Types of Christ · The Tabernacle's Furniture
The Lampstand
The room had no windows. Everything anyone ever saw inside the house of God, they saw by the light of one gold lampstand — and by the last book of the Bible, the lampstands are people, with a Man walking among them.
THE ARTWORKRead this carving carefully, because it is not what most captions say it is. The Romans cut it into a triumphal arch to advertise the sack of Jerusalem, and the lampstand on the soldiers’ shoulders is the second temple’s menorah, carried out of the city in AD 70 — not the lampstand Moses was shown on the mountain, which had already been gone for centuries. It is still the best-attested ancient picture of a temple lampstand anyone has, which is exactly why the difference is worth saying out loud.
One Piece of Gold, Seven Lamps
— Exodus 25:31-40 — and a room with no windowsStart with the fact everyone skips. The holy place had no windows. It was a tent of skins and curtains with a single doorway, and once the screen fell behind a priest there was no daylight in the room at all. Whatever he did in there, he did by lamplight — and there was one lamp fixture, on the south side, opposite the table of bread.
The instructions are unusually specific about how it was to be made. Not assembled: beaten. Shaft, six branches, almond-blossom cups, buds, blossoms and seven lamps all came out of one talent of pure gold under a hammer. English Bibles have called it a “candlestick” for four hundred years, which has quietly misled generations of readers — there were no candles in it. There were seven oil lamps.
The tabernacle had no windows, all its light was candle-light, which notes the comparative darkness of that dispensation, while the sun of righteousness was not as yet risen, nor had the day-star from on high visited his church.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Exodus 25:31
Exo 25:31 A candlestick of pure gold - (Compare Exo 37:17-24.) A lampstand rather than a candlestick. Its purpose was to support seven oil-lamps. Its height appears to have been about three feet, and its width two feet. The original foot was lost or stolen when the candlestick was taken out of the temple, and the pedestal in the sculpture was added by some Roman artist to set off the trophy.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
Exodus 25:31
Then you are to make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. It shall be made of one piece, including its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals.Hammered work of pure gold — one piece, not an assembly.
Make seven lamps and set them up on the lampstand so that they illuminate the area in front of it.Seven lamps, set up to give light in front of it.
One piece of goldExodus 25:31
Shaft, branches, cups, buds and blossoms were not assembled out of parts. The whole lampstand was beaten out of a single talent of pure gold — one piece, hammered, not cast. Whatever else the object teaches, it is not a collection of separate things.
READ EXODUS 25:31→Beaten oilExodus 27:20
The fuel was not ordinary olive oil. It was the first, clearest pressing — the drops that come out of bruised olives before the press is put on them — and Israel had to bring it. The light in God's house ran on the most expensive oil the country made.
READ EXODUS 27:20→Evening to morningExodus 27:21
Aaron and his sons tended the lamps from evening until morning, continually, as a lasting statute. The light was not lit once and admired. It was somebody's job, every single night, for as long as the tabernacle stood.
READ EXODUS 27:21→Not by mightZechariah 4:6
Zechariah saw a lampstand fed straight from two olive trees — no priest, no jar, no hand — and was given the sentence the vision was for: not by might, nor by power, but by God's Spirit. The prophet supplies the reading; the page does not have to.
READ ZECHARIAH 4:6→The light of the worldJohn 8:12
Jesus said it in the temple treasury, where the great festal lamp-stands burned. Standing under the biggest lamps in Jerusalem, He did not say He had light or brought light. He said He is it.
READ JOHN 8:12→The lampstands are the churchesRevelation 1:20
John turns and sees seven golden lampstands with the Son of Man walking among them — and the text states the identification outright, in its own words, so nobody has to guess. The lampstands are the seven churches.
READ REVELATION 1:20→A lampstand can be removedRevelation 2:5
The same book that makes the churches lampstands warns one of them that its lampstand can be taken out of its place. The honour is real, and it is not automatic.
READ REVELATION 2:5→
Read the arms from the outside in and the object tells its own story: gold, oil, tending, Spirit — and then a Man standing in the middle of seven of them.
What the New Testament Does With It
— Revelation 1:20 says it outright — no inference requiredOn most of the tabernacle’s furniture, a reader has to work out the connection for himself. Not here. John is shown seven golden lampstands with someone standing in the middle of them, and before the chapter closes, the vision is explained inside the vision: the seven lampstands arethe seven churches. That is the text interpreting the object, in the text’s own words, and it is where this page’s Christ beat starts.
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest.Seven golden lampstands — and one like the Son of Man in the middle of them.
This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.The identification, stated by the text about itself.
Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.And the warning that goes with it: a lampstand can be removed.
"As it were the Son of man walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks." He says, in the midst of the churches, as it is said in Solomon, "I will walk in the midst of the paths of the just," whose antiquity is immortality, and the fountain of majesty.
Victorinus of Pettau· Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, 304Church Father
Revelation 1:13
She is to be a light-bearer to His glory. The candlestick stood in the holy place, the type of the Church on earth, as the holiest place was type of the Church in heaven. The holy place's only light was derived from the candlestick, daylight being excluded; so the Lord God is the Church's only light; hers is the light of grace, not nature.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Revelation 1:12
Two things follow, and the second is the uncomfortable one. A church is a lamp stand — a bearer, not a source; it holds up light it did not manufacture. And a stand can be moved. The same chapter that gives the honour attaches the warning, and it is spoken to a congregation that was doctrinally sound and working hard.
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”Said in the temple treasury — under the biggest lamps in Jerusalem.
And there is the sentence in the Gospels that lands in the same place. Jesus said “I am the light of the world” in a specific room on a specific week — and knowing which room turns the claim from a nice line into an audacious one.
In "the treasury" where it was spoken (see on Joh 8:20) stood two colossal golden lamp-stands, on which hung a multitude of lamps, lighted after the evening sacrifice (probably every evening during the feast of tabernacles), diffusing their brilliancy, it is said, over all the city.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
John 8:12
Where the lampstand sits in the New Testament's own inventoryHebrews 9:2
Hebrews walks through the first tabernacle when it argues that the old sanctuary was a shadow, and the lampstand is the first thing it names in the holy place. That is the whole of the New Testament’s direct comment on the object itself — one inventory line. Everything else the New Testament says about lampstands, it says in Revelation, about churches.
A tabernacle was prepared. In its first room were the lampstand, the table, and the consecrated bread. This was called the Holy Place.The lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread — the room, itemised.
The Oil, and What It Cost
— Exodus 27:20-21 — beaten oil, brought by the people, tended every nightThe command about the oil is not part of the building instructions. It is a standing order given to the whole nation: bring pure beaten olive oil, so the lamps can burn continually. “Beaten” is a technical word for a real process. Olives were bruised in a mortar and the first oil that ran out on its own — before any press was applied — was collected separately. It was the clearest oil available, and by a wide margin the most expensive.
Pure oil olive beaten - That is, such oil as could easily be expressed from the olives after they had been bruised in a mortar; the mother drop, as it is called, which drops out of itself as soon as the olives are a little broken, and which is much purer than that which is obtained after the olives are put under the press.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Exodus 27:20
shall order it from evening to morning--The tabernacle having no windows, the lamps required to be lighted during the day. JOSEPHUS says that in his time only three were lighted; but his were degenerate times, and there is no Scripture authority for this limitation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Exodus 27:21
Note what the second of those does. It reports Josephus saying that in his own day only three of the lamps were kept burning through the day — and then says plainly that Scripture gives no such rule. That is the right instinct, and this page keeps it: first-century practice is evidence about the first century, not about Exodus.
And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.Clear oil of pressed olives, brought by the people; the lamps tended from evening till morning.
We read of the candlestick in the 25th chapter; here is order given for the keeping of the lamps constantly burning in it. The pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the Spirit, which are communicated to all believers from Christ the good olive, of whose fulness we receive, Zech. iv, 11, 12.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Exodus 27:20
Zechariah's Lampstand
— Zechariah 4 — a vision that comes with its own lesson attachedSix centuries after Moses, a priest named Zechariah is woken like a man out of sleep and shown a gold lampstand — but with one detail changed, and the change is the whole vision. This lampstand has no priest. Two olive trees stand beside it and pour into it directly. Nobody beats the oil, nobody carries it, nobody trims the wicks. The light simply does not depend on anyone’s labour.
Zechariah asks what it means, and gets an answer aimed at a particular exhausted man. Zerubbabel was trying to rebuild a temple with no money, no army and a hostile province around him. The word to him was not a promise of resources. It was a reordering of where the work comes from.
This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel - This prince was in a trying situation, and he needed especial encouragement from God; and here it is: Not by might, (of thy own), nor by power, (authority from others), but by my Spirit - the providence, authority, power, and energy of the Most High. In this way shall my temple be built; in this way shall my Church be raised and preserved.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Zechariah 4:6
“What do you see?” he asked. “I see a solid gold lampstand,” I replied, “with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven spouts to the lamps. There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left.”A solid gold lampstand, seven lamps, seven channels — and two olive trees beside it.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts.The sentence the vision exists for.
The artwork
Koninck worked in Rembrandt's manner, and the manner is the argument here: almost the whole canvas is dark, and the light that reaches the old prophet's face comes from somewhere outside the frame. It is the right picture for Zechariah 4. The man in the painting is not producing the light he is reading by, and neither is the lampstand he was shown.
Attributed to Salomon Koninck, The Prophet Zechariah in the Temple (c. 1650), Staatliches Museum Schwerin — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
One question in the chapter is genuinely open, and honest readers have landed in two places. Zechariah asks about the two olive trees and is told they are “the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of all the earth.” Who are they?
