Lucifer

LUCIFER. - Latin name (lucifer) of the planet Venus or "morning star," which in the Vulgate it translates the Hebrew hélèl ("shining one," Is. 14:12) or maz-πάνθι (Job 38:32) or bôger ("morning," Job 11:17) or šábar ("dawn," Ps. 109:3), corresponding to ἐωσφόρος of the Septuagint; it also occurs there, metaphorically, in II Pt. 1:19 (φωσφόρος). Through Is. 14:12 (Vulgate) L. became a synonym for Satan.

Already the Egyptians had recognized the identity of the solitary star that appears at sunset (Uáiti) and of the god (Tiumutiri) who greets the sun at its rising. "Infima est quinque errantium terrae proxima stella Veneris, quae φωσφόρος Graece, lucifer Latine dicitur quum antegreditur solem, quum subsequitur autem hesperos" (Cicero, De nat. deorum, II, 20; cf. Pliny, Hist. nat., II, 8-6 [36]).

In his oracle against Babylon, Isaiah (14:12) addresses the powerful and proud king, enemy of God, dead (cast down into šé'ēl): "How you have fallen from heaven, shining son of the dawn? (hélèl ben šábar; the Vulgate follows the Septuagint: ὁ ἐωσφόρος ὁ πρωὶ ἀνατέλλων)"; also among the Greco-Romans the mythical Lucifer was the son of Aurora. Aquila, the Péfilità, probably the Masoretic vocalizers see in hélèl not a form of hélal "to shine" but a hiph'il of jálal "to howl"; St. Jerome agrees (Comm. in Is., V, 14: PL 24, 161): "in hebraico ... legitur ... ulula fili diluculi; significatur autem aliis verbis lucifer; et dicitur si quod flere debeat et lugere, qui quondam sic fuerit gloriosus ut fulgori luciferi comparatus sit," and he makes of L. the highest fallen angel, who must lament the loss of his original splendor. After the Jews, the Fathers (Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Cyril of Alexandria, etc.) saw the devil (v.) in this L., insofar as it denotes the glorious state from which he has fallen (D. Petavius, De angelis, III, 3, 4).

Lk. 10:18 and Apoc. 9:1-11 (the L. that plunges into the abyss is Abaddon [v.]) seem to allude to the fall of L. expressed in Is. 14:12. Some (G. Eatio, A. Calmet, etc.) see in Phil. 2:6-11 a contrast with the titanic ascent attempted by L. (Is. 14:14); thus St. Bernard (PL 183, 36; cf. 184, 793 ff.; 184, 684: he opposes Mary's "Magnificat" to the canticle of L.).

The morning star symbolizes the moral splendor of the pontiff Simon of Onias (Eccl. 50:6: ἀστήρ δοθινός, and the Vulg. "stella matutina"; but the Hebrew has "bright star"). In the New Testament it indicates Jesus, "the morning star that rises in the hearts" with the faith that prepares for the parousia (II Pt. 1:19); Jesus is "the bright morning star" (Apoc. 22:16: ὁ ἀστήρ ὁ λαμπρός ὁ προινός), and he will give to the victor "the morning star" (τὸν ἀστήρς τὸν προινός; Apoc. 2:28), that is, his glory. The Latin liturgy, in the Exultet, invokes Christ as "Lucifer matutinus... Lucifer qui nescit occasum."

In Latin patristic language the pejorative sense of the term became fixed, following the application to Satan of Is. 14:12, where the trajectory from the highest summit to the deepest abyss is described (Dante, Inf., 31, 143; 34, 89; Purg. 12, 25 vs. Lk. 10:18). Already Lucifer (Lucifera for a woman) was in the Roman milieu a fairly frequent given name and surname (J. Perin, Onomasticon, II, Padua 1940, p. 141). According to a tradition, the morning star had been God's first creation (cf. Ps. 109:3 Vulg. and Apoc. 22:16 b; St. Augustine, Serm., 119, 14 and 174, 1).

Antonino Romeo