Satan: Lifting the Veil - Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?

--------------------------------------

What is Satan’s Real Name?

I started out the last section by declaring how strange it is that Satan is only mentioned three times in the Old Testament as a character.  I then explored the idea that the serpent in Genesis is not the same thing as our modern concepts of Satan, nor was the original writing meant to convey this idea.  Some of my readers may also wish to argue that we discover in Isaiah 14:12-15 that Satan’s real name is Lucifer.  However, there are some issues with this interpretation.

If you think Isaiah 14:12-15 is about Satan/Lucifer, you’re most likely using the King James or the New King James version of the Bible.  Flip over to another version of this passage, such as the NIV, and you’ll find that it says “morning star” instead.  This point is clarified by the fact that verse 4 of the passage declares that what follows is meant to be a taunt against the king of Babylon - not some supernatural being of pure evil.

As a side note, this is not the only place where a prophet uses poetic, symbolic, apocalyptic language to describe God’s judgment of a king - in Ezekiel 28:12-16, the king of Tyre is described as having been present in Eden, having been adorned as a cherub, and blameless until he took up violence and was driven in disgrace from the mount of God.  The point of this passage is not that it is to be taken literally, but that it is to be taken as very symbolic language about the fall of a king from glory when he resorted to violence!

But back to Isaiah 14:12 - the original word used in this verse is הֵילֵל, which is transliterated into English as hêlêl or heylel, which means “shining one, morning star”.  When the passage was translated into Greek in the Suptuagint, the word ἑωσφόρος (heōsphoros) was used.  This word means “bringer of dawn” - once again, alluding to the morning star (Venus).  And when Jerome translated this passage in the fourth century into Latin, the word lucifer was used.  In Latin, this word literally means “the morning star, the planet Venus” when used as a noun, and “light-bringing” when used as an adjective.

But when the passage was first translated into English for the original King James version, the translators were apparently unaware that this was just a word, and so they kept the original form of the word as it appeared in Latin and capitalized the first letter - thinking it was a name.

Now how can THAT be evil?

But here’s where it gets very interesting - the Latin word “lucifer” appears in Jerome’s Vulgate one more time in the Bible - in 2 Peter 1:19, where the author speaks of the “morning star” rising in the hearts of his audience when they heed prophecies.  This alludes to the presence of the Holy Spirit or Christ in the heart of a believer Who leads them to Truth!  So how can “lucifer” be the name of a purely evil supernatural being if it also speaks metaphorically of Christ?

But “lucifer” is not a name - it is a word which was not known by the translators of the original King James Version, and when they used it like a name, the tradition stuck, and was made popular by such works as Milton’s “Paradise Lost”.

Scholars believe that the use of this word alludes to the fact that the writer was borrowing from Canaanite mythology - the Canaanite god Attar was the god of the morning star, whom in his pride and arrogance led a failed rebellion against Baal in an attempt to gain the highest seat among the gods, and as a result was cast out of the heavens.  This writer uses this mythology as a poetic device to describe the Babylonian king.  Kings in ancient time loved to portray themselves as divine - so the writer of this passage in Isaiah accommodates, but chooses a mythological image of a god who was cast from heaven for his rebellion.  And in verses 16 and 17 of the same passage, the writer portrays the image that the common people do not see this king as a god, but as a mere man.  The passage goes on to portray this king as a pathetic failure who is covered in the dead bodies of his failed rebellion - unable to move under the very mess he created.

In my next post, we will begin to examine the passages of the Old Testament where “Satan” appears.

--------------------------------------
 
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?