Candlestick

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Lampstand: menowrah. Exclusively that of the tabernacle made of a. talent of pure gold, symbolizing preciousness and sacredness and incorruptibility (Exo_25:31-39); of beaten work, 5 feet high and 3 1/2 between the outside branches, according to the rabbis. An upright central stem, with three branches on one side and three on the other, still to be seen represented on the arch of Titus at Rome, erected after his triumph over Jerusalem. On the central shaft were four almond shaped bowls, four round knops, and four flowers, i.e. 12 in all; on each of the six branches three bowls, three knops, and three flowers, i.e. 54 on the six, and adding the 12 of the shaft, 66 in all. Josephus counts 70, a mystical number, as was the seven, the number of branches, implying divine perfection. Aaron lit it each evening; in the morning it was allowed to go out, as 1Sa_3:3 proves; compare also 2Ch_13:11; Lev_24:2-3, "from the evening unto the morning before the Lord continually."
It stood in the tabernacle "without the veil" that shut in the holiest. It illumined the table of shewbread obliquely (Josephus, Ant. 3:6, section 7). "To burn always" is explained by "from evening to morning" (Exo_27:20-21; Exo_30:8). Aaron or his successor was "always" at the appointed time to light the lamp every evening, and dress it every morning with the golden snuffers, removing the snuff in golden dishes. The artificial light had to give place each morning to the light of the sun which rendered it needless, as the light of Old Testament ordinances gives place to the Sun of righteousness (Mal_4:2). Under the New Testament of the True Light, Christ Jesus, the seven separate candlesticks represent the churches or the church in its entirety (Rev_1:12-13; Rev_1:20); no longer as the one Jewish church (represented by the one sevenfold candlestick), restricted to one outward unity and locality.
The several churches are mutually independent as to external ceremonies and government (provided all things are done to edification, and needless schisms are avoided), yet one in the unity of the Spirit and headship of Christ. The Gentile churches will not realize their unity until the Jewish church as the stem, unites all the lamps in one candlestick (Rom_11:16-24). Zechariah's candlestick (Zechariah 4) is prophetical of that final church which shall join in one all the earth under Messiah the King, reigning in Jerusalem as the spiritual center and rallying point of all (compare Zep_3:9; Zec_14:9; Zec_14:16-17; Jer_3:17). The candlestick is not the light, but bears it for the enlightening of all (Mat_5:16). The light is the Lord's (Php_2:15-16). The candlestick stands in the outer sanctuary, the type of the present dispensation on earth; but not in the inner holiest place, the type of the heavenly world wherein the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are both the temple and the light (Rev_21:22-23).
In Rev_2:5 "remove thy candlestick" threatens not extinction of the candle, but removal of the seat of the light elsewhere. In Rev_11:4 "the two candlesticks" are connected with "the two witnesses," which Wordsworth identifies with the two Testaments; so they would represent the Old Testament and the New Testament churches. The olive oil represents the grace of the Holy Spirit flowing in God's appointed channels. In Solomon's temple there were ten golden candlesticks (1Ki_7:49; 2Ch_4:7). These were taken to Babylon (Jer_52:19). In the second temple, namely, Zerubbabel's, a single candlestick was again placed (Zec_4:2-6; Zec_4:11), taken by Titus from the temple as restored by Herod, and carried in his triumph at Rome and deposited in the Temple of Peace. Genseric 400 years later transferred it to Carthage.
