Why do we read “Lucifer” in Isaiah 14:12 in the King James Bible? “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!” This is sometimes taken as proof of a conspiracy that affected the translation. But there are several mundane considerations that keep us from going down a rabbit hole here.
ONE, many of the words in the English translation of the Old and the New Testaments are derived from the Latin. No language on earth has borrowed more heavily from other languages than English. English has a base of Angle, Saxon, and Jute. Later it was affected by the Norse and the Normans. It was also heavily influenced by Latin from both the Romans and ecclesiastical influences, by Greek from scientific and religious sources, and later on by the French. So the presence of a Latin word in the English language is as commonplace as the grass in a field.
TWO, the Hebrew text, Helel ben Shahar (הֵילֵל בֶּן־שָׁחַר), simply means bright one or shining one, son of the morning. This is generally taken as a reference to the morning star. Lucifer is a Latin term that means light bringer or light bearer, and this term was used as a reference to the morning star. So there is no translation mystery here. Light bringer and son of the morning (or son of dawn) both refer to the morning star.
THREE, the context makes it abundantly clear that the reference is to Satan. This is where some get frustrated. Why call Satan the light bringer or morning star? Isn’t the morning star a title of the Lord Jesus? Yes, it is. But Satan wants to present himself to the world with the messianic credentials: god incarnate, killed for a greater cause, raised from the dead, worker of miracles, and bringer or morning star of a new age—a golden age. His morning star status must be understood in the same way that his faux resurrection and faux god status are understood. He stole the title. He is a liar and a thief.
The truth is, in ancient and modern Luciferian circles, light bringer and morning star are titles for Satan, no matter what name they know and worship him under. He is seen as the one who will eventually fill the world with the true light in rejection of the false light of God. He, manifest in human flesh, will usher in the new dawn, the new era, the new world order—the golden age. To me it is not surprising that Satan presents himself, or his earthly manifestation in the antichrist, as the morning star. It is surprising that Christians don’t see the iniquitous wisdom and the iniquitous pattern in this.
FOUR, it is a misapplication of the principle of theological consistency to claim that morning star can only have one meaning and usage, that is, that it must be a reference to Satan only or Jesus only. This is a superficial understanding of biblical interpretation. The truth is, analogies and types have two distinct but harmonious senses: the literal and the figurative (the antitype and the type). Similarly, spiritual antitheses feature a polarized pair of uses for the same theme, concept, or term. The true resurrection of the Messiah will be faked. The true incarnation of the Messiah will be faked. The true morning star status of the Messiah will be faked. The Bible doesn’t own these fakes as legitimate and God-honoring, but it does recognize their existence, and it portrays them in contrast to the truth.
“Eyes wide open, brain engaged, heart on fire”
Lee W. Brainard
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