The_Unknown_Banana

I found this article quite interesting... (Found it by accident while studying for my Ancient Egypt exam tomorrow)
Taken from http://web2.iadfw.net/~elo/news/venus.html

The Origin of the Lucifer Story
By Elroy Willis

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If you ask Christians who Lucifer is, most of 'em will probably tell you some story about Lucifer being an angel who was cast out of Heaven because he was proud and wanted to take over Heaven, or something along that line.

Interestingly, the Bible says no such thing, and the story of Lucifer is one of those stories which is mostly just some type of oral tradition which has been passed down over time by people who never bothered to research the origins of the story.

If you do a Bible search, you'll find that the word "Lucifer" is only found in the following passage, and interestingly enough, isn't found in most of the Bible translations, but just a few, such as the KJV and the NKJV.

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV)
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

Isaiah 14:12 (NKJV)
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

Other versions of the Bible don't use the word "Lucifer."

Isaiah 14:12 (NIV)
"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!"

Isaiah 14:12 (NASB)
"How you have fallen from heaven, star of the morning, son of the dawn!"

Isaiah 14:12 (NLT)
"How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!"

Isaiah 14:12 (RSV)
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!"

Isaiah 14:12 (YLT)
"How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the dawn!"

The original Hebrew reads "O Helel, son of Shahar." Shahar was a Babylonian god of the dawn, and Helel was his son, the morning star which we now call Venus. Shahar had a twin brother named Shalem, which was associated with dusk and the evening appearance of Venus. Jerusalem means "House of Shalem," which comes from the worship of the planet Venus as an evening star.

The idea of "Go in peace" or "Peace be with you" originated from stories of Venus going into the underworld at night. "Shalem" turned into "Shalom" over time.

At certain times, Venus can be visible in the morning, yet not visible in the evening, so many ancient cultures had two different names for Venus. One for the morning appearance, or morning star, and a different one for the evening appearance, or evening star. To the ancients, the planets were mystical sources of light, which moved around differently than actual stars, so they made up stories about them, gave them names, and even invented elaborate stories such as the one about Venus being "cast out of heaven."

Back to the Bible, looking at the rest of the Isaiah verse, we can see how the imagery of Venus not being able to rise up to the heights of the clouds and among the "stars of God" comes into play through the poetry/taunt.

Isaiah 14:13-15 (KJV)
"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."

Personifying Venus as a god or goddess or fallen angel, stories were made up to explain why it couldn't rise up into the high heavens where the sun and moon and outer planets roam in the sky. "Most High" was a description or title used to refer to the planet Jupiter by several different ancient societies. The "Amen" at the end of certain religious prayers comes from the worship of an Egyptian god named Amen, which was their name for the planet we now call Jupiter. The Egyptians also called Ra "Most High" as a personification of the sun, and even created a god called Amen-Ra, which combined both Jupiter and the sun.

According to many ancient mythologies, when the sun and the planet Venus disappear at night, they travel into some mythical underworld or grave where demons and spirits who want to stop the sun from rising supposedly exist. Venus, in all her forms/names, ends up victorious, and rises once again in the morning after disappearing for different periods of time throughout the year. Much of the poetry and stories written about Venus and its travels through the sky and into some supposed underworld are quite imaginative and filled with all kinds of imagery which tends to hide the fact that the stories or poetry are actually talking about a planet, instead of some invisible goddess named "Venus" who lives in some invisible heaven or spirit world that nobody can see.

If the ancient people knew the earth was a planet, and that the sun and planets don't actually go into some "underworld" or "grave" at night, then they never would have invented stories about the sun or the planets "dying" or being "cast out of the high heavens." They did the best they could to try to explain things, but they got most things wrong.

Looking back at the beginning of Isaiah 14, you can see that this passage is a taunt against the king of Babylon. The stories and myths about Venus being "cast out of heaven" are compared to the downfall of the king of Babylon.

Isaiah 14:3-4 (KJV)


"On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!"

The taunt basically says "You will be cut down to the ground just like the planet Venus which is only visible near the horizon and goes into the grave every night, and can never rise high in the sky. The king of Babylon is defeated, just like Venus, or Lucifer, was supposedly "cast out of heaven."

The writer of Revelation claims that Jesus actually referred to himself as the "Morning Star" which presents a problem with the idea of Satan being some fallen angel named Lucifer or morning star, when Jesus also referred to himself as the morning star.

Rev 22:16 (NIV)
"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."

Jesus calls himself the morning star, just like Venus was a morning star and a goddess of love to the Romans, and Jesus is supposed to express the idea of unconditional love, just like Venus and many of its ancient personifications expressed ideas of love and beauty and brightness. The Lucifer story is handed down out of ignorance for the most part. Some people actually believe it, and tell it to other people. The Mormons went a little crazy with the story, and got caught with their pants down so to speak.

