Shining Light on the Seven Lampstands
The lampstands in Revelation are more significant than you ever thought.
As the eventful and chaotic first century AD drew to a close, the Apostle John penned an extraordinary series of letters to seven churches in Asia. His letters were not composed on a whim, but inspired by a vision. They did not relay John’s own advice, but the exhortations of God Himself. And these letters did not describe our familiar material reality, but peeled back all the flesh and matter of this world to reveal the undercurrents of spiritual trial, defeat, and victory. John’s letters, alongside the chronicle of his spiritual odyssey, come to us today in the Book of Revelation.
His vision, however, had to condescend to reveal transcendent and spiritual truths to fallen people. John was also confined by his pen and paper as he described what he witnessed in that world beyond words. As a result, several passages in Revelation are arcane in appearance and elusive in meaning, and the truths present are necessarily entangled in symbols and mysteries. As we unravel these knots, the reality of a world beyond ours unfolds before us. This pattern holds true for Revelation’s lampstands, which, in the original Greek, are called luchnia. They appear at the start of John’s vision when he recounts:
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands [luchnia]; and in the middle of the lampstands [luchnia] I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. (Revelation 1:12-13)
Jesus, the “Son of Man,” explains to John that “‘the seven lampstands [luchnia] are the seven churches’” (Rev 1:20). Although these words add clarity, there is another incredible detail to these lampstands which is missing in translation. Filling in this detail reveals the full, grand, and proper significance of these lights.
All the way back in Exodus 25, God gives instructions to Moses to make a golden, seven-branched lampstand—called in Hebrew a menorah (Exo. 25:31). This menorah1 was the light source of the tabernacle and of the later temple, the dwelling places of God on Earth before the time of Christ. 1 Samuel 3:3 refers to this menorah as the “lamp of God.”
There is a symbolic significance to the menorah in Zechariah 4, when an angel appears to Zechariah and asks him what he sees. Zechariah responds:
‘I see, and behold, a lampstand [menorah] all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side.’ (Zechariah 4:2-3)
In verse 14, the angel identifies these olive trees as “‘the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.’”
Many motifs in Zechariah’s writing are echoed by John in Revelation, and this picture of the menorah and olive trees is no exception. In the eleventh chapter of Revelation, John hears a voice that says,
‘I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands [luchnia] