In the light of Lucifer

To this day, there’s a lot of speculation about the appearance of various figures, who play an important role in religion or culture. This article provides more information about the Devil, the purgatory and Lucifer’s role.

In the light of Lucifer

Ignorance seems like a source of inspiration of all time. When we look around in the world of arts and culture, we see several recurring figures from the holy scriptures, Lucifer being one of them. Joost van den Vondel and Goethe were indeed looking for ways to raise their own ideas about this fallen angel.

No more than God can a fallen angel adopt a physical form. In spite of this, it’s not forbidden to assign a form to this fallen angel as one sees it. Nevertheless, the devil is portrayed nowadays as a scary red figure with little horns, just like an angel with wings in the shape of an inverted pentagram. Or just like an angel without wings, because he doesn’t have to hover over people anymore to be their guardian.

But where does the name Lucifer, which we automatically relate to the devil, come from? Lucifer is originally a Latin term which means ‘morning star’ in most cases. Although a morning star brings light, and in Dutch matches are called ‘lucifers’ (which comes from phosphorus), the Devil’s name seems to stem from a fusion of two different myths.

The first myth comes from the Bible and originated from Judaism. It relates to fallen angels. The second myth stems from the biblical passage in the book of Isaiah 14:3-20 about a Babylonian king.

In the book of Ezekiel, Satan is depicted in a totally different way and the name Lucifer would be assigned to Jesus these days. After Lucifer’s misbehaviour, he is transformed from an umbrageous tree into a dissident figure with the name of Satan. This is probably the reason for the confusion in a lot of scriptures and translations, which made several religions interpret the notion of the Devil differently. The question is where this will lead. It is, however, obvious that we will never have an equal representation of this figure from the Holy Scripture.

Sources: www.todio.nl