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Posted by on Apr 27, 2018 in TellMeWhy |

What Is a Lucifer?

What Is a Lucifer?

What Is a Lucifer? “Lucifer” is a slang name for a match, made usually of a splint of wood tipped with an inflammable substance which ignites when the match is struck on a prepared surface. The wood comes from Latin and means “light-bringing”. It has been used in poetry as a name for the morning star, the planet Venus, when it appears in the sky before sunrise.

morning star

As a name for the morning star, “Lucifer” is a proper name. In the Greco-Roman civilization the morning star was also personified and considered a pagan god. It is also found in the Bible, where the fall of the King of Babylon is described in these words:

“How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.”

satan

Early members of the Christian Church interpreted the words of Jesus—“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”—as a reference to this passage in Isaiah. So Lucifer came to be regarded as the name of Satan before his fall.

John Milton (1608-1674), in his poem Paradise Lost, gave the name Lucifer to the rebel arch-angel whose overweening pride made him seek to dethrone God himself—a sin perpetuated in the phrase “As proud as Lucifer”.

Content for this question contributed by Diebra Bohnenkamper, resident of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA