What the Bible says about Behind Enemy Lines
(From Forerunner Commentary)
We know God names things for what they are. He reveals to us the Hebrew names of three great and powerful angels: Michael, Gabriel, and Heylel (also spelled as Helel). Our main focus will be on Heylel, the anointed cherub who rebelled against God, becoming the enemy, and so he is named Satan, "adversary." However, before we consider the meaning of the names that describe his current character, we will examine who he was originally.
Ezekiel 28:12 informs us that he was one of two cherubs whose wings covered the throne of God. (We know there were two from the pattern that God gave to Moses for the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25.) What does a cherub look like? According to Ezekiel 10:14, "Each of the cherubim had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle." Ezekiel 1:5-14 adds a great deal of detail. We can only assume that Satan may have looked similar.
Isaiah 14:12-14 records what caused Heylel's fall from his exalted position: He tried to overthrow the Almighty and set up his own throne in God's place! In verse 12, he is referred to as "Lucifer" in the King James (KJV) and New King James Versions, but the underlying Hebrew word is heylel. In English Bibles, "Lucifer" appears only this one time, but is it a correct translation?
Many assume that lucifer was the Greek equivalent to heylel. However, lucifer is not a Greek word but a Latin one, and it has the exact same meaning as the Greek word phosphoros. They both mean "light-bearer" or "light-bringer," but this is not what the Hebrew word heylel means!
Before we investigate this word's meaning, we need to read II Peter 1:19: "Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (emphasis ours).
Peter refers to Jesus Christ as "the morning star," which is phosphoros in Greek. In the Latin Vulgate, the word here is lucifer. Looking into the history of the Bible's translation, we find that it was in AD 405 that Jerome, commissioned by the Pope to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin, gave the fallen angel Heylel the name "Lucifer," meaning "light-bearer" or "light-bringer."
But Jesus is the Light-bearer or Light-bringer, not Heylel!
What does the Hebrew word heylel mean? Some commentators say it means "son of the dawn" or "son of the morning." As Isaiah 14:12 is the only place this word appears in the Bible, they take the meaning from the context: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O [Heylel], son of the morning!" (KJV). Since angels are sometimes referred to as "sons of God," the translators reckoned that this being, too, was the son or product of his Creator, who is the true Light-bearer or Light-bringer. But is this what it really means?
Heylel is derived from the primitive root word halal, used 165 times in the Old Testament and mostly translated as "praise," "glory," and "boast." This reveals a little bit about this cherub, as he was created to praise and glorify God, but instead, he became boastful and sought the praise and glory for himself, as we see in Isaiah 14:13-14. When sin was found in him, God cast him back to the earth and renamed him for who and what he truly is, the adversary of God and all who stand with Him.
Clyde Finklea
Behind Enemy Lines (Part One)