The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. It appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah[1] and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible),[2] not as the name of a devil but as the Latin word lucifer (uncapitalized),[3][4] meaning "the morning star", "the planet Venus", or, as an adjective, "light-bringing".[5] It is a translation of the Hebrew word הֵילֵל, hêlēl, (pronunciation: hay-lale not luc-i-fer).
As the Latin name for the morning appearances of the planet Venus, it corresponds to the Greek names Phosphorus Φωσφόρος, "light-bringer", and Eosphorus Ἑωσφόρος, "dawn-bringer". The entity's Latin name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage (Isaiah 14:12), where the Greek Septuagint reads ὁ ἑωσφόρος ὁ πρωὶ, as "morning star" or "shining one" rather than as a proper noun, Lucifer, as found in the Latin Vulgate. The word "Lucifer" appears in The Second Epistle of Peter (2 Peter 1:19) in the Latin Vulgate to refer to Jesus. The word "Lucifer" is also used in the Latin version of Exsultet, the Easter proclamation.
As a name for the planet in its morning aspect, "Lucifer" (Light-Bringer) is a proper noun and is capitalized in English. In Greco-Roman civilization, it was often personified and considered a god[7] and in some versions considered a son of Aurora (the Dawn).[8] A similar name used by the Roman poet Catullus for the planet in its evening aspect is "Noctifer" (Night-Bringer).