Belisarius recovered it, and carried it to Constantinople, and then deposited it in the church of Jerusalem, A.D. 533. It has never since been heard of. In Joh_8:12, "I am the light of the world," there is allusion to the two colossal golden candlesticks lighted at the feast of tabernacles (which was then being held: Joh_7:2-37) after the evening sacrifice in one of the temple courts, and casting their beams on mount Olivet and on Jerusalem. Jesus coming to the temple at daybreak (Joh_8:1-2), as they were extinguishing the artificial lights in the face of the superior light of the rising sun, virtually says, "Your typical light is passing away, I am the Sun of righteousness, the True Light." (Joh_1:9).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

The instrument so rendered by our translators was more properly a stand for lamps. One of beaten gold was made by Moses, Exo_25:31-32, and put into the tabernacle in the holy place, over against the table of shew bread. The basis of this candlestick was also of pure gold; it had seven branches, three on each side, and one in the middle. When Solomon had built the temple, he was not satisfied with placing one golden candlestick there, but had ten put up, of the same form and metal with that described by Moses, five on the north, and five on the south side of the holy place, 1Ki_7:49. After the Jews returned from their captivity, the golden candlestick was again placed in the temple, as it had been before in the tabernacle by Moses. The lamps were kept burning perpetually; and were supplied morning and evening with pure olive oil. Josephus says, that after the Romans had destroyed the temple, the several things which were found within it, were carried in triumph to Rome, namely, the golden table, and the golden candlestick with seven branches. These were lodged in the temple built by Vespasian, and consecrated to Peace; and at the foot of Mount Palatine, there is a triumphal arch still visible, upon which Vespasian's triumph is represented, and the several monuments which were carried publicly in the procession are engraved, and among the rest the candlestick with the seven branches, which are still discernible upon it. In Rev_1:12; Rev_1:20, mention is made of seven golden candlesticks, which are said to be emblems of the seven Christian churches.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

See LAMP.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

The candelabrum which Moses was commanded to make for the tabernacle, after the model shown him in the Mount, is chiefly known to us by the passages in Exo_25:31-40; Exo_37:17-24; on which some additional light is thrown by the Jewish writers, and by the representation of the spoils of the Temple on the arch of Titus.

Fig. 113?Menorah as represented by Titus' arch
The material of which it was made was fine gold, of which an entire talent was expended on the candelabrum itself and its appendages. The mode in which the metal was to be worked is described by a term which appears to mean wrought with the hammer, as opposed to cast by fusion. The structure of the candelabrum, as far as it is defined in the passages referred to, consisted of a base; of a shaft rising out of it; of six arms, which came out by threes from two opposite sides of the shaft; of seven lamps, which were supported on the summits of the central shaft and the six arms; and of three different kinds of ornaments belonging to the shaft and arms. These ornaments are called by names which mean cups, globes, and blossoms.
This candelabrum was placed in the Holy Place, on the south side (i.e. to the left of a person entering the tabernacle), opposite the table of shew-bread (Exo_26:35). Its lamps, which were supplied with pure olive oil only, were lighted every evening, and extinguished (as it seems) every morning (Exo_27:21; Exo_30:7-8; Lev_24:3; 1Sa_3:3; 2Ch_13:11). Although the tabernacle had no windows, there is no good ground for believing that the lamps burnt by day in it, whatever may have been the usage of the second temple.
In the first temple, instead of this single candelabrum, there were ten candelabra of pure gold, one half of which stood on the north and the other on the south side of the Holy Place. These were carried away to Babylon (Jer_52:19). In the temple of Zerubbabel there appears to have been only one candelabrum again (1Ma_1:21; 1Ma_4:49-50). It is probable that it also had only seven lamps. At least, that was the case in the candelabrum of the Herodian temple. This candelabrum is the one which, after the destruction of Jerusalem, was carried with other spoils to Rome; then, A.D. 455, became part of the plunder which Genseric transported to Africa; was again, about A.D. 533, recaptured from the Vandals by Belisarius, and carried to Constantinople, and was thence sent off to Jerusalem, and from that time has disappeared altogether. It is to this candelabrum that the representation on the arch of Titus at Rome was intended to apply; and there is reason to believe that, on the whole, it may be relied upon as a reasonably correct representation of the Herodian candelabrum.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Exo_25:31 (c) This is a type of the Holy Spirit illuminating all the things of GOD.
- the pure gold represents the purity of the Spirit and of His Word.
- the seven branches or stems represent the fullness and completeness of the revelation of the Spirit.
- the bowls represent the great provision of the Spirit. - the flowers represent the beauty of the Spirit.
Some Bible expositors feel that the candlestick also represents GOD's people, and certainly it does in the book of Revelation.

Rev_1:20 (a) Here we certainly find a type of the church as she gives light on the Scriptures and reveals CHRIST by her ministries. The Lord JESUS Himself said that the "seven candlesticks are the seven churches." These candlesticks reveal that the seven lessons given through the seven churches present full and complete light on what the Spirit says to us about GOD's will. Each church is to present an unsullied, pure light from Heaven to a dark and sinful world.

Rev_2:5 (a) This is clearly a type of the testimony of an individual or of a church wherein the person and work of CHRIST no longer are properly presented to the public.

Rev_11:4 (a) These are two mysterious men sent from GOD with great power to make known His judgment on the earth sometime in the future days. They will give the light of GOD to the enemies of GOD. They bear GOD's testimony in a hostile land. Some think these are Moses and Elijah. The context clearly indicates that these candlesticks are types of real men.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Candlestick
(מְנוֹּרָה, menorah'; Chald. נֶבְרִשְׁתָּה, nebrashtah'; Sept. and N.T. λυχνία, properly a lampstan 1, as in Mat_5:15), the candelabrum which Moses was commanded to make for the tabernacle, after the model shown him in the mount. Its form is chiefly known to us by the passages in Exo_25:31-40; Exo_37:17-24; on which some additional light is thrown by the Jewish writers, and by the representation of the spoils of the Temple on the arch (q.v.) of Titus at Rome, the only veritable monument extant of the kind (Prideaux, Connection, 1:166). It is called in Lev_24:4, “the pure,” and in Sir_26:19, “the holy candlestick.” So Diodorus Siculus describes it (10:100, ed. Bip.) as “the so-called immortal light perpetually burning in the fane” (ὁ ἀθάνατος-λεγόμενος λύχνος καὶ καιόμενος ἀδιαλείπτως ἐν τῷ ναῷ).
The material of which it was made was fine (טָהוֹר, “pure”) gold, of which an entire talent was expended on the candelabrum itself and its appendages. The mode in which the metal was to be worked is described by a term (מַקְשְׁה, “beaten [rather turnedl work,” Sept. τορευτή, Vulg. ductile) which appears to mean wrought with the hammer, as opposed to cast by fusion. Josephus, however, says (Ant. 3:6, 7) that it was of cast gold (κεχωνευμένη), and hollow. The structure of the candelabrum, as far as it is defined in the passages referred to, consisted of a base (יָרֵךְ, Joseph.βάσις; according to Maimonides, three feet high); of a shaft (קָנֶה, reed,1:c. stem) rising out of i' of six arms, which came out by threes from two opposite sides of the shaft; of seven lamps, which were supported on the summits of the central shaft and the six arms, terminating in seven heads all in one row [?], standing parallel to one another, one by one, in imitation of the planets (Whiston's Josephus, i. c.); and of three different kinds of ornaments belonging to the shaft and arms. These ornaments are called by names which mean cups, circlets, and blossoms: “four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.” The cups (גְּבַיעַים, Sept. κρατῆρες, Vulg. scyph,) receive, in v. 30, the epithet almondshlapd (it being uncertain whether the resemblance was to the fruit or to the flowers). Three such cups are allotted to every arm, lbut four tothe shaft: twoand-twenty in all. SEE BOWL.
Of the four on the shaft, three are mentioned as if set severally under the spots where the three pairs of arms set out from the shaft. The place of the fourth is not assigned; but we may conceive it to have been either between the base and the cup belowthe lowest tier of arms, or, as Bahr prefers, to have been near the summit of the shaft. As for the name of the second ornament, the circlets (כִּפְּתֹּרַים), the word only occurs in two other places in the Old Testament (Amo_9:1; Zep_2:14), in which it appears to mean the capital of a column: but the Jewish writers generally (cited in Ugolini Thesaur. 11:917) concur in considering it to mean apples in this place. Josephus, as he enumerates four kinds of ornaments, and therefore two of his terms mustbe considered identical, may be supposed to have understood globes, or pomegranates (σφαιρία, ῥοϊvσκοι, Antiq. 3:6). But as the term here used is not the common name for pomegranates, and as the Sept. and Vulgate render σφαιρωτῆρες and sphoerulce, it is safest to assume that it denotes bodies of a spherical shape, and to leave the precise kind undefined. Bähr, however, is in favor of apples (Symbolik, 1:414). SEE KNOP.
