of Sinope derives the word {{transliteration|he|hêlêl}}, the Hebrew name for the morning star, from the verb {{transliteration|he|yalal}} (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: Movers of the stories] {{in lang |de}}. 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.

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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYNJxKrhcDAC&q=Tonstad+%22derives+from+the+poem%22&pg=PA75 |author1=Sigve K Tonstad |title=Saving God's Reputation |isbn=978-0-567-04494-5 |page=75 |publisher=Continuum |location=London, New York City |date=20 January 2007 |access-date=23 December 2012 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054417/https://books.google.com/books?id=YYNJxKrhcDAC&q=Tonstad+%22derives+from+the+poem%22&pg=PA75 |url-status=live }} Origen (184/185–253/254) interpreted such Old Testament passages as being about manifestations of the devil.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rg2RJAIZ4k4C |title=The Problem of Evil in the Western Tradition |first=Joseph Francis |last=Kelly |publisher=Liturgical Press |location=Collegeville, Minnesota |date=2002 |page=[https://archive.org/details/problemofevilint00jose/page/44 44] |isbn=978-0-8146-5104-9}}Auffarth, Christoph; Stuckenbruck, Loren T., eds. (2004). p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=lhNyGFkT3QYC&pg=PA62&dq=Origen+Lucifer 62].{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEnXbRWbi0AC |title=Isaiah and Prophetic Traditions in the Book of Revelation |first=Jan |last=Fekkes |date=1994 |publisher=Continuum |location=London, New York City |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=uEnXbRWbi0AC&pg=187 187] |isbn=978-1-85075-456-5 |access-date=2016-01-27 |archive-date=2022-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054418/https://books.google.com/books?id=uEnXbRWbi0AC |url-status=live }} Origen was not the first to interpret the Isaiah 14 passage as referring to the devil: he was preceded by at least Tertullian ({{c.|160|225}}), who in his {{lang |la |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".{{bibleverse|Isaiah|14:14|NIV}}Migne, [https://archive.org/details/patrologiaecurs51unkngoog/page/n260 Patrologia latina], vol. 2, cols. 500 and 514{{Cite web |title=Tertullian : Ernest Evans, Adversus Marcionem. Book 5 (English) |url=https://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_marc/evans_marc_12book5_eng.htm |access-date=2022-04-24 |website=www.tertullian.org |archive-date=2021-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801232238/https://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_marc/evans_marc_12book5_eng.htm |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxwR74&pg=PA95 |author=Jeffrey Burton Russell |title=Satan: The Early Christian Tradition |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-9413-0 |page=95 |date=1987 |access-date=23 December 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} 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.{{cite book|last=Link|first=Luther|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EU7Qt5HSmHAC|title=The Devil: A Mask without a Face|date=1995|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-0-948462-67-2|location=Clerkenwell, London|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EU7Qt5HSmHAC&pg=PA24 24]|access-date=2016-01-27|archive-date=2022-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054401/https://books.google.com/books?id=EU7Qt5HSmHAC|url-status=live}}

