‘Satan’ and ‘Lucifer’: What the devil is the difference?
You may call the Devil either one, just don't call him late for dinner!
What to KnowBoth Satan and Lucifer are used interchangeably to refer to the Devil—the chief adversary of God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, Lucifer has also been used historically to refer to Satan before he rebelled and was cast out of heaven.
Satan and Lucifer both refer to the prince of evil spirits and chief adversary of God in the three major Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Satan/Lucifer is traditionally understood as an angel (or sometimes a jinni in Islam) who rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven before the creation of humankind.
Satan comes from the Hebrew word śāṭān, meaning “adversary.” Lucifer comes from the Latin word lucifer, meaning “light-bearing,” and in Old English was used to refer to the morning star (the planet Venus when it appeared before the sun rose). With the rise of Christianity, Lucifer also came to be regarded as the name of Satan before his fall.
Biblical use of Lucifer began with the prophet Isaiah and his account of the fall of Babylon in which he compares the king of Babylon for his former glory and his present sorry state to the morning star: “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (Isaiah 14:12, AV).
Later, this Old Testament passage was compared with Christ’s words: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18, AV). This led to the interpretation that Lucifer must have been the devil’s original name in his former position of respectability in heaven.
