"Lucifer"
Lucifer in the Authorized Version
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!”
The Hebrew word rendered in our Authorized Version as Lucifer is heylel which is used only once in the entire Hebrew Old Testament. Some have stated that the KJV is incorrect here because the word should be translated as morning star as most modern versions do. The following versions agree with the KJV in using Lucifer: Geneva, Bishops, Coverdale, Webster, Darby, IAV, and the Douay-Rheims.
Lucifer is from the Latin which is from two words: lux (or lucis) meaning light and fero (or ferre) meaning bringer. So the literal meaning would be “light bringer,” “light-bearer,” or “shining one.”
A Look at the Modern Versions
Modern versions render the word as day star (ESV, ASV, NRSV, RV, JPS), shining one (BBE), morning star (NIV, TNIV, GW), star of the morning (NASV), shining star (NLT), shining morning star (HCSV), or daystar (Message).
One common charge against modern versions is that our Lord Jesus Christ is the morning star and the day star. The problem proposed is that if a version states that this "morning star" would be brought down because he weakened the nations and if Jesus is the morning star (Revelation 22:6) then would not this be an attack upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? This would be the case if the text said that Jesus was the only morning star. Actually Revelation 22:6 states that He is the "bright and morning star". Are there other morning stars? Job 38:7 states: "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Notice that here it is in the plural, so I would take that to mean that there is more than one morning star and Jesus is the "bright and morning star". And if Satan was one of the morning stars, he would lose his place among them, being brought down. If Revelation 12:4 is referring to the fallen angels then this further demonstrates the point.
This page was last updated: 2/3/2017
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