Augustine's work {{lang |la |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").{{cite journal |last1=Burns |first1=J. Patout |title=Augustine on the Origin and Progress of Evil |journal=The Journal of Religious Ethics |date=1988 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=9–27 |jstor=40015076}} He argues that evil came first into existence by the free will of Satan.{{cite journal |last1=Babcock |first1=William S. |title=Augustine on Sin and Moral Agency |journal=The Journal of Religious Ethics |date=1988 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=28–55 |jstor=40015077}} 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. {{doi|10.1111/j.1540-5931.2010.00780.x}}. {{PMID|21140934}}. 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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1Y-9sCXItMC&q=%22the+KJV+correctly+translates%22&pg=PA94 |title=A Primer on Salvation and Bible Prophecy |author=Larry Alavezos |publisher=TEACH Services |isbn=978-1-57258-640-6 |date=29 September 2010 |page=94 |access-date=22 December 2012 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054414/https://books.google.com/books?id=_1Y-9sCXItMC&q=%22the+KJV+correctly+translates%22&pg=PA94 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDrfOawsb4UC&q=%22say+Lucifer+or+morning+star%22&pg=PA64 |author=David W. Daniels |title=Answers to Your Bible Version Questions |isbn=978-0-7589-0507-9 |page=64 |publisher=Chick Publications |date=2003 |access-date=22 December 2012 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054359/https://books.google.com/books?id=vDrfOawsb4UC&q=%22say%20Lucifer%20or%20morning%20star%22&pg=PA64 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7a9fgCKqz8C&q=%22refers+preeminently+to+Satan%22&pg=PA219 |author=William Dembski |title=The End of Christianity |isbn=978-0-8054-2743-1 |page=219 |publisher=B&H Publishing Group |date=2009 |access-date=22 December 2012 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054400/https://books.google.com/books?id=C7a9fgCKqz8C&q=%22refers+preeminently+to+Satan%22&pg=PA219 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwbtWmJYyIUC |title=The fathers of the church. Jerome. Commentary on Galatians |first=Andrew |last=Cain |date=2011 |publisher=CUA Press |location=Washington, D.C. |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vwbtWmJYyIUC&pg=PA74&dq=%22As+for+the+specific+reasons+for+Lucifer's+fall,+some+patristic+writers+suggested+pride,+others+envy:+see+N.+Adkin%22%22Pride+or+Envy?+Some+Notes+on+the+Reason+the+Fathers+Give+for+the+Devil's+Fall%22 74] |isbn=978-0-8132-0121-4 |access-date=2016-01-27 |archive-date=2022-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054405/https://books.google.com/books?id=vwbtWmJYyIUC |url-status=live }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZ3VbQU0w24C |title=A Companion to Angels in Medieval Philosophy |editor1-first=Tobias |editor1-last=Hoffmann |date=2012 |publisher=BRILL |location=Leiden |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RZ3VbQU0w24C&pg=262&dq=%22The+patristic+tradition+that+Augustine+inherited+did+not+have+a+unified+view+about+the+nature+of+Lucifer%27s+primal+sin%22+Origen+%22pride+%28superbia%22+Tertullian+%22envy+of+humanity+for+being+created+in+the+image+of+God%22 262] |isbn=978-90-04-18346-9 |access-date=2016-01-27 |archive-date=2022-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054401/https://books.google.com/books?id=RZ3VbQU0w24C |url-status=live }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p09CAAAAcAAJ |title=Prediche Quaresimali: Divise In Due Tomi |volume=2 |author=Nicolas de Dijon |date=1730 |publisher=Storti |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=p09CAAAAcAAJ&pg=230&dq=Lucifero+invidia+gelosia+Dio+uomo+Tertulliano+Agostino 230] |language=it |access-date=2016-01-27 |archive-date=2022-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054415/https://books.google.com/books?id=p09CAAAAcAAJ |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web |first=Ron |last=Corson |url=http://newprotestants.com/LUCIFER.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202201351/http://newprotestants.com/LUCIFER.htm |archive-date=2 February 2013 |title=Who is Lucifer...or Satan misidentified |date=2008 |publisher=newprotestants.com |url-status=usurped |access-date=15 July 2013}}

The 1409 Lollard manuscript titled Lanterne of Light associated Lucifer with the deadly sin of pride.

Protestant 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."{{cite book |last=Calvin |first=John |others=Translated by John King |title=Commentary on Isaiah |volume=I:404 |date=2007 |publisher=Forgotten Books |location=Charleston, S.C.}} Martin Luther also considered it a gross error to refer this verse to the Devil.{{cite book |last=Ridderbos |first=Jan |others=Translated by John Vriend |title=The Bible Student's Commentary: Isaiah |page=142 |date=1985 |publisher=Regency |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan}}

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

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. {{ISBN|978-0-19-046717-3}}. p. 46 In the Bogomil and Cathar 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 souls 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. {{ISBN|978-0-786-48539-0}} p. 71Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer (2009). The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition. Shambhala. {{ISBN|978-0-834-82414-0}}. p. 745–755, 831 In contrast to mainstream Christianity, the 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. {{ISBN|978-0-834-82414-0}}. p. 745–755, 751

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.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Lucifer|title=Devils|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Mormonism|access-date=2017-11-29|archive-date=2018-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922204853/http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Lucifer|url-status=dead}} The Doctrine and Covenants reads:

{{blockquote|And this we saw also, and bear record, that an angel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the Only Begotten Son whom the Father loved and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son, and was called Perdition, for the heavens wept over him—he was Lucifer, a son of the morning. And we beheld, and lo, he is fallen! is fallen, even a son of the morning! And while we were yet in the Spirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision; for we beheld Satan, that old serpent, even the devil, who rebelled against God, and sought to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ—Wherefore, he maketh war with the saints of God, and encompasseth them round about.|Doctrine and Covenants 76:25–29{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76.25-29?lang=eng#p24|title=D&C 76:25–29}}}}

