Lucifer

Lucifer ( LEW-si-fər) is a name that, according to dictionaries of the English language, refers either to the Devil or to the planet Venus when appearing as the morning star.As a name for the Devil, the more common meaning in English, "Lucifer" is the rendering of the Hebrew word הֵילֵל‎ in Isaiah (Isaiah 14:12) given in the King James Version of the Bible. The translators of this version took the word from the Latin Vulgate, which translated הֵילֵל by the Latin word lucifer (uncapitalized), meaning "the morning star, the planet Venus", or, as an adjective, "light-bringing".As a name for the morning star, "Lucifer" is a proper name and is capitalized in English. In Greco-Roman civilization the morning star was also personified and considered a pagan god. 2In Isaiah 14:12 The Hebrew word, transliterated as Hêlêl or Heylel (pron. as Hay-LALE), occurs once in the Hebrew Bible and according to the KJV-based Strong's Concordance means "shining one, light-bearer". The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek as Ἑωσφόρος (heōsphoros), a name, literally "bringer of dawn", for the morning star.According to both Christian and Jewish exegesis, in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II, conqueror of Jerusalem, is condemned in a prophetic vision by the prophet Isaiah and is called the "Morning Star" (planet Venus). In this chapter the Hebrew text says הֵילֵל בֶּן-שָׁחַר (Helel ben Shachar, "shining one, son of the morning"). "Helel ben Shahar" may refer to the Morning Star, but the text in Isaiah 14 gives no indication that Helel was a star or planet.Later Christian tradition came to use the Latin word for "morning star", lucifer, as the proper name ("Lucifer") of the Devil as he was before his fall. As a result, "Lucifer has become a byword for Satan or the Devil in the church and in popular literature", as in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. However, unlike the English word, the Latin word was not used exclusively in this way and was applied to others also, including Jesu