"How The Planet Venus Became The Devil"

By Elroy Willis -- © 2005

If you ask the average person on the street who Lucifer is, at least here in the United States, many or maybe even most people will tell you some story about Lucifer being a disobedient angel who was cast out of heaven because he wanted to take over heaven or some supposed "throne of God."

Interestingly, the Bible doesn't really say that, at least with regards to some actual Lucifer character being anything other than a shining planet or morning star that everyone can see with their own eyes if they know when and where to look.

The story involves a supposed "War in Heaven," which many people seem to believe in or take seriously, despite them not being able to point to some actual "Heaven" where the war is taking place, or took place, or even to some "Hell," where the supposed Lucifer character is currently chained up, after he was supposedly defeated by Jesus on the cross, or after Jesus was said to rise from the dead.

According to most Christians, Lucifer is still alive and well, which makes sense, since everyone can actually see the planet Venus/Lucifer shining in the sky.

Mom and Pop believe or believed that Lucifer was a fallen angel, and that Jesus defeated him by pretending to be dead for three days, and so does the local preacher, so why should anyone question the story or idea?

Well, there are plenty of reasons, actually, if you're the least bit inquisitive and curious about the origin of the story or fable.

If you do a Bible search, you'll find out that the word Lucifer is only found in the following passage, and interestingly enough, isn't found in the vast majority of Bible translations, but just a few, such as the KJV and the NKJV, which are both newcomers as far as Bible translations go.

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV)
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

Isaiah 14:12 (NKJV)
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

Earlier versions of the Bible don't use the word Lucifer, but use "morning star" or "star of dawn" or something close to that instead.

Isaiah 14:12 (NIV)
"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!"

Isaiah 14:12 (NASB)
"How you have fallen from heaven, star of the morning, son of the dawn!"

Isaiah 14:12 (NLT)
"How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!"

Isaiah 14:12 (RSV)
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!"

Isaiah 14:12 (YLT)
"How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the dawn!"

The original Hebrew, or what seems to be the earliest rendition of the story that I've come across, translates to "O Helel, son of Shahar."

Shahar was an ancient Persian god of the dawn, and Helel was his son, the morning star which we now call Venus. Shahar had a twin brother named Shalem, which was associated with dusk and perhaps with the evening appearance of Venus in several ancient legends. According to several dictionaries I've looked at, Jerusalem means "House of Shalem," which has ties to the worship of Shalem/Venus as a god or goddess and bringer of light.

Queen of Heaven

Below is a Bible verse which talks about people worshipping the planet Venus as the "Queen of Heaven." They were apparently quite happy and prosperous, and were unhappy that some priests were trying to get them to give up their Queen of Heaven beliefs.

Jeremiah 44:17 (NIV)
"We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm."

Some scholars say that the above is talking about worship of the moon and the goddess Artemis/Diana, who was worshipped by the Greeks and Romans and called the "Queen of Heaven" as well.

And there are others who claim that it's referring to Venus, Asherah, Ashtoreth, Ishtar, or Isis, all of which seem to be some shiny star or planet in the sky or up in heaven.

The idea of "Go in peace" or "Peace be with you" originated from stories of Venus and the sun as well, since the two are always close together, going into the supposed underworld at night, and wishing them a safe journey through the imagined underworld of darkness. "Shalem" eventually turned into "Shalom" over time.

If the above verse about the Queen of Heaven is talking about the moon instead of the planet Venus, the same sentiments apply to it as well, since both the moon and Venus were considered fertility goddesses. I personally think it refers to the planet Venus, but others disagree, and think it refers to the moon. Others think it refers to the star Sirius, which was also a fertility goddess which became visible in the sky right before the Nile river in Egypt flooded each year.

Regardless, it seems to refer to some actual shiny heavenly object that everyone can see with their own eyes if they know when and where to look in the sky.

At certain times, Venus can be visible in the morning, yet not visible in the evening, or in a different position than it was in the morning, so many ancient cultures had two different names for Venus. One for the morning appearance, or morning star, and a different name for the evening appearance, or evening star. To the ancients, the planets were mystical sources of light, which moved around differently than actual stars, so they made up stories about them, gave them names, deified them even, and invented elaborate stories about them, such as the one about Venus being "cast out of the high heavens" because of some imagined battle in heaven which never really happened in reality.

Back to the Bible, looking at the rest of the Isaiah 14 verse, you can see how the imagery of Venus not being able to rise up to the heights of the clouds and among the "stars of God" comes into play through the poetry/taunt.

Isaiah 14:13-15 (KJV)
"For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."

Personifying the planet Venus as a god or goddess or fallen angel, stories were made up to explain why it couldn't rise up into the "high heavens" where the sun and moon and outer planets appear in the sky. "Most High" was a description or title used to refer to the planet Zeus/Jupiter by several different ancient societies. Some societies also called Saturn the "Most High" as well, because it was considered the outermost planet at the time.

