Is Lucifer the Planet Venus?
The word heo?sphoros does not appear in Kittel, because it does not appear in the NT. This word is the Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Hebrew ?????? ??????????? (he?le?l ben s?ah?ar) in Isa 14:12. (Incidentally, the Qamets under the Shin in ?????? is a pausal form used with a heavy accent; the contextual from is with Patach, ??????, and in both cases the word is accented on the first syllable.) To understand how the KJV reads Lucifer, we need to look at the Hebrew, the language in which most of the OT was composed, then the LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT, and the Vulgate, Jeromes Latin translation of the Hebrew OT.
First, the Hebrew. The phrase consists of three words. He?le?lis found only here in the Hebrew OT, but is a word derived from a verb meaning to shine. The noun would presumably mean shining one. The second word, ben, means son of. S?ah?ar is found 24 times in the Hebrew OT. It basically means dawn (cf. Gen 19.15). In some cultures Dawn was the name of a god. Isaiah was probably using the phrase ?????? ???????????, shining one [=star], son of the Dawn, as a poetic reference to the planet Venus. The Hebrews used the same word ??????? (ko?kab) to refer to either a star or a planet. But the literal planet Venus was probably being used to refer to an astral deity. Isaiah used this deity to represent the king of Babylon as a (self-proclaimed?) divine figure. This has the effect of making the kings fall greater and therefore more dramatic.
Second, the Greek. The three-word Hebrew phrase is rendered by ? ???????? ? ???? ????????? (ho heo?sphoros ho pro?i anatello?n), O Heosphoros, who rises early/who raises the morning. The key word, heo?sphoros, has two parts: heo?s means morning and phoros means bearer, one who brings. Heo?sphoros, bringer of the morning/dawn, is again a reference to the planet Venus. Thus, though heo?sphoros is not a literal translation of he?le?l ben s?ah?ar, it is an accurate translation of a phrase referring to Venus, an exact equivalent of he?le?l ben s?ah?ar. The interpretation of the Bible text by the LXX translators is probably the same as that mentioned above.
Third, the Latin. The exact Latin equivalent of the Greek Heosphoros is Lucifer. Luci comes from lux meaning light and fer is the same as the Greek phoros, bearer. So, though it had other uses, Lucifer is a term for the planet Venus, just as the Greek and the Hebrew are. (from Koinonia)
The biblical text of Isaiah 14.12-15 reads:
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star (KJV, Lucifer), son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. (ESV)
