Shahar is the god of

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ho ...

in the pantheon of

Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = ...

. Shahar is described as a child of El along with a twin,

Shalim Shalim (Šalām, Shalem, Salem, and Salim) is a god in Canaanite religion, mentioned in inscriptions found in Ugarit (Ras Shamra) in Syria.Golan, 2003, p. 82. "The name of the Canaanite deity of the setting sun Salim, or Salem, ..The names Sh ...

, the god of

dusk Dusk occurs at the darkest stage of twilight, or at the very end of astronomical twilight after sunset and just before nightfall.''The Random House College Dictionary'', "dusk". At predusk, during early to intermediate stages of twilight, enou ...

. As the markers of dawn and dusk, Shahar and Shalim also represented the temporal structure of the day.

Etymology

The name is a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical e ...

of the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

word ''Shahar'' () meaning ''dawn''. In Arabic, the word for dawn is ''Sahar'' () and comes from the same Semitic root. This root is also visible in ''Suhoor'' (), the pre-dawn meal Muslims eat during Ramadan.

Isaiah 14:12–15

Isaiah 14:12–15 has been the origin of the belief that

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

was a

fallen angel In the Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" never appears in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven"Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said ...

, who could also be referred to as

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

. It refers to the rise and disappearance of the morning star Venus in the phrase "O light-bringer, son of the dawn." (''Helel ben Shaḥar'', translated as Lucifer in the Vulgate and preserved in the early English translations of the Bible.) This understanding of seems to be the most accepted interpretation in the New Testament, as well as among early Christians such as

Origen Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and the ...

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christ ...

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of ...

, and

Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...

. It may be considered a Christian "remythologization" of

Isaiah 14 Isaiah 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Text The o ...

, as the verse originally used

Canaanite mythology The Canaanite religion was the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries AD. Canaanite religion was polytheistic and, in some cases, ...

to build its imagery of the

hubris Hubris (; ), or less frequently hybris (), describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. The term ''arrogance'' comes from the Latin ', meani ...

of a historical ruler, "the king of Babylon" in Isaiah 14:4. It is likely that the role of Venus as the morning star was taken by

Athtar Aṯtar ( ar, عثتر; Musnad: 𐩲𐩻𐩩𐩧) is an ancient Semitic deity whose role, name, and even gender varied by cultures of West Asia. Depicted as either male or female, the deity was identified with the planet Venus. In pre-Islamic ...

, in this instance referred to as the son of Shahar. The reference to Shahar remains enigmatic to scholars, who have a wide range of theories on the mythological framework and sources for the passage in Isaiah.

Notes

External links

The Ancient Ugaritic Ritual-Poem of Shahar and Shalem and the Gracious Gods
Children of El (deity) Dawn Deities in the Hebrew Bible Phoenician mythology Ugaritic deities Venusian deities West Semitic gods {{Phoenicia-stub

Etymology

Isaiah 14:12–15

See also

Notes

External links