What’s the connection between Satan and Lucifer?
Was specified as the tempter in the garden?
Was either specified …
Lucifer was the light bringer and made people self aware. I have heard many speak of Lucifer similar to Prometheus and the same folks have said that Lucifer was the snake in the Garden of Eden.
Posted by j66:
The tempter in the garden was identified in Genesis as “the serpent,” period. Identifying the serpent with Satan later became customary among Christians, but it’s a matter of interpretation.
The history of “Satan” – the name and the figure – is detailed above in my post copied from the Religious Tolerance website.
The name “Lucifer” comes from Isaiah 14:12, which my Revised Standard Version Bible renders as: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star[Halal], son of Dawn[Shahar]! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” But in the KJV “Day Star” is “Lucifer.” “Lucifer” is a Latin word meaning “light-bearer,” which was a Roman name for the Morning Star (Venus). In context, this verse appears to be a diatribe against some king, tyrant or nation whose fall would precede Judah’s restoration – probably the king of Babylon. (And the defeat of Babylon by the Persians DID precede Judah’s restoration to its traditional homeland.) But Christian scholars later decided it must be about Satan being expelled from Heaven after his rebellion. In the Fourth Century, St. Jerome, compiling the Latin Vulgate Bible, translated “Halal” as “Lucifer,” and the name, and the identification of Lucifer with Satan, stuck – stuck pretty well. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, the Devil is named Lucifer.
To add to the confusion, Jesus names himself “morning star” in Revelations 22:16: “I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.”
But, hey, as we SubGenii say: “The difference between Hell and Heaven is which end of the pitchfork you’re on!”
Damn, I was hoping it was the Light Bearer who brought humanity to the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That would make the whole Garden of Eden thing more positive.
Even when I was in Catholic school I thought the Garden of Eden sounded pretty boring.