The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. It appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah[1] and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible),[2] not as the name of a devil but as the Latin word lucifer (uncapitalized),[3][4] meaning "the morning star", "the planet Venus", or, as an adjective, "light-bringing".[5] It is a translation of the Hebrew word הֵילֵל, hêlēl, meaning "Shining One".[6]
As the Latin name for the morning appearances of the planet Venus, it corresponds to the Greek names Phosphorus Φωσφόρος, "light-bringer", and Eosphorus Ἑωσφόρος, "dawn-bringer". 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 (Isaiah 14:12), 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, it was often personified and considered a god[7] and in some versions considered a son of Aurora (the Dawn).[8] A similar name used by the Roman poet Catullus for the planet in its evening aspect is "Noctifer" (Night-Bringer).[9]
- ^ Isaiah 14:12
- ^ Kohler, Kaufmann (2006). Heaven and Hell in Comparative Religion with Special Reference to Dante's Divine Comedy. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-7661-6608-2.
Lucifer, is taken from the Latin version, the Vulgate
[permanent dead link] Originally published New York: The MacMillan Co., 1923. - ^ "Latin Vulgate Bible: Isaiah 14". DRBO.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
- ^ "Vulgate: Isaiah Chapter 14" (in Latin). Sacred-texts.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
- ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles. "A Latin Dictionary". Perseus.tufts.edu. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
- ^ Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary Archived 2019-04-02 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-57607-094-9.
dixon-kennedy lucifer.
- ^ Smith, William (1878). "Lucifer". A Smaller Classical Dictionary of Biography, Mythology, and Geography. New York City: Harper. p. 235. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
- ^ Catullus 62.8 Archived 2019-12-04 at the Wayback Machine.