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I stumbled across a theory on Lucifer a while ago and I'm curious as to what others think about it. I don't remember where I found it, but it was on the internet. The parts in yellow are confirmed by Christian texts.

Lucifer was the right hand man of God and an angel. He fell from Heaven after 'rising up against God. The theory goes on to explain that Lucifer was not rising up against God in a violent manner, but rather questioned why he was not allowed to make major decisions and only God was. [Much like how a child questions his/her parents.] To make up for His loss, God spent his time meddling in the affairs of the humans. [Humans were around while Lucifer was still in heaven.] After a while, God wanted to make it up to Lucifer so he tried to give his current right hand man, Jesus, to Lucifer. However Lucifer was disgusted by the fact his forgiveness could have thought to be bought with the thing that had tried to replace him. Thus, Jesus rose from the dead when he was rejected by Lucifer. God cannot be at ease until he has made peace with Lucifer, his first right hand man. [So we're still waiting for another savior.]


Personally, this makes sense. What do you all think?

Haven't quite heard it that way before...

However, from Jewish Kabalistic texts there is something similar. Now, I'm going on the assumption here that you're using the name Lucifer as synonymous with Satan/the Great Adversary/the Devil/Shaitan (etc and so forth) {I would digress into a diatribe about how Lucifer as used in the Bible is ambiguous and could be a reference to the Christ, but that would be major thread drift.}

In one Kabalistic text, the most powerful angel/demon (they're closely linked in some Judaic works) that existed was Samael - basically he was the Angel of Death, but specifically death by poisoning. However, his sphere of influence included all manner of poisons, even metaphysical ones. So, if you say that someone has 'poisoned your mind' with negative thoughts, that's still his purview. In any case, Samael takes on a lot of the roles that the Adversary takes in Christian philosophy - he eventually rebels against G-d, he's obviously bad for us human folks, etc etc. However, it is thought that once Samael escapes from the burning pit (what would be Sheol in certain Biblical texts/Hell in others) he will have been purified and no longer bring death to mankind. At that point the element of his name governing decay/death/poison - ma - will be removed and he will simply be Sa'el. Which is interesting since Sa'el is one of the 70 Names of G-d in Hebrew philosophy.
So, basically, Lucifer will work for G-d against Man, turn on G-d, be cast out in order to be purified, and will return again later to be reconciled with/become G-d.

Like I said, a few similarities.

Look for the works of Scholem. He's the prominent kabbalistic scholar on the theory.

Gershom Scholem:
Kabbalah (New York: Dorset Press, 1987)
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1995)
Zohar (New York: Schocken Books, 1995)

Depends on what you want precisely.

If you've got a major library near you (either in a metropolitan city or university or seminary) you can probably get his first book through them (that's how I got started with him basically). The first two books I listed are his better works (in my opinion; you might find differently depending on what/why you're reading), but all of them are decent. Sometimes you can find his essays in collected Kabbalistic books as well as he's one of the major influential figures of the current period.

There's a lot of Kabballistic writing out there... a fair bit from the late Medieval period (perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not), and then various periods of revival carrying on like little ocean waves up to present day.

Oh, what an interesting theory! I really don't know where that one would have originated from...perhaps some version of Satanism, or an esoteric sect of Judaism or Christianity?

I like the Sufi version of the myth, actually. At least, I'm pretty sure it's the Sufi version. It goes something like this:

God created the angels, and everything was going well. When He created them, He told them that they should never worship anyone other than God, Himself. Thousands of years went by, and God decided to create humankind. God was so pleased with the humans, that he wanted his previous creation, the angels, to bow down to them and admit their superiority. Most of the angels did, but Lucifer refused to, because he wouldn't worship (by bowing down) anyone other than God. This angered God because Lucifer ignored his command to bow, and thus God kicked him out of Heaven.

I don't know why, but I've always been rather sympathetic towards Lucifer; so that's probably why I like this story. 3nodding

I don't really feel bad for him as much as it's an empathy thing, I guess. Like...I feel as if I can almost relate to him, which is kind of scary. But, this is based on my own theories and interpretations, so that's probably why. *nods*

Then if we are posed to relate, what does this mean? Does it mean we don't get a second chance because Lucifer didn't? I mean, that sucks. Then it saids we all get forgiven but in reality, we all are like little Lucifers, messing with the world and ruining it. We probably did more damage here on Earth than he did in Heaven.