After becoming Satan by his fall, Lucifer "goeth up and down, to and fro in the earth, seeking to destroy the souls of men."{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/10.27?lang=eng|title=D&C 10:27}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/scriptures/gs/lucifer?lang=eng|title=Lucifer |website=churchofjesuschrist.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/scriptures/ot/isa/14.12?lang=eng|title=Isaiah 14:12, footnote c}}

{{Multiple image

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| image1 = Sigil of Lucifer.svg

| alt1 = Modern sigil of Lucifer

| image2 = Grimoirium verum full sigil of lucifer.png

| alt2 = Grimorium Verum sigil of Lucifer

| footer = The Sigil of Lucifer used by modern Satanists (left), originating from the 18th century Grimorium Verum (right).{{Cite web |last=Rhys |first=Dani |date=2023-02-22 |title=Understanding the Sigil of Lucifer: A Symbol Misunderstood |url=https://symbolsage.com/sigil-of-lucifer-meaning/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Symbol Sage |language=en-US |archive-date=2024-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226090405/https://symbolsage.com/sigil-of-lucifer-meaning/ |url-status=live }}

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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{{cite book |title=Vampires in Their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices |author=Michelle Belanger |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |date=2007 |page=175 |isbn=978-0-7387-1220-8|author-link=Michelle Belanger}} or even the true god as opposed to Jehovah.{{cite book |title=An Encyclopedia of Occultism |author=Spence, L. |publisher=Carol Publishing |date=1993}}

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.{{cite book|last=LaVey|first=Anton Szandor|title=The Satanic Bible|date=1969|publisher=Avon|location=New York|isbn=978-0-380-01539-9|chapter=The Book of Lucifer: The Enlightenment|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/satanicbible00lave|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/satanicbible00lave}}

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.

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){{cite web |url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/taxil_confessed.html |title=Leo Taxil's confession |publisher=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon |date=2 April 2001 |access-date=23 December 2012 |archive-date=2 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502135719/http://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/taxil_confessed.html |url-status=live }} 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:

{{blockquote|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.Freemasonry Disclosed April 1897}}

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 {{em|he}} 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.([http://www.masonicinfo.com/lucifer.htm Masonic information: Lucifer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127132513/http://www.masonicinfo.com/lucifer.htm |date=2022-01-27 }}).

Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.{{cite web |url=http://www.masonicinfo.com/taxil.htm |title=Leo Taxil: The tale of the Pope and the Pornographer |access-date=14 September 2006 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417034641/http://www.masonicinfo.com/taxil.htm |url-status=dead }}

In Devil-Worship in France, Arthur Edward Waite compared Taxil's work to today's tabloid journalism, replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.

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:

{{blockquote|[...] Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Dawn. But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which flies into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.Charles G. Leland, Aradia: The Gospel of Witches, Theophania Publishing, US, 2010.}}

Here, the motions of Diana and Lucifer once again mirror the celestial motions of the moon and Venus, respectively.Magliocco, Sabina. (2006). [https://www.academia.edu/584607/Italian_American_Stregheria_and_Wicca_Ethnic_ambivalence_in_American_Neopaganism Italian American Stregheria and Wicca: Ethnic Ambivalence in American Neopaganism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809160310/https://www.academia.edu/584607/Italian_American_Stregheria_and_Wicca_Ethnic_ambivalence_in_American_Neopaganism |date=2019-08-09 }}. 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:

{{blockquote|Diana greatly loved her brother Lucifer, the god of the Sun and of the Moon, the god of Light (Splendor), who was so proud of his beauty, and who for his pride was driven from Paradise.}}

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).

{{See also|Devil in 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.

