Lucifer
This article is about Lucifer in reference to Christian theology; for other meanings, see: Lucifer (disambiguation).
Lucifer is a Latin word derived from two words, lux (light) and fero (to bear–to bring), meaning light-bearer, light-bringer. In Roman mythology, Lucifer was a deity equivalent to the Greek Heosphorus, and the planet Venus was known by the name Lucifer in Roman astrology before being given its current name. In Christianity, Lucifer has become synonymous with Satan or the Devil, despite the original Judaic mythology considering Lucifer and Satan to be two quite separate entities.
Lucifer is also a deity in the Voodoo religions.
Lucifer in the Bible
Lucifer is mentioned in only one place in the Bible (Isaiah 14:12), in translations based on the Latin translation largely made by St. Jerome in the fourth century. The Hebraic texts refer to Heylel Ben-Shachar (הילל בן שחר) where 'Heylel' is the Hebrew word for the planet Venus, and Ben-shachar means "son of the dawn." Isaiah 14 starts out discussing the King of Babylon, and the reference "morning star, son of the dawn" originally meant specifically that king. Then St. Jerome translated Heylel into Lucifer. Much of Christian tradition also draws on Revelation 12:5 ("He was thrown down, that ancient serpent") in equating Lucifer, Satan, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
In the Bible, the word lucifer describes the planet Venus, the "light of the morning" (Job 11:17); the "signs of the zodiac" (Job 38:32) and "the aurora" (Psalm 109:3). It is applied to the "King of Babylon" (Isaiah 14:12), to "Simon son of Onias" (Ecclesisasticus 50:6); to the "glory of heaven" (Apocalypse 2:23) and to "Jesus Christ" (II Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16).
St. Jerome's Vulgate translation of Isaiah 1:14 makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory as the morning star. This image at last defines the character of Lucifer; where the Church Fathers had maintained that lucifer was not the proper name of the Devil, and that it referred rather to the state from which he had fallen; St. Jerome transformed it into Satan's proper name.
Literature
Lucifer is a key protagonist in John Milton's Protestant Christian epic, Paradise Lost. Milton presents Lucifer almost sympathetically, an ambitious and prideful angel who defies God and wages war on heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Lucifer must then employ his rhetorical ability to organize hell; he is aided by Mammon and Beelzebub. Later, Lucifer enters the Garden of Eden, where he successfully tempts Eve, wife of Adam, to eat fruit from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil.