How Lucifer in the Bible Became Satan

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

In Christianity, it is taught in many places that Satan was originally an angel named Lucifer, who turned on God, and was Cast down after the War in Heaven.  However, this story is found nowhere in the Bible.  The one time Lucifer is mentioned, is from a relatively new translation. 

Isaiah 14:12

12 What, fallen from Heaven, thou Lucifer, that once didst herald the dawn?  Prostrate on the earth, that didst once bring nations to their knees? 

12 πῶς ἐξέπεσεν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὁ ἑωσφόρος ὁ πρωὶ ἀνατέλλων συνετρίβη εἰς τὴν γῆν ὁ ἀποστέλλων πρὸς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη 

12 Quomodo cecidisti de cælo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris?  Corruisti in terram, qui vulnerabas gentes. 

In reality, this verse is a result of misinterpretation and mistranslation.  In the original Hebrew text, the actual story is not about a fallen angel, but about an unnamed Babylonian king who figuratively fell from his throne when he began persecuting the Israelites. 

By the time the book was translated by Christian writers, the king became an angel.  The Babylonian king was referred to as “Helal”, which means “day star” or “son of the dawn.”  Interestingly, in Aramaic and Arabic, “hilal” refers to the first sliver of the New Moon.  The Romans substituted a Latin word close in meaning.  “Lucifer” is actually the Roman name for Venus, which is often the first visible celestial body to appear near dawn.  It is also called “the Morning Star.”  The name “Lucifer” had nothing to do with the appearance of a Satanic figure until much later, in the fourth century because of a translation of the text by Jerome of Stridon.  And that is how “Helal” the Babylonian king became “Lucifer”, the “Angel of the Morning Star.”



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