Topic(s):  Bible Study, Satan

Todd Clippard

None of these passages have any reference to Satan or any pre-earthly account of Satan's fall. The use of Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12 (KJV, NKJV) is not necessarily a bad translation. Its application to Satan became popular after the publication of John Milton's Paradise Lost. However, listen to what Adam Clarke has to say about the assignment of Satan to Lucifer (emphasis mine - JTC):

"The Versions in general agree in this translation, and render heeyleel as signifying Lucifer, phosphoros, the morning star, whether Jupiter or Venus; as these are both bringers of the morning light, or morning stars, annually in their turn. And although the context speaks explicitly concerning Nebuchadnezzar, yet this has been, I know not why, applied to the chief of the fallen angels, who is most incongruously denominated Lucifer, (the bringer of light!) an epithet as common to him as those of Satan and Devil. That the Holy Spirit by his prophets should call this arch-enemy of God and man the light-bringer, would be strange indeed. But the truth is, the text speaks nothing at all concerning Satan nor his fall, nor the occasion of that fall, which many divines have with great confidence deduced from this text. O how necessary it is to understand the literal meaning of Scripture, that preposterous comments may be prevented!"
(Adam Clarke's Commentary on Isaiah 14:12, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)