From:
http://www.lds-mormon.com/lucifer.shtml

"So why is Lucifer a far bigger problem to Mormons? Mormons claim that an ancient record (the Book of Mormon) was written beginning in about 600 BC, and the author in 600 BC supposedly copied Isaiah in Isaiah's original words. When Joseph Smith pretended to translate the supposed 'ancient record', he included the Lucifer verse in the Book of Mormon. Obviously he wasn't copying what Isaiah actually wrote. He was copying the King James Version of the Bible. Another book of LDS scripture, the Doctrine & Covenants, furthers this problem in 76:26 when it affirms the false Christian doctrine that "Lucifer" means Satan. This incorrect doctrine also spread into a third set of Mormon scriptures, the Pearl of Great Price, which describes a war in heaven based, in part, on Joseph Smith's incorrect interpretation of the word "Lucifer" which only appears in Isaiah."

The bottom line is that Lucifer isn't some fallen angel, but merely a Latin name used to refer to the planet Venus, which can't be seen high in the sky and so was considered a "fallen angel" by some of the ancient myth-makers and storytellers.

Additionally, there isn't and never was some actual war going on in some invisible "heaven" that nobody can actually see. The war was just made up by ancient storytellers attempting to explain the things they saw going on up in the night sky, and sometimes the day sky.

If the church you go to teaches that Lucifer is really some fallen angel who was cast out of the high heavens in some act caused by his pride or defiance of some god, then you should print this out and give it to your pastor or preacher and teach 'em something they don't know.

The_Unknown_Banana

LOL. Just as an aside, on further searching, I actually found a group that is trying to revive atenism, which is an ancient egyptian belief that only 1 pharoah really pushed for. Even the majority of ancient egyptians back then realised it was a load of crap. I'm still deciding if it's just a joke or not...

http://www.atenism.org

exnihilo

Yes, that is an interesting article. And as far as the story goes--like most Bible stories--there was a wealth of previous myth, egyptian, summarian, etc to supply the christian authors all they needed to dupe their originally small group of early followers.

I had always wondered, being a christian myself for many years of my young life, where that story came from as I had never encountered it in my readings. You would think it would be in genesis, where much of the other stories of slaughter and boloodshed are situated--which are very appealing to young boys I might add.

Years later though after reading Milton's beautiful poem Paradise Lost I realized, if not the source, the reason for this stories wild popularity. It is in this poem that the story as most Christians believe it to have happened is derived. Milton even got in some hot water in his portrayal of Lucifer as a kind of tragic antihero, and his defiance is indeed elevated in many ways, especially in his famous speech on submission.
Anway despite its christian message it is an exemplary work of art, good thing for us that the writers of the bible weren't as able as Mr Milton, or this world would be in far more trouble than now.

--exnihilo

The_Unknown_Banana

I have heard of Milton's Paradise Lost before, though I've never actually read it. Perhaps I should, sounds interesting

Another thing that seems interesting to me: Atenism, which I think is mostly recognized as the world's first mono-theistic belief (and was quite different from previous polytheistic Egyptian beliefs), was initiated (supposedly) at around the same time that Moses came into being. This, combined with the (also supposed) fact that Moses wrote the first few books of the bible...

Coincidence?

agnawstick

Actually ahknaten was a fascinating guy. He is considered one of the earliest monotheists. He happened to worship the sun as the one true God though. He also ushered in a very short period of realism in heroic pharonic art when he insisted that his busts and the like actually look like the bloated mess of a guy he was, as opposed to the idealized versions used before and after him.

Of course the temple priests of the other Gods got mightily pissed when he dumped them, so they did get their revenge on him, and placed his juvenile nephew on the throne, the nephew was Tutankhaten. He was given a name change to Tutankhamen, and there ya go.

Soul Invictus

Check this out for a bit of info on the origin of Lucifer

Let me know what you think!

The_Unknown_Banana

He was interesting that's for sure... apparently one of the reasons he pushed for his religion was because the other priests (of Amun-Re) were getting too powerful, so he pushed a religion where the only way to get to the God (Aten) was through him, the King. I think the only positive effect he had on Egypt was the realism he added to the art of the era. Otherwise, it seems he neglected Egypt, pushed for a god nobody wanted... and was into inbreeding in a big way too!

Anyway, it's still scary that some people would seriously want to revive his religion! (As if the world didn't have enough already!)

Thanks for the link, Soul, seems to cover the same stuff, but with some more detail thrown in Gotta love the mormen's attempted defense... :banghead:

my dog earl

So who is Michael in Revelation? Is he Lucifer also?

Arken

I had heard the theory postulated more than once that the Christian concept of Lucifer is an evolution of Ahriman from the Zoroastrians. Certainly, they share a lot of traits.

Magus55

Michael is an archangel who fights against Satan ( Lucifer) in Revelation.