The name of the third ornament (פְּרָחַים, κρίνα, hiia) means blossom, bud; but it is so general a term that it may apply to any flower. The Sept., Vulg., Josephus, and Maimonides understand it of the lily, and Bahr prefers the flower of the almond. It now remains to consider the manner in which these three ornaments were attached to the candelabrum. The obscurity of v. 33, which orders that there shall be “three almond-shaped cups on one arm, globe and blossom, and three almondshaped cups on the other arm, globe and blossom, and so on all the arms which come out of the shaft,” has led some to suppose that there was only one globe and blossom to every three cups. However, the fact that, according to v. 34, the shaft (which, as being the principal part of the whole, is here called the candelabrum itself), which had only four cups, is ordered to have globes and blossoms (in the plural), is a sufficient proof to the contrary. According to Josephus, the ornaments on the shaft and branches were 70 in number, and this was a notion in which the Jews, with their peculiar reverence for that number, would readily coincide; but it seems difficult, from the description in Exodus, to confirm the statement. It is to be observed that the original text does not define the height and breadth of any part of the candelabrum; nor whether the shaft and arms were of equal height; nor whether the armswere curved round the shaft, or left it at a right angle, and then ran parallel with it.
The Jewish authorities maintain that the height of the candelabrum was eighteen palms, or about five feet; and that the distance between the outer lamps on each side was about 3½feet (Jahn, Bibl. Arch. § 329). Bahr, however, on the ground of harmonical proportion with the altar of incense and table of shewbread, the dimensions of which are assigned, conjectures that the candelabrum was only an ell and a half high and broad. The Jewish tradition uniformly supports the opinion that the arms and shaft were of equal height, as do also Josephus and Philo (l. c.; Quis Rer. Div. Hcer. § 44), as well as the representation on the Arch of Titus. Scacchius has, however, maintained that they formed a pyramid, of which the shaft was the apex. The lamps themselves were doubtless simply set upon the summits of the shafts, and removed for the purpose of cleaning. As the description given in Exodus is not very clear, we abbreviate Lightfoot's explanation of it. “The foot of it was gold, from which went up a shaft straight, which was the middle light. Near the foot was a golden dish wrought almondwise, and a little above that a golden knop, and above that a golden flower. Then two branches, one on each side, bowed, and coming up as high as the middle shaft. On each of them were three golden cups placed almondwise on sharp, scallop-shell fashion, above which was a golden knop, a golden flower, and the socket. Above the branches on the middle shaft was a golden boss, above which rose two shafts more; above the coming out of these was another boss, and two more shafts, and the non the shaft upward were three golden scallop-cups, a knop, and a flower, so that the heads of the branches stood an equal height” (Works, 2:397, ed. Pitman). Calmet remarks that “the number 7 might remind them of the Sabbath:” we have seen that Josephus gives it a somewhat Egyptian reference to the number of the planets, but elsewhere (War, 7:5, 5) he assigns to the 7 branches a merely general reference to the Jewish hebdomadal division of time. The whole weight of the candlestick was 100 mince (see Lamy, De Tab. Feed.). It has been calculated to have been worth $25,380, exclusive of workmanship. SEE TABERNACLE.
This candelabrum was placed in the Holy Place, on the south side (i.e. to the left of a person entering the tabernacle), opposite the table of shew- bread (Exo_26:35). Its lamps, which were supplied with wick (? of cotton) and half a log (atLou two wine-glasses) of pure olive oil only, were lighted every evening, and extinguished (as it seems) every morning (Exo_27:21; Exo_30:7-8; Lev_24:3; 1Sa_3:3; 2Ch_13:11). Although the tabernacle had no windows (Exo_30:8; Macc. 4:50), there is no good ground for believing that the lamps burnt by day in it, whatever may have been the usage of the second Temple. It has also been much disputed whether the candelabrum stood lengthwise or diagonally as regards the tabernacle; but no conclusive argument can be adduced for either view. According to Josephus, it was placed in an oblique position (λοξῶς), so that the lamps looked to the east and south (Ant. 3:6, 7; Exo_25:37). As the lamp on the central shaft was by the Jewish writers called the western, or evening lamp, some maintain that the former name could not be applicable unless the candelabrum stood across the tabernacle, as then only would the centrallamp point to the west. Others, again, adhere to the latter signification, and build on a tradition that the central lamp alone burnt from evening to evening, the other six being extinguished by day (Reland, Antiq. 1:5, 8). The priest in the morning trimmed the lamps with' golden snuffers (מֶלְקָחִיַם; ἐπαρυστήρες; forcipes), and carried away the snuff in golden dishes (מִחְתּוֹת; ὑποθέματα; acerres, Exo_25:38). When carried about, the candlestick was covered with a cloth of blue, and put with its appendages in badger-skin bags, which were supported on a bar (Num_4:9).
