Editor’s Note: In October byFaith published a series of essays examining Satan and forces — what Martin Luther called on “our Ancient Foe” — as they appear throughout Scripture. Read the previous installments of the series here and here.
Many Christians know Satan’s origin story as a rebellious angel who was cast out of heaven. John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” has popularized this narrative: “Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived the mother of mankind, what time his pride had cast him out from heav’n, with all his host of rebel angels…”
A similar portrayal is found in the book of Revelation:
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him (Revelation 12:7-9 NIV; cf. Revelation 20:1–3).
Jesus alludes to something similar in Luke 10:18: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (ESV). Jesus presents Satan’s downfall as a parallel to the eventual fall of Capernaum from the skies to Hades (Luke 10:15). It is unclear whether Jesus sees Satan’s fall as something that is happening in the present, has happened in the past, or will happen in the future. Whatever the case may be, most students of the Bible believe that Satan’s demise is foretold in an even earlier story of the fall of Lucifer, found in Isaiah 14:12–21.
This article investigates the meaning and message of the Isaiah text. It argues that Isaiah 14 can be understood in its Old Testament context as a passage about the downfall of the Assyrian king Sargon II, who fell in battle and was left unburied. At the same time, however, that event is understood by New Testament writers and early Christian theologians as being a symbol of Satan’s similar fall from the heights of the heavens to the depths of the abyss.
The Word “Lucifer” and its History
In the King James Version, Isaiah 14:12–13 says, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.’”
Latin adjectives, verbs, and nouns that begin with lūci– all have something to do with light (think of the English word, “lucid”). Both “lucifer” and its Greek equivalents (including phōsphorus) mean “light-bearer.” By the third century A.D., Christian interpreters like Tertullian of Carthage and Origen of Alexandria had already connected the figure portrayed in Isaiah 14:12 with the devil, but it was Jerome’s use of “lucifer” that really made the connection stick. From then on, lucifer was a term used for the devil. It was even used as a name (“Lucifer”) in Latin and eventually also in English.
From “Lucifer” to “Day Star” and Ancient Babylonian History
While translation and tradition have always played an important part in Christian theology, the Reformers emphasized the importance of reading the Scriptures in their original languages and contexts.
Rather than using the word “Lucifer,” the ESV uses “Day Star” in its translation of Isaiah 14: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high…’” (Isaiah 14:12–13).
The Hebrew word for Day Star is hêlēl. If you look at entries for this word in a dictionary, you’ll see glosses like “morning-star,” “crescent moon,” or even the name of a certain god in the Old Testament world called “Helel.” None of these is really different in meaning from the translation, “Lucifer.” All of them have to do with light and stars. The real question is, what does a “Day Star” have to do with the original context of Isaiah 14?
Many Christians think about the book of Isaiah primarily in relation to prophecies about the coming of Christ. But it is also a book in which a prophet from Jerusalem, Isaiah son of Amoz (Isaiah 1:1), addresses the political turmoil in Judah and Israel during the eighth century B.C. Especially important in the book of Isaiah are two Mesopotamian superpowers, the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon.
The editors of the ESV give us helpful historical context in the heading just before Isaiah 14:3: “Israel’s Remnant Taunts Babylon.” So the passage about the Day Star in Isaiah 14:12–21 is part of this taunt, and it is focused on Babylon.
When we read Isaiah 14:12 in light of its larger Old Testament context, the Day Star is likely a reference to the planet Venus, which can be seen on the eastern horizon just before sunrise. That is why it is called “son of Dawn.” Cultures spanning from ancient Mesopotamia all the way to Rome viewed this planet as a god. It was called by various names like Inanna, Ishtar, and Venus (its Roman name). The Isaiah passage, however, says that the bright morning-star has fallen from heaven down to the ground.
Venus is used as an image for “the man who made the earth tremble” (Isaiah 14:16), one who wanted to transcend the stars of God and make himself like the Most High (14:13–14). Instead, this man is “brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit” (Isaiah 14:15). In sum, a powerful king who “shook kingdoms” (Isaiah 14:16) wanted to become greater than God, but he was cast down to the realm of the dead and was not even buried in a grave (Isaiah 14:15,19).
For an audience in Judah in the eighth century B.C., the story of this fallen star was very likely understood as a reference to the Assyrian king Sargon II (721–705 B.C.), who also became the king of Babylon after defeating Merodach-Baladan. Records from ancient Mesopotamia show that Sargon died in battle in a foreign land, but that his body was never recovered so that he could receive a proper burial. In its original context, the oracle about the fall of the Day Star is a part of a “taunt against the king of Babylon” (Isaiah 14:4) that illustrates what happens to arrogant kings when they challenge the reign and rule of the One True God (cf. Ezekiel 28:1–19).
Second Meanings in the New Testament
If the word translated as “Day Star” or “Lucifer” in Isaiah 14:12 is a reference to Sargon II, does that mean the passage is not about the fall of Satan? The answer is both yes and no. On the one hand, Isaiah 14 was not about the fall of Satan when Isaiah first wrote it. The taunt against the king of Babylon was relevant to certain events and circumstances of the eighth century B.C. in the ancient Near East. On the other hand, the use of this ancient king as a symbol of arrogance who challenged God’s authority came to be understood as a sort of figure for Satan’s downfall from heaven, as recounted in the book of Revelation (Revelation 12:7–9) and by Jesus himself (Luke 10:18).
In fact, this is often how New Testament writers use Old Testament texts and speak of “fulfilling” something in the Old Testament. When we hear the word “fulfilled” in the New Testament, we commonly think this means that something must have been predicted previously. But many Old Testament texts that were “fulfilled” as relating to Jesus (for example) in the New Testament were not originally predictions at all. Rather, they provided a weighty set of symbols that New Testament writers came to see as representing realities in their own day.
The New Testament writers saw persons, events, or institutions in their own time that gave them a sense of déjà vu. They felt like something was unfolding before their very eyes that had “already happened” before that time, and that the connection between the two was a God-given insight. History was repeating itself, and they were there to witness the earlier set of symbols being filled out in their truest and fullest form. Scholars also often talk about this relationship between foreshadowing and fulfillment as “typology.” In his book “Reflections on the Psalms,” C.S. Lewis referred to these New Testament realizations of Old Testament foreshadowing as “second meanings.”
In summary, the story of the fall of Lucifer in Isaiah 14 starts in eighth-century Jerusalem, when the prophet Isaiah taunts the Babylonian king who presumed to be a god and was punished. New Testament writers and early church theologians understood Isaiah’s taunt as being symbolic of the arrogance of the devil and his angels, and they told that story in light of it. Early church theologians began to use the word Lucifer as a name for the devil, and this name has stuck through the centuries.
Though the name Lucifer (“light-bringer”) has been used as a name for Satan through the ages, Paul reminds us that Satan’s appearance as a bearer of light is a trick. For Satan only “transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Like the pride of the Babylonian king in Isaiah 14 and the arrogance of Satan’s challenge in Revelation 12:7–8, Paul also reminds us that the sin for which the devil will be judged is the sin of conceit (1 Timothy 3:6).
As Jesus says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled” (Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, Luke 18:14). In the end, as John notes, Satan will be humiliated by Christ and conquered by the blood of the Lamb:
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down… And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!” (Revelation 12:10–12).
Scott C. Jones is professor of biblical studies at Covenant College. He is currently writing a commentary on Job for the Old Testament Library with Westminster John Knox Press and a book on monsters in the Bible with Baker Books.