It's been suggested in several books and articles I've read that the name of God to many of the northern tribes of Israel was "El" and that it means "most EL-evated" or "most high," and that in fact such a title belonged to the planet Saturn at that time.

Journey Into The Underworld

According to many ancient mythologies, when the Sun and the Moon and the different planets disappear at night, or during different times of the year, they are supposed to travel into some mythical underworld of darkness, or into some grave where demons and evil spirits exist, which want to stop the Sun and the other immortal "Heavenly Objects" from rising up into the sky again the next day.

Such myths are based on actual observations of the heavenly objects, but the conclusions and stories which attempt to explain the causes are for the most part completely wrong, and quite superstitious at the core or center of the beliefs.

Venus, or the "Queen of Heaven," in all her forms/names, ends up victorious, and rises once again in the morning after disappearing for different periods of time throughout the year or during the day. Much of the poetry and stories written about Venus and its travels through the sky and into some pretended underworld are quite imaginative and filled with all kinds of imagery, which tends to hide the fact that the stories and songs and poetry are actually talking about a shiny planet and its movements and appearances in the sky.

Over time, and because of repeated mistranslations and intentional embellishments, a shiny planet and bringer of light has somehow turned into some evil devil character who lives in the dark.

The word Lucifer actually means "light-bringer," or "light-bearer," and so to call or consider the planet Venus as some "prince of darkness" like so many Christians seem to consider it, is completely backwards and wrong-headed.

If the ancient people knew the earth was a planet, and that the sun and planets don't actually go into some "underworld" or "grave" at night, then they never would have invented stories about the sun or the planets dying or being cast out of the high heavens, or being reborn when they reappear. They did the best they could to try to explain things, but they got quite a few things wrong, especially the parts about the planets and stars being actual "living beings" up in the sky.

Even though the myths surrounding the movements of the heavenly objects and their imaginary journey into some make-believe underworld are just fiction, the actual observations of those objects themselves serve a useful purpose in measuring the passage of time, and the changing of the seasons, and in the prediction of the arrival of floods and tides and so on.

Back to the Bible

Looking back to the Bible, and at the beginning of Isaiah 14, you can see that this passage is a taunt against the king of Babylon. The stories and myths about Venus or Lucifer being "cast out of heaven" are compared to the downfall of the king of Babylon.

Isaiah 14:3-4 (KJV)

"On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!"

The taunt basically says "You will be cut down to the ground just like the planet Venus, which is only visible near the horizon and goes into the grave every night, and can never rise high in the sky. The king of Babylon is defeated, just like Venus or Lucifer was supposedly defeated or "cast out of heaven" and left to roam low, to and fro, near the earth or horizon.

The writer of Revelation, whoever it was, claims that Jesus actually referred to himself as the "Morning Star," which presents a problem with the idea of Satan being some fallen angel named Lucifer or fallen "Morning Star," when Jesus is said to have also referred to himself as the "Morning Star."

Rev 22:16 (NIV)
"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."

Jesus calls himself the "Morning Star," just like Venus was a Morning Star and a goddess of love to the Romans, and Jesus is supposed to express the idea of unconditional love, just like Venus and many of its other ancient personifications expressed ideas of love and beauty and youth and brightness.

The "fallen angel" part of the Lucifer story is handed down and passed on out of ignorance for the most part. Some people actually believe it, and tell it to other people. The Mormons went a little crazy with the story, and got caught with their pants down, so to speak.

From:
http://www.lds-mormon.com/lucifer.shtml

"So why is Lucifer a far bigger problem to Mormons? Mormons claim that an ancient record (the Book of Mormon) was written beginning in about 600 BC, and the author in 600 BC supposedly copied Isaiah in Isaiah's original words. When Joseph Smith pretended to translate the supposed 'ancient record', he included the Lucifer verse in the Book of Mormon. Obviously he wasn't copying what Isaiah actually wrote. He was copying the King James Version of the Bible. Another book of LDS scripture, the Doctrine & Covenants, furthers this problem in 76:26 when it affirms the false Christian doctrine that "Lucifer" means Satan. This incorrect doctrine also spread into a third set of Mormon scriptures, the Pearl of Great Price, which describes a war in heaven based, in part, on Joseph Smith's incorrect interpretation of the word "Lucifer" which only appears in Isaiah."

Conclusions

The bottom line or conclusion is that Lucifer isn't actually some fallen angel, but merely a Latin name used to refer to the planet Venus, which can't be seen high in the sky, and so was considered a "fallen angel" by some of the ancient myth-makers and storytellers.

Additionally, there isn't and never was some actual war going on in some invisible heaven that nobody can actually see. The war was just made up by ancient storytellers attempting to explain the things they saw going on up in the actual night sky, and sometimes the day sky, during events such as eclipses.

If the church you go to teaches that Lucifer is really some fallen angel who was cast out of the high heavens in some act caused by his pride or defiance of some invisible god, then you should print this out and give it to your pastor or preacher or church leader, and teach them something they don't already know.

Back