The Plain Truth
about LUCIFER
By Jamie McNab
The Bible tells us that
Satan is the “god” of this world, and the DECEIVER
of all the nations. But just how far does Satan’s deception go? Is it possible that Satan may even have deceived
us about his very NAME?
We read in 2 Corinthians
11:14 that “Satan
himself is transformed into an ANGEL OF LIGHT.” The Amplified Bible says that Satan
MASQUERADES as an angel of light. But
Satan does NOT bring LIGHT! He is a
prince of darkness! Yet in his vanity, it seems evident that
Satan wants to be seen as an angel of light — a bringer of true wisdom and
“forbidden knowledge.”
Even in the Garden of
Eden, he presented himself as one who was bringing important KNOWLEDGE to Adam
and Eve. In his conversation with Eve,
he announced "You surely will not die (if
you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)! For God knows that in the day you eat from it
your eyes WILL BE OPENED (you will receive new
SECRET KNOWLEDGE), and you will
be like God, knowing good and evil," Genesis 3:4-5.
In the New Testament,
we come across Satan being referred to as a Deceiver, a Destroyer, a Liar, a
Murderer, an Accuser and an Adversary.
All these names are consistent with a spirit being who is perverted and destructive.
What then of the name
we read of in Isaiah 14:12-14? Here we
read: “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! For thou hast said
in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides
of the north: I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
Most of us believe
from the context that this passage is talking of Satan, yet he is called by the name of LUCIFER — which means
LIGHT-BRINGER. Can this be correct? Was Satan formerly a light-bringer? Or is this,
in fact, an attempt by Satan to MASQUERADE as a light-bringer even in his
“former life”?
Other translations of
Isaiah 14:12 seem to confirm Satan’s historical name as a bringer of light and truth.
The Amplified Bible states: “O light-bringer and daystar.”
The NASB gives us: “O
star of the morning,” and Young’s Literal translates it as: “O shining one.”
This seems fairly
clear. Traditionally, most of us have
understood that Satan started off his life as a GOOD angel — a powerful
Whilst that certainly
describes Satan’s history, does it follow that GOD would give such a perverse
being the name of LIGHT-BRINGER — LUCIFER?
Is that an ACCURATE translation of
Isaiah 14:12? Or has
Satan been involved in yet another deception — claiming a name and title that never belonged to him?!
Isn’t
it true that if ANYONE could properly be called LIGHT-BRINGER it would be JESUS
THE CHRIST? Consider the following
references to Jesus:
John 1:4: “In Him was
life; and the life was THE LIGHT of men.”
John 1:7: “The same came
for a witness, to bear witness of THE LIGHT, that all men
through Him might believe.”
John 1:9: “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
John 8:12: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am THE LIGHT of the
world: he that followeth Me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have THE LIGHT of life.”
John 12:46: “I am come A LIGHT into the world, that
whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in
darkness.”
Now the word LUCIFER is not originally an English word. Nor indeed is it a Hebrew word. It is instead a LATIN WORD. It MEANS light-bringer. It comes from two Latin words, lux (meaning "light") and fero (meaning
"to carry").
As a name or title, it seems that the term
Lucifer would more accurately
describe JESUS CHRIST. HE is the true
LIGHT-BRINGER. It would surely be more
correct to describe Jesus as LUCIFER?
And, in fact, this is precisely what one
Scripture tells us, when properly translated!
Unfortunately, almost every translation conceals the true meaning, and
hides one of the true names of Jesus Christ.
The verse in question is 2 Peter
1:19. In the KJV we read, “We have also
a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a
LIGHT that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and THE DAY STAR arise in your hearts.”
The various commentaries all agree that
the “Day Star” mentioned in this verse is a reference
to Jesus Christ. They are correct. They often cross-reference to such verses as
Revelation 22:16: “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.”
Other translations of 2 Peter
But there is a problem in these English
translations of 2 Peter 1:19. The
translations refer to Jesus as being the “Day Star” or “Morning Star.” But in the Greek, there are NO WORDS in this
verse for DAY or MORNING or STAR! The
Greek language does NOT call Jesus a “day star” or “morning star” in this
verse!
In Revelation
What DO we find then in 2 Peter 1:19? The Greek word which the translators
MIS-TRANSLATE as “day star” is phosphoros. And what
does phosphoros
mean? It comes from two Greek words — phos meaning
“light,” and phero
meaning “to carry.” So, it can — and
should be — translated as LIGHT-BRINGER.
2 Peter 1:19 would then read, “We have
also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the
day dawn, and THE LIGHT-BRINGER (not “day star”) arise in your hearts.” This is clearly describing Jesus the Christ,
as the One who brings light into our hearts.
But just a moment! Didn’t we see earlier that the name Lucifer means LIGHT-BRINGER? So, couldn’t we use the name Lucifer
(light-bringer) to translate the Greek word phosphoros (light-bringer)? In which
case, the verse would read: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and LUCIFER (phosphoros —
light-bringer) arise in your hearts.”
In fact, there is one translation that is
completely accurate in this regard, and that is the Latin translation. In the Latin Vulgate we read, “… quasi lucernae lucenti in caliginoso loco donec dies inlucescat et LUCIFER oriatur in cordibus vestries.” Those of you who grew up in the
Latin-speaking Roman Catholic Church may recognise some of that (!), but
everyone can see the word LUCIFER which appears in that verse. LUCIFER is an EXACT translation of the Greek phosphoros — both
meaning LIGHT-BRINGER!
