Devilish Names: Why Lucifer is NOT the Name of Satan

Satan is one of the best known mythological bad guys in the world. Since Christianity is such a large and popular faith, the devil is an understandably easy to recognize. He also goes by many names, ranging from Satan as the most popular, to the Prince of Darkness or the Beast, and there’s some debate as to whether or not the devil is in fact the number 666. Lucifer is perhaps the most common name, and it’s the name that Satan supposedly went by before being cast down to Earth from heaven. The only problem is that no passage in the bible refers to Satan by the name of Lucifer.

This isn’t an uncommon occurence; lots of events that Christians accept actually don’t appear in the book anywhere. From the rapture to biblically correct sex, there are all sorts of things taken out of context and mis-translated. So to make sure everyone’s on the same page, let’s explain who the devil is. He is a force of negativity, evil and corrupt and he was sent to a place of fire and darkness. That’s really the only description we get of hell. Satan is described as beautiful and prideful, but that’s really it. There is an accepted mythology that the archangel Michael fought and cast Satan out when he rebelled against God through envy, pride or one of the other sins, but that’s pieced together from other quotes and isn’t spoken of in a single story as many other myths like the tale of David or the feats of Samson are.

Now, the word Lucifer only appears in Isiah. It shouldn’t. The phrase that we see in 14:12 is, “How are though fallen from heaven, O’ Lucifer, son of the morning?” Now this passage has lead to the name Lucifer Morning Star, and it gives the idea that Lucifer is a fallen angel who dropped from heaven. In fact this entire part of Isiah is about the Babylonian king Tyre, and the language that was originally used was the Hebrew word helel, which means bright or glorious light. It’s flowery language describing the fall of this great king in terms of a beacon of light being snuffed out in death. Nothing more.

The reason that Lucifer was associated with the devil is because of a Christian writer named Origen (185-254 A.D.). He was the first person who took the translation of the word Lucifer, which was in Greek at that point, and he made the artificial connection between it and Satan. This plays into the idea that Satan was once an angel, and one of the highest angels, which isn’t really talked about in the Bible in language that confirms that school of thought. Satan, the dragon, the deceiver simply is… his origins have become so muddled that it might be impossible to say where the figure began.

“Who is Lucifer… Or Satan Misidentified,” by Ron Corson at New Protestants
“Who is ‘Lucifer’?” by Brian Knowles at Godward