LITCAS Ou'cas), (Gr. Aowcas, loo-kas'), the friend and companion of St. Paul durin his imprison ment at Rome (Philern. 24). He is the same as Luke, the beloved physician, who is associated with Demas in Col. iv:t4, and who remained faith ful to the Apostle when others forsook him (2 Tim. iv:ii), on his first examination before the emperor (A. D. 64).
LUCIFER (111'si-fer), (Heb. hay-lale').
A word that occurs once in the English Version in the lines— The Hebrew seems to mean 'hrilliant,"splen did,"illustrious,' or, as in the Septuagint, Vul gate, the Rabbinical commentators, Luther, and others, lirilliant star ;' and in this sense was the proper name among the Hebrews of the morn ing star. Tertullian and Gregory the Great un derstood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan ; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to Satan; and this is now the usual acceptation of the word. But Dr. Henderson, who in his Isaiah renders the line, 'Illustrious son of the morning!' justly re marks in his annotation: 'The application of this passage to Satan, and to the fall of the apostate angels, is one of those gross perversions of Sa cred Writ which so extensively obtain, and which are to be traced to a proneness to seek for more in any given passage than it really contains, a disposition to be influenced by sound rather than sense, and an implicit faith in received interpre tations. The scope and connection show that
none but the king of Babylon is meant. In the figurative language of the Hebrews a star signi fies an illustrious king or prince (Num. xxiv :17; comp. Rev. ii :28; xxii :16). The monarch here referred to having surpassed all other kings in royal splendor. is compared to the harbinger of day, whose brilliancy surpasses that of the sur rounding stars. Falling from heaven denotes a sudden political overthrow—a removal from the position of high and conspicuous dignity formerly occupied (comp. Rev. vi :13; viii :to).