Royal Skousen discusses the use of "Lucifer" in 2 Nephi 24:12 and KJV Isaiah 14:12.

Date
2019
Type
Book
Source
Royal Skousen
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

Royal Skousen, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, Part 5: The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies; Brigham Young University Studies, 2019), 276

Scribe/Publisher
Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, BYU Studies
People
Royal Skousen
Audience
Reading Public
Transcription

Lucifer: “how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (2 Nephi 24:12 ~ Isaiah 14:12)

The Latin Lucifer, meaning ‘light bearer’, is how the King James Bible translates the Hebrew ‘the shining one’ or ‘the bright one’, which here is literally referring to the morning star but figuratively to the secular king of Babylon and his fall form power (as we see in the reference to him earlier in verse 4: “thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon”). The re-interpretation of this passage to refer to the fall of Satan from heaven is marginally supported by New Testament passages such as Luke 10:18 (“I behold Satan as lightning fall from heaven”) and Revelation 9:1 (“and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit”). Lehi appears to be aware from some other source of this secondary interpretation: “and I Lehi—according to the things which I have read—must needs suppose that an angel of God—according to which is written—had fallen from heaven / wherefore he became a devil” (2 Nephi 2:17); see also 2 Nephi 2:18 and 9:8 for additional references to this fallen angel.

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