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. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit (Isaiah 14:12-15, KJV). Have you ever wondered why in the middle of a taunt about the King of Babylon, a rant about Satan (aka Lucifer) was suddenly there? I did. Mainly, when in other translations, it reads "star of the morning" or "morning star" (rather than Lucifer). I started to wonder about it while writing my book He Who Has an Ear, Who the Seven Churches of Revelation are Today. You might think that's a strange thing to think about when writing a book on the seven churches of Revelation. But not really. Not when you come across this verse in Revelation: He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star (Revelation 2:26-28, NASB, emphasis mine). Here's how my brain works - right away, I see "the morning star" and think about Satan because he was called that in Isaiah 14:12, and I ask the question, "Why would Jesus give us Satan? That doesn't make sense!" So, of course, I did a word search and then a little more searching, and the following is what I found out. This is an excerpt from my book He Who Has an Ear. Who is the Morning Star? What do we know about Satan? Or rather, what do we think we know? Once again, we need to dig into Scripture. The Jewish Publication Society put out their English/Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) in 1917. I started there with Isaiah 14:12a, which says, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning!” Compare that with the KJV, which says, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” The translators of the King James Version gave Satan a name that Christians have associated with him for centuries. But how did day-star become Lucifer? When you read Isaiah 14:1-22, you will see clearly that this Scripture is NOT in reference to Satan, but is instead a taunt against Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.
5 Comments
Al Hildebrandt
1/1/2022 11:51:37 am
While I may not agree with every single point, this is an excellent example of reading what the Bible actually says, and not what some theoretical doctrine says which was created by men, that can not be substantiated by “ scripture interpreting scripture”. As stated ,Lucifer is a Latin word incorrectly translated as a noun, when “shining one” is an adjective, not a noun.
Reply
Conrad Reid
8/16/2022 08:36:26 am
Eye opening, your study, if correct and I think it is, will now affect major theological works that give Satan the name Lucifer. If you are correct about Isa. 14, then we are not sure about the question of how Satan lost his place in heaven because the thought was one of pride found in Isa. 14... Interesting.
Reply
Laura Davis
8/16/2022 12:22:14 pm
Conrad, currently I am writing a study on Revelation and I have done even more digging on this subject. Would it surprise you to know that Satan isn't viewed as an evil being by the Jewish people? This is a concept Christians have created of him. I have been surprised by what I have discovered on this subject and more.
Reply
Alexander Hildebrandt
8/17/2022 10:10:36 am
Here is another thought:
Reply
Laura Davis
8/17/2022 01:23:56 pm
Alexander, that is an interesting point. The book I'm currently working on touches on this!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
August 2022
Categories
All
|