LUCIFER Sept. 6 `EcoculApos), a word that occurs once in the English Version in the lines— ' How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou felled to the ground, That didst weaken the nations !' (Is. xiv. 12). It is taken from the Vulgate, which understood the Hebrew word heylel, to be th.2 name of the morning star, and therefore rendered it by the Latin name of that star, Lucifer, e. 'light-bringing.' This, the popular sense, is con veyed in the note in Barker's Bible : Thou that thoughtest thyselfe most glorious, and as it were placed in the heaven; for the morning starre that goeth before the sunne is called Lucifer, to which Nebuchadnezzar is compared.' heylel, the word translated Lucifer,' how ever, occurs also in Ezek. XXI. 12 (Heb. 17), as the imperative of yalal, to howl," to lament,' and is there rendered `howl.' Some take it in the same acceptation in the above passage, and would translate, 'Howl, son of the mornmg!' But to this the structure of the verse is entirely opposed; for the parallelism requires the second line to refer entirely to the condition of the star before it had fallen, as the parallel member—the fourth line— does to the state of the tree before it was cut down. This necessity is apparent even in the English ver sion, where the word 'lament,' in the place which Lucifer' occupies, would not agree with the con text, nor make good sense, or indeed, any sense. Any imperative interjected would spoil the beauty and impair the force of the language. It is from this consideration that we must concur with those who refer the source of the word not to ya/a/, but to halal, to shine,' and regard it as a verbal noun designed to be intensive in its significa tion. Hence it would mean brilliant," splendid,' illustrious,' or, as in the Septuagint, Vulgate, the Rabbinical commentators, Luther, and others, 'brilliant star ;' and if in this sense, was the proper name among the Hebrews of the morning star, then Lucifer is not only a correct but beautiful interpretation, both as regards the sense and the application. And that it was such is pro
bable from the fact that the proper name of the morning star is formed by a word or words ex pressive of brilliance, in the Arabic and Syriac, as well as in the Greek and Latin. Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in conse quence of which thc name Lucifer' has since been applied to Satan; and this is now the usual accep tation of the word. But Dr. Henderson, who in his Isaiah renders the line, Illustrious son of the morning justly remarks 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 Sacred 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 interpretations. Quum,' says Calvin, ternere arripiuutur Scripturx loci, nec attenditur contextus, hos errores passint oboriri mirum non est" (Comment. in loc.) The scope and connec tion shew that none but the king of Babylon is meant. In the figurative language of the Hebrews, zn):, a star, signifies 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 splendour, is compared to the harbinger of day, whose brilliancy surpasses that of the surrounding 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. ro).— J. K.