Bright and Morning Star
I was listening to a song recently, and it has the following lyrics:
Jesus Christ our Savior
Bright and Morning Star
When I heard this, I immediately thought “Isn’t Satan described in the Bible as the ‘Bright and Morning Star’?” I seem to recall this being a common misconception; that people think it’s Jesus, but it’s actually Satan. I decided to find out.
I searched and came across an article that explained that this term is used to describe both Jesus and Satan. It showed how elsewhere both Jesus and Satan are described like a lion - Satan roaring and looking to devour people, and Jesus as a powerful king. Just because they’re both described like a lion, doesn’t mean they’re the same. Regarding the ‘star’ metaphor, it explained that Satan is described as a ‘bright star’, but only Jesus is the ‘bright and morning star’ (i.e. the brightest in the sky).
I thought “Ok, that makes more sense.” But since you should never accept the first thing you read online, I continued looking.
I then came across another article that explained the following:
- Isaiah 14 is the passage that is used to describe Satan as a morning star
- This passage (wrongly) refers to ‘Lucifer’ only in the King James version; all other translations use the term ‘bright (or shining) star’ instead
- People incorrectly associate this passage with Satan, when it’s really referring to the King of Babylon
- Revelation 22 is the passage that describes Jesus as the bright and morning star (by Jesus’ own words)
- This is clear and unambiguous
I found this very interesting. I looked up each of the passages and confirmed the above. Isaiah is clearly referring to the King of Babylon, not Satan/Lucifer. And the term used there is ‘shining star, son of the morning’.
So I have learnt something! Only Jesus is the ‘bright and morning star’. Song lyrics validated.