vhbaske

The name Lucifer, assigned to the Devil, was introduced in the Vulgate by the Christian Father Jerome. It can be clearly seen if we study the history of Jerome's life. Jerome had a controversy against a Christian bishop, yes, a Christian bishop named Lucifer. His followers were known as the Luciferians.
Are we to suppose that the parents of a man who later would become bishop of the Church baptized him with the name of the Devil if the name of Lucifer would mean a synonym of the Devil on those times?
Later, Jerome embarked in the task of translating and collating the Vulgate, a translation of the Bible from the supposed Greek and Hebrew originals to Latin. Later, this was the official Bible of the Roman Christian Empire (DC 313 forward).


St. Jerome, Treatises, from: Early Christian Fathers, Vol. 6, page 692
(Taken from the Ages Library CD, The Master Christian Library)
THE DIALOGUE AGAINST THE LUCIFERIANS
INTRODUCTION (By Philip Schaff)
This Dialogue was written about 379, seven years after the death of
Lucifer, and very soon after Jerome’s return from his hermit life in the
desert of Chalcis. Though he received ordination from Paulinus, who had
been consecrated by Lucifer, he had no sympathy with Lucifer’s narrower
views, as he shows plainly in this Dialogue. Lucifer, who was bishop of
Cagliari in Sardinia, first came into prominent notice about A. D. 354,
when great efforts were being made to procure a condemnation of S.
Athanasius by the Western bishops. He energetically took up the cause of
the saint, and at his own request was sent by Liberius, bishop of Rome, in
company with the priest Pancratius and the deacon Hilarius, on a mission
to the Emperor Constantius. The emperor granted a Council, which met at
Milan in A.D. 354. Lucifer distinguished himself by resisting a proposition
to condemn Athanasius, and did not hesitate to oppose the emperor with
much violence.

The fact that Jerome was "enraged" against this Lucifer, made him take his name and change in his translation of Isaiah 14:12 to a proper name, the common name for "light" in the original manuscripts. The King James Version follows the Vulgate in this part, but the Spanish Protestant versions does not translate as a proper name.

"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!" (Isaiah 14:12, KJV)

This is a discovery, for it clearly serves as another example that shows that Bible translators were biased towards their doctrines whenever they translated the Bible.

Jerome had a controversy with a man, and then he puts his name like a kind of "scoff" against him in the Holy Book. This was done several years after the controversy. Every fact lead us to believe that this was a personal mischief of Jerome against Lucifer, who, in fact, was the name of a Christian Bishop.
We can seek the Bible and compare versions to see what else we find like this.
vhbaske

Psycho Economist

Hot damn. When I saw the thread title, I was about to explain the whole etymology and the story of the fall and stuff... but you're several steps ahead of me. Very nice piece of digging.

Welcome to IIDB, by the way. I'm sure a moderator will invite you to post your life story in Welcomes & Introductions.

Soul Invictus

I was hoping I could get some additional references/sources relating to this, unless Philip Schaff is the consummate reference on this. I've done a few googles to no avail.

Also, I tried looking for the specific work at amazon. Can you state the full title for me as well? This is a volume on CD, right?

philechat

Lucifer was also a figure in Roman mythology, specifically representing the brightest star visible in the night sky. Ovid evoked Lucifer several time about Lucifer "shining brighter than all the other stars in the sky", and it probably had symbolic significance in the Pagan world.

trillian

I found it interesting that in Rev. Jesus says that he is "the bright and morning star"(aka lucifer). Probably translation/edit weirdness....or Jesus and Lucifer live together on Venus.

Soul Invictus

Historically, would this working myth predate the time that the Genesis text is from? (Doesn't our familiarity with Lucifer stem from that work?)

philechat

I believe there is no mention of Lucifer in the OT (unless it exists in the KJV, which appears to be translated from Latin in the first place). In the Latin-speaking world of Pagan Rome Lucifer was a god, and during the translation of OT to Latin the translator might have substituted Lucifer for "bright star".

Lucifer is equated with the Devil only in the NT, which was certainly written post-Ovid, in a world where Lucifer was widely recognized as a Roman deity.

(Note other Bible versions, NIV and NRSV, do not use Lucifer in the same passage. These versions are translated directly from OT Hebrew and Armanic, which do not contain Lucifer in any ways)

braces_for_impact

I have often wondered how this chapter in Isaiah can be attributed to be the fall of the Angel Satan. The chapter clearly calls Lucifer a man later in the passage....

14:16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

Soul Invictus

Amazing.


Armanic...what language is that?

MortalWombat

It's the language spoken by rich Italian suitmakers.