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LUCIFEROUS LUCIFER

11/13/2016

4 Comments

 
This is crazy. As I was trawling online etymology forums, I came across the peculiar history of Lucifer. In the beginning, there was nothing (haha), until the Romans went along and invented the word lux, meaning "light", with a conjugated form luc. The Romans built upon that word by tacking on the suffix -fer, meaning "bringing". So lucifer originally referred to "light-bringing", or as it came to be used, "morning star" or "light on the horizon". This Satanic word originally meant something good, completely opposite from its current definition. However, when people decided to make the Bible, the Lord says in Isaiah 14:12 "How you have fallen from heaven, lucifer, son of the dawn!" Thus, Lucifer became sort of a proper noun and came to refer to fallen angels. At that point, it was only a skip, a hop, and a jump until the ultimate transition was made from "corrupt angel" to "the ultimate opposing force against God", with Lucifer's present-day synonyms including very nasty words like "the Devil", "Satan", and "Beelzebub", which shouldn't be associated with "light-bringer", but sadly they are.
4 Comments
Shanti
6/29/2018 09:33:37 am

I don't know Hebrew, but I've read that the original, "helel ben shahar", roughly "The shining one, son of the dawn", referred to a Babylonian king's name and presumably his father's name, not even to an angel. Then, of course, helel was translated from Hebrew to Latin as Lucifer, because the morning star (now known to be Venus) would logically be the sun of dawn.

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Naati
4/10/2019 12:09:52 am

You sir are 100% correct

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Nick
6/20/2020 11:04:13 pm

An interesting note following a comment you made in the post about it being a positive meaning. Jesus is called the morning star by Peter in 2 Peter 1:16-21.

Regarding the negative side in Isaiah 14, it is common to use stars and celestial bodies in prophetic languages to refer to rulers and kings. And the king of Babylon in his arrogance lifted himself to the heavens (at least in his mind he did) and on par with gods, but in his foolishness, he was cast down from his grand position (he thought heaven).

I've been researching when the actual term Lucifer was first used. Have you found that in your research?

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Chris
11/9/2020 03:46:14 pm

When was the proper noun (name) "Lucifer" first used?

I know the Latin word "lucifer" was used in the Latin Vulgate, but I don't think it was used as a personal name of the Devil. So, does anyone know when this word (for light bringer) became the Devil's personal name as modern Christians use it today?

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    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a sophomore studying linguistics and government at Harvard University, where I founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. I also have disturbing interests in politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, and law. 
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