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Did Jesus Identify Himself As Lucifer?

By James Donahue

There is a strange verse in the Book of Revelation that quotes Jesus as saying he has sent his angel “to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

Jesus also identifies himself as "the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs . . . "

The name Lucifer is a reference to the bright morning star, or Venus. We call it the morning star because it appears in the sky each morning, heralding the rising sun. The name is in no way linked to the Devil.

The name Lucifer is found only once in scripture, and that is in Isaiah 14:12: "How are thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"

The Christian story has long been that this is a story about a fallen angel, tossed from heaven and condemned to rule over hell as the evil tempter Satan.

Jesus, who studied in the Hebrew temples at Jerusalem, knew the Old Testament stories. So if he was properly quoted in Revelation, was he saying that he was, in fact, Lucifer's offspring? The verse could even be used to suggest that Jesus was directly identifying himself with Lucifer.

There are problems with this story because of a distortion within the translations of the old Hebrew text found in Isaiah. But the name Lucifer is derived from Latin words, lucem ferre, that mean "bearer of light." And Latin words didn't creep into Old Testament text until many years after Jesus walked the planet and the church placed its roots in Rome.

Bible scholars say that text in Isaiah is not about a fallen angel, but about a fallen Babylonian king who was known as a persecutor of the Israeli people. The king's name was Helal, son of Shahar, which was translated as "Day star, son of the Dawn." Somehow, over the course of years of translating and rewriting the scriptures in Rome, the story shifted into something more fitting for the Christian agenda. Thus was born Satan, the root of the downfall of mankind.

So were the words of Jesus in the Book of the Revelation a true reference to Lucifer, or was it a coincidence that he would use a phrase that became so recognized in later years as a description of Lucifer?

Jesus was not only spiritually and mentally gifted, but he was a prophet who could see both past and future. When he spoke, he chose his words carefully, so they would impact all who heard or read them for as long as they remained in existence.

Thus when Jesus identified himself with Venus, "the bright and morning star," he also was giving those with second sight a glimpse of his inner light. We doubt if the concept of Lucifer crossed his mind, since the word wasn’t invented at the time Jesus made his declaration.