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.{{cite journal | last=Nosachev | first=Pavel | title=Theology of Supernatural | journal=Religions | volume=11 | issue=12 | date=2020-12-04 | issn=2077-1444 | doi=10.3390/rel11120650 | doi-access=free | page=650}} 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 Islamic 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,{{cite journal |last1=Maurice |first1=Lisa |title=From Olympian to Christ-figure: Lucifer (2016 – 2021) |journal=thersites |date=10 November 2023 |volume=17 |pages=245–272 |doi=10.34679/thersites.vol17.244}} 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.{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Adam |title=Neil Gaiman's Lucifer: Reconsidering Milton’s Satan |journal=The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture |date=June 2013 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=175–185 |doi=10.3138/jrpc.25.2.175}}

File:Inf. 34 Alessandro Vellutello, Lucifero (1534).jpg|Lucifer, by Alessandro Vellutello (1534), for Dante's Inferno, canto 34

File:Illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy, object 72 Butlin 812-69 recto Lucifer.jpg|Lucifer, by William Blake, for Dante's Inferno, canto 34

File:ParadiseLButts1.jpg|Satan arousing rebel angels in Milton's Paradise Lost, by William Blake

File:Copertina_Lucifero.jpg|Cover of 1887 edition of Mario Rapisardi's poem Lucifero

File:Zichy,Mihaly - Lucifer az urral szemben (Madach).jpg|Lucifer before the Lord, by Mihály Zichy (19th century)

File:Punchinello Mayor Hall.png|Mayor Hall and Lucifer, by an unknown artist (1870)

File:Paradise Lost 12.jpg|Gustave Doré's illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost, III, 739–742: Satan on his way to bring about the fall of man{{Cite web |date=2011-07-08 |title=Paradise Lost: Illustrations by Gustave Doré |url=http://www.danshort.com/pl/page1.php?p=12 |access-date=2022-04-24 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708231115/http://www.danshort.com/pl/page1.php?p=12 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}

File:Paradise Lost 19.jpg|Gustave Doré's illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost, V, 1006–1015: Satan yielding before Gabriel{{Cite web |date=2010-09-23 |title=Paradise Lost: Illustrations by Gustave Doré |url=http://danshort.com/pl/page1.php?p=19 |access-date=2022-04-24 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923065519/http://danshort.com/pl/page1.php?p=19 |archive-date=23 September 2010 |url-status=dead}}

File:Arnold Rechberg - Lucifer 1906.jpg|Lucifer, by Arnold Rechberg (1906)

{{Div col|colwidth=27em}}

• Angra Mainyu
• Aphrodite
• Astarte
• Asura
• Aurvandil, aka Earendel
• Azazil (Angelic name of Satan in Islam)
• Azazel
• Doctor Faustus, tragic play by Christopher Marlowe
• Erlik
• Guardian of the Threshold
• Inferno, first of the three canticas of Dante's Divine Comedy
• Luceafărul, a literary magazine
• Luceafărul, a poem by the poet Mihai Eminescu
• Lucifer and Prometheus
• The Lucifer Effect
• Luciform body
• Lucis Trust
• Phosphorus, the morning star, aka Eosphorus and Heosphorus
• Shahar
• Shukra Vedic Planet Venus, teacher of the Asuras

{{div col end}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|editor-last=Charlesworth|editor-first=James H.|title=The Old Testament pseudepigrapha.|date=2010|publisher=Hendrickson|location=Peabody, Mass.|isbn=978-1-59856-491-4}}
• {{cite book|last=TBD|title=Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Dayspring, Daystar|date=2001|publisher=Tyndale House Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hWkoFOvbWW4C&q=0842370897&pg=PA114-IA2|location=Wheaton, Ill.|isbn=0-8423-7089-7|author2=Elwell, Walter A.|author3=Comfort, Philip W.|editor=Walter A. Elwell|editor2=Philip Wesley Comfort|page=363|access-date=2020-11-15|archive-date=2022-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516054413/https://books.google.com/books?id=hWkoFOvbWW4C&q=0842370897&pg=PA114-IA2|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Joseph|title=Myths To Live By|date=1972|publisher=Souvenir Press|location=[London]|isbn=0-285-64731-8|edition=Repr. 2nd}}

{{commons category}}

{{Catholic Encyclopedia poster|Lucifer}}

• The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (2010). [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucifer-classical-mythology Lucifer (classical mythology)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124092904/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucifer-classical-mythology |date=2020-01-24 }}. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
• {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Lucifer (devil)}}

{{Subject bar |portal1= Bible |portal2= Christianity |portal3= Religion |commonscat= y |wikt= y |q= y}}

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Category:Bogomilism

Category:Book of Isaiah

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Category:Christian terminology

Category:Dawn

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Category:Kings of Babylon

Category:Luciferianism

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