So, from 2 Peter 1:19, we can see that
LUCIFER is Jesus’ name! It is not
Satan’s name! Jesus is the LIGHT-BRINGER
— LUCIFER — not Satan!
But don’t most of us refer to Satan by the name Lucifer? And don’t we base that on Isaiah 14:12? The answer is clearly, “Yes.” However, a
little further study shows that this is another example of Satan seeking to
MASQUERADE as an angel of light — a LIGHT-BRINGER — a LUCIFER! But that is NOT HIS NAME. That is NOT a correct translation of Isaiah
14:12!
Lt’s look at Isaiah 14:12 again. In the KJV, it reads: “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 question we need to answer is: does the
name “Lucifer” in this verse come from a HEBREW word meaning light-bringer? And the answer is: NO! It doesn’t!
The Hebrew word used for Satan in this
verse is Heylel. The Hebrew Names Translation of the Bible translates
the verse as: “How you are fallen from heaven, Heylel, son of the morning! How
you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!”
Hebrew dictionaries and Bible commentaries
will state that this name means “shining one” or “light-bringer,” but in
reality they are simply perpetuating the MYTH that Satan was a
Light-Bringer. The actual Hebrew has no
such meaning.
The name Heylel appears only once in the
Old Testament, in Isaiah
There is some uncertainty as to the basic
Hebrew word from which Heylel is derived.
Hebrew scholars give us two options — it comes from either halal, or yalal.
Major commentaries and dictionaries, such as Keil
& Delitzsch Commentary of the Old Testament, and
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions, opt for halal. However, Adam Clarke prefers yalal, and Gesenius
gives yalal as an alternative to halal. (Although these words look rather different
when written in English letters, they are very similar in Hebrew.)
If we want to find out Satan’s real name,
as inspired by God, it would seem we need to look at the basic meanings of
these two words, halal
or yalal. And since words in most languages have a range of meanings, we need to make
sure we read them in their CONTEXTS.
We will look first at halal.
The word is used 165 times in the Old
Testament. Young’s Analytical
Concordance shows that it is translated most commonly as praise or give praise just over 110 times. On two occasions, only, is it translated shine. However, among its other meanings
(and keep in mind the context of Isaiah 14) are: boast (10 times), mad (8
times), fool or foolish (5 times) and rage (twice).
Some of the verses where this very
negative meaning is used are:
“And he changed his
behaviour before them, and feigned himself MAD (halal) in their hands, and
scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his
beard,” 1 Samuel
“I said unto the FOOLS (halal), Deal not FOOLISHLY (halal): and to
the wicked, Lift not up the horn,” Psalms 75:4.
“Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and
they that are MAD (halal)
against me are sworn against me,” Psalms 102:8.
“They that trust in their wealth, and BOAST THEMSELVES (halal) in the
multitude of their riches,” Psalms 49:6.
“He leadeth
counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges FOOLS
(halal),”
Job
From these Scriptures, and others, we see
that it would be entirely in order to translate Heylel as: MAD, FOOL, FOOLISH, BOASTER.
We could then translate Isaiah 14:12 as:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O MAD BOASTFUL FOOL, son of the morning (“son
of the morning” would indicate creation
of Jesus Christ, THE Morning Star)! how art
thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” And the fact that Heylel was a PRIDE-FILLED
BOASTER is brought out in the verses which immediately follow: “For thou hast
said in thine heart, I WILL ASCEND into heaven, I will EXALT MY THRONE above
the stars of God: I will sit ALSO upon the mount of the congregation, in the
sides of the north: I WILL ASCEND above the heights of the clouds; I will be
LIKE THE MOST HIGH!” What amazing
CONCEIT and arrogance! But just what we
would expect from Satan — and God names things what they are!
Yes, Satan would like to be known as
Lucifer, the light-bringer. But God
names him what he is — a boastful, mad, raging FOOL!
If we prefer to take Heylel as being
derived from the Hebrew word, yalal,
we find — again — that the word has no connection at all to light-bringer, or Lucifer. The word yalal
has the meaning of to HOWL or to WAIL or to LAMENT. It is so translated some 30 times in the King
James Version. Here are some verses where
it appears:
“HOWL (yalal),
fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: HOWL (yalal), O ye oaks of
“Cry and HOWL (yalal), son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be
upon all the princes of
“HOWL (yalal)
ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from
the Almighty,” Isaiah 13:6.
So, if we want to translate the term
Heylel in Isaiah 14:12, using the basic meaning of the root word yalal, we would get: “How art thou
fallen from heaven, O HOWLER, son of the morning! how
art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
The Concordant Version of Isaiah
And, certainly,
Satan must be doing a lot of HOWLING!
His plans are going to come to nothing, and his future is one of
blackness FOR EVER. He knows that
mankind is destined to join the God-family — something he can NEVER DO. As Jude hints: “And the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day … Raging
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”
So, either way,
whether Heylel comes from halal or yalal, it does not
say that Satan is a light-bringer. He
may be a HOWLER, howling out his shame, fear and contempt for God and His
plans, or a BOASTFUL, RAGING FOOL. And
that’s all he is!
So, let’s not give Satan more credit than
he deserves. He may want to masquerade as an angel of light, but he certainly
isn’t one! THE BIBLE applies the name of
Light-Bringer — Phosphoros —Lucifer — to Jesus the Christ, in 2 Peter
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