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The Golden Candlestick
See also Candlestick
kan’-d’-l-stik, gold’-’-n (menorah, literally "lamp-stand"): An important part of the furniture of the tabernacle and temples.
See Tabernacle; Temple; Lamp.
1. The Tabernacle:
The candlestick is first met with in the descriptions of the tabernacle (
2. Temple of Solomon:
In Solomon’s temple the single golden candlestick was multiplied to ten, and the position was altered. The candlesticks were now placed in front of the Holy of Holies, five on one side, five on the other (
3. Temple of Zerubbabel:
The second temple reverted to the single golden candlestick. When the temple was plundered by Antiochus Epiphanes, the candlestick was taken away (1 Macc 1:21); after the cleansing, a new one was made by Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc 4:49,50).
4. Temple of Herod:
The same arrangement of a single golden candlestick, placed on the South side of the holy place, was continued in Herod’s Temple (Josephus, BJ, V, v, 5). It was this which, carried away by Titus, was represented on his Arch at Rome.
5. Use and Symbolism:
The oldest known representation of the seven-branched candlestick is on a coin of Antigonus, circa 40 BC (see Madden’s Coins of the Jews, 102). For literature see Tabernacle; Temple.
Additional Material
CANDLESTICK (THE GOLDEN) (מְנוֹרָה, H4963; LXX λυχνία, G3393, KJV CANDLESTICK; RSV [more accurately] LAMPSTAND). A means of furnishing light for the Tabernacle and the Temple.
“Lampstand” is the better tr., because in days of old the Hebrews did not know the use of candles as we do. The candlestick was in reality a lampstand.
Directions for the making of this lampstand are given in
The account of the directions given is followed in
When finished the lampstand was placed in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle opposite the table of showbread. When the Temple of Solomon was built, in harmony with the much greater size of that structure, ten golden lampstands were provided. For reasons not known, only one lampstand was set up in the second Temple, which continued in use until it was removed from its place by Antiochus Epiphanes. However, in the restoration brought about by Judas Maccabeus, a new lampstand was made and put into use. The same pattern seems to have prevailed in the Temple of Herod until the destruction of the Temple and the city by Titus (a.d. 70).
Rather important is the symbolism of the lampstand. The one safe lead, though occurring in a NT statement, is