The two men standing in front of him
Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor — the priestly office and the civil one, the two channels through which God was supplying the rebuilding of the temple. This reading keeps the vision anchored to the situation Zechariah was actually in. Held by Adam Clarke and by Jamieson, Fausset & Brown.
These are the two anointed ones - Joshua, the high priest; and Zerubbabel the governor. These are anointed - appointed by the Lord; and stand by him, the one to minister in the ecclesiastical, the other in the civil state.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Zechariah 4:14
The Son and the Spirit
The two who are sent from the Father and stand ready before Him. On this reading the trees are not officers at all but the source the officers were drawing from, which is why the oil needs no human carrier. Held by John Wesley, and Matthew Henry reads in the same direction.
The two anointed ones - Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Son was to be sent by the Father, and so was the Holy Ghost. And they stand by him, ready to go.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Zechariah 4:14
The page does not pick. Both readings are held by serious men who are reading the same Hebrew carefully, the chapter does not settle it, and the sentence everybody agrees about — not by might, nor by power — survives either way.
So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”The two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of all the earth.
The Hebrew implies that it was the fountain of supply of oil to the lamps. Christ at the head ("on the top") of the Church is the true fountain, of whose fulness of the Spirit all we receive grace (Joh 1:16). his seven lamps--united in one stem; so in Ex 25:32.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Zechariah 4:2
One detail in the Hebrew is worth having, because it stops a plausible sentence from being written. Zechariah’s oil is not the tabernacle’s lamp oil — it is a different word.
Exodus 27:20
shemen
oil
The lamp oil of the tabernacle — beaten olive oil, brought by the people, burned every night.
Zechariah 4:14
yitshar
fresh oil
Zechariah's word, and a different one. The oil running into his lampstand is not the word Exodus uses for lamp oil.
Revelation 1:20
luchnia
lampstand
Twelve times in the New Testament — one of them Hebrews 9:2, describing the tabernacle, the rest in Revelation, describing churches.
What Readers Added, and What Nobody Knows
— the difference between a reading and a claimA great deal has been read out of this object over eighteen centuries, and some of it is beautiful. The seven lamps have been matched to the seven Spirits before the throne, to the sevenfold gifts, to the seven days of creation. The central shaft has been read as Christ and the six branches as believers drawing from Him. None of that is in Exodus, and none of it is in Revelation. These are readings, and this page names them as readings — which is not a demotion. Matthew Henry’s is a good example of the type: careful, warm, and reasoning from the shape of the thing rather than from a statement in the text.
The treasure of this light is now put into earthen vessels, 2 Cor. iv. The branches of the candlestick spread every way, to denote the diffusing of the light of the gospel into all parts by the Christian ministry, Matt. v. 14, 15 . There is a diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit gives to each to profit withal.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
Exodus 25:37
The test is simple and it is worth carrying off this page. When Revelation says the lampstands are the churches, that is the Bible’s claim. When a commentator says the six branches are believers, that is a commentator’s reading. Both can be read with profit. Only one of them can be quoted as “what the Bible says.”
Where Scripture simply does not sayfour honest gaps
Exodus gives the material and the design and withholds almost everything a curious reader wants. There is no height. There is no weight beyond “a talent of pure gold,” which is the amount of metal, not a set of dimensions. There is no explanation of why the cups are shaped like almond blossoms. And there is no instruction anywhere about whether all seven lamps burned through the daylight hours.
Later sources fill some of this in — Josephus and the Mishnah both describe temple practice — and later is exactly what they are. They are good evidence for how the second temple was run and no evidence at all for the tent in the wilderness.
Why the Arch of Titus relief is not a picture of this lampstandthe hero image, read carefully
The relief at the top of this page is the most famous image of a menorah in the world and it is roughly fourteen centuries too late to show the one Moses was given. It shows the lampstand of the second temple, carried through Rome in AD 70 after Jerusalem fell.
It is still worth looking at closely: the branches, the arms, the general proportion of the thing all descend from the Exodus pattern. The stepped base does not — it is the detail scholars argue about most, and Barnes, quoted above, thought the original foot was lost and a Roman artist supplied a new one for the carving.
Read the Great Books
— the writers quoted above, in their own handsExplanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
John Wesley · 1765
The source of this page's opening observation — that the tabernacle had no windows and all its light was lamplight. Wesley is short, warm and verse by verse.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke · 1832
Clarke is the man to read on beaten oil and on Zerubbabel's actual situation. He gives the Hebrew and the physical process without turning either into a sermon.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John
Victorinus of Pettau · c. 304
The oldest surviving Latin commentary on Revelation, written by a bishop who died in the Diocletian persecution — and it already reads the lampstands as the churches.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · 1871
Terse, and unusually good on setting: the note on where Jesus was standing when He said 'I am the light of the world' is the kind of detail this commentary exists for.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry · 1710
The devotional tradition at its best — and a good place to practise telling a reading from a claim, since Henry is generous with both and honest about which is which.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Keep going through the room: the tabernacle as a whole, then the seven churches that Revelation turns these lamps into.