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Is Satan, Lucifer and the Devil differing names for the evil one?

Greektim

Well-Known Member
So you're saying that "Lucifer" was a name given to the Babylonian king?
Not even remotely. I am saying that the word "lucifer" was not invented as a word (or proper name) in English until the first time it appears in English translation. These translations did not use the Hebrew for this word but transliterated from the Latin translation. If anyone (yes a Babylonian king) was called something, he was called helel. It probably wasn't a proper name, though. So Lucifer is a 16-17th century creation that never existed before that. No one ever believed Satan used to be called "Lucifer" until English translations using the Latin term in transliteration. Thus it is a silly doctrine and completely anachronistic.
 

quantumfaith

Active Member
Greektim,

I post this to you....I know you are well educated in ancient languages and biblical studies.

I vaguely remember my OT Prof (in a survey class) speak of the hebrews having very little to no concept of spiritual beings (angels and the like) until after the Babylonian captivity. Do you have any such knowledge...could you clear that up for me?
 
Not even remotely. I am saying that the word "lucifer" was not invented as a word (or proper name) in English until the first time it appears in English translation. These translations did not use the Hebrew for this word but transliterated from the Latin translation. If anyone (yes a Babylonian king) was called something, he was called helel. It probably wasn't a proper name, though. So Lucifer is a 16-17th century creation that never existed before that. No one ever believed Satan used to be called "Lucifer" until English translations using the Latin term in transliteration. Thus it is a silly doctrine and completely anachronistic.

So Isaiah 13-14 has to do solely with the Babylonian king, and not satan? Correct?
 

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
I have always thought they were, but after talking to someone tonight via the phone, they confronted me with the idea that Lucifer wasn't Satan. That took me completely by surprise. I read in Isaiah 13-14, but I am still not convinced by what he told me. What are your thoughts?
helel, morning star, phosphorus, — whatever.

I thought your question was about the subject of the prophecy, not the etymology of the word, lucifer.

To say the prophecy has nothing to do whatever with Satan is like saying the West Wing has nothing to do with Obama.
 
helel, morning star, phosphorus, — whatever.

I thought your question was about the subject of the prophecy, not the etymology of the word, lucifer.

To say the prophecy has nothing to do whatever with Satan is like saying the West Wing has nothing to do with Obama.

Let me try to clear up the muddy H2O up a bit, okay?

Wednesday evening, I was talking, via the phone, with a UB Elder(ordained preacher, iow), and we began discussing the bible. We ended up on the subject of Satan. I made a reference to Satan's fall being told in Isaiah 14. He then told me that Satan wasn't Lucifer whatsoever, but that Lucifer was a man, who was king of Babylon, if I am remembering correctly. This caught me off guard, because I thought that chapter, and Ezekiel 28 told of Satan.

That's why I asked if Satan, the one who rebelled against God, was Lucifer. I have always thought that Lucifer and Satan were the same individual.
 

Greektim

Well-Known Member
Let me try to clear up the muddy H2O up a bit, okay?

Wednesday evening, I was talking, via the phone, with a UB Elder(ordained preacher, iow), and we began discussing the bible. We ended up on the subject of Satan. I made a reference to Satan's fall being told in Isaiah 14. He then told me that Satan wasn't Lucifer whatsoever, but that Lucifer was a man, who was king of Babylon, if I am remembering correctly. This caught me off guard, because I thought that chapter, and Ezekiel 28 told of Satan.

That's why I asked if Satan, the one who rebelled against God, was Lucifer. I have always thought that Lucifer and Satan were the same individual.
Neither is Isa. 14 referring to Satan nor was the Babylonian king ever called "lucifer" until English translations botched it up.
 

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
Gesenius didn't think "lucifer" is a bad rendering, but it doesn't matter. I would simply caution the reader against throwing the baby out with the bath water.* Who knows why the word was transliterated here, but the assumption that the translation was "botched" because of a lack of scholarship on the part of the translators is amateurish and lacks merit.

*The bath water here being the widely popular assumption that Isaiah 14 is a direct revelation about the person of Satan, and the baby being eminently relevant implications gleaned concerning said person.
 
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Greektim

Well-Known Member
Gesenius didn't think "lucifer" is a bad rendering, but it doesn't matter. I would simply caution the reader against throwing the baby out with the bath water.* Who knows why the word was transliterated here, but the assumption that the translation was "botched" because of a lack of scholarship on the part of the translators is amateurish and lacks merit.

*The bath water here being the widely popular assumption that Isaiah 14 is a direct revelation about the person of Satan, and the baby being eminently relevant implications gleaned concerning said person.
Read any scholarly commentary on Isaiah and then talk to me about amateurish and lacking merit. Otherwise, your view is sinking in sand.
 

Van

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Since there is little scholarly debate on the fact Lucifer as a name for the Satan, did not exist before the English Translation, what Greektim has engendered is a debate with KJV advocates, which is a waste of time. The actual debate is whether this figure is a double referent to the king or line of kings in view contextually and "the Satan" or simply a vague reference to a king or line of kings.

I would side with Dr. Wallace that this is probably not a reference to the Satan. His translation, i.e. the NET, has shining one, but howling one makes for a far better taunt.
 
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Greektim

Well-Known Member
Since there is little scholarly debate on the fact Lucifer as a name for the Satan, did not exist before the English Translation, what Greektim has engendered is a debate with KJV advocates, which is a waste of time. The actual debate is whether this figure is a double referent to the king or line of kings in view contextually and "the Satan" or simply a vague reference to a king or line of kings.

I would side with Dr. Wallace that this is probably not a reference to the Satan. His translation, i.e. the NET, has shining one, but howling one makes for a far better taunt.
I'm not engendering a debate with anyone. I am simply agreeing with you that there is no scholarly debate. Only fundies where the KJV is still used is this an issue. I feel like I have to keep repeating myself.
 

DrJamesAch

New Member
Go back and read my responses in post 28 and 29. Lucifer was not a "transliteration" and those who say otherwise do not know what they are talking about, and have no understanding of how languages work.
 

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
Read any scholarly commentary on Isaiah and then talk to me about amateurish and lacking merit. Otherwise, your view is sinking in sand.

How hast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer! son of the morning! v. 11, v. 12. The king of Babylon shone as brightly as the morning star, and fancied that wherever he came he brought day along with him; and has such an illustrious prince as this fallen, such a star become a clod of clay? Did ever any man fall from such a height of honour and power into such an abyss of shame and misery?’’ This has been commonly alluded to (and it is a mere allusion) to illustrate the fall of the angels, who were as morning stars

. . .

He affected to appear in the utmost magnificence. But that was not the worst: it was the temper of his mind, and the elevation of that, that ripened him for ruin (v. 13, v. 14): Thou has said in thy heart, like Lucifer, I will ascend into heaven. Here is the language of his vainglory, borrowed perhaps from that of the angels who fell, who not content with their first estate, the post assigned them, would vie with God, and become not only independent of him, but equal with him. Or perhaps it refers to the story of Nebuchadnezzar, who, when he would be more than a man, was justly turned into a brute,—Matthew Henry

Got Genesius and Henry. Two eminent scholars.
 
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To Brothers GreekTim and Aaron:


I have a Nave's Topical bible at home, and the other day, I looked up Lucifer and this is what he stated:


LUCIFER:

Nebuchadnezzar called by this name

Isaiah 14:12 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!

I don't know much about Orville J. Nave and how reliable he was, but I wanted to toss this into the thread for some more debate.

http://www.naves-topical-bible.com/LUCIFER.html
 
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