In Solomon's Temple, instead of this single candelabrum (or besides it, as the Rabbins say, but what became of it is not known; see Keil, Tempel Sol. p. 109), there were ten of pure gold (whose structure is not described, although flowers are mentioned: 1Ki_7:49; 2Ch_4:7), one half of which stood on the north and the other on the south side of the Holy Place. These are said to have formed a sort of railing before the vail, and to have been connected by golden chains, under which, on the day of atonement, the high priest crept. They were carried away to Babylon (Jer_52:19). In the Temple of Zerubbabel there appears to have been only one candelabrum again (1Ma_1:21; 1Ma_4:49-50). It is probable that it also had only seven lamps. At least, that was the case in the candelabrum of the Herodian temple, according to the description of Josephus (War, 7:5). This candelabrum is the one which, after the destruction of Jerusalem, was carried with other spoils to Rome, where, after the triumph of Titus, it was deposited in the Temple of Peace, and, according to one story, fell into the Tiber from the Milvian bridge during the flight of Maxentius from Constantine, Oct. 28, 312 A.D.; but it probably, in A.D. 455, became a part of the plunder which Genseric transported to Carthage (Gibbon, in, 291). It was, however, again, about A.D. 533, recaptured from the Vandals by Belisarius, and carried toConstantinople, and was thence sent off to Jerusalem (ib. 4:2:), from which time it has disappeared altogether. It is to this candelabrum that the representation on the Arch of Titus at Rome (see Fleck, Wissenschaftl. Reise, I, 1, pi. 1) was intended to apply; and although the existence of the figures of eagles and marine monsters on the pediment of that lamp tends, with other minor objections, to render the accuracy of that copy questionable (as it is unlikely that the Jews should have admitted any such graven images into their temple), yet there is reason to believe that in other points it may be relied upon as a reasonably correct representation of the Herodian candelabrum. Reland has almost devoted a valuable little work to this subject, De Spoliis Templi Hierosolym. in Arcu Titiano (2d ed. by Schulze, 1775), p. 82 sq. See also Stellm'mn, De candelabro aureo (Brem.1700); Schlichter, De Lychnucho sacro (Hal. 1740); Doderlein, De Candelabris Judxorum sacris (Viteb. 1711); Ugolino, De Candelabro (Thesaur. 11). SEE CANDLE.
From the fact that the golden candelabrum was expressly made “after the pattern shown in the mount,” many have endeavored to find a symbolical meaning in all its ornaments, especially Meyer and Bahr (Symbol. 1:416, sq.). Generally it was “a type of preaching” (Godwyn's Moses and Aaron,2:1), or of “the light of the law” (Lightfoot, 1. c.). Similarly candlesticks are elsewhere made types of the Spirit, of the Church, of witnesses (Zechariah iv [see Scholze, De Lychnucho, Altona, 1741]; Rev_2:5; Rev_11:4; comp. Wemyss, Clav. Symbol. s.v.). When our Lord cried “I am the light of the World” (Joh_8:12), the allusion was probably suggested by the two large golden chandeliers, lighted in the court of the women during the Feast of Tabernacles, which illuminated all Jerusalem (Wetstein, ad loc.), or perhaps to the lighting of this colossal candlestick, “the more remarkable in the profound darkness of an Oriental town” (Stanley, Sinai and Palest. p. 420). The figure of LIGHT, however, is common in all languages to express mental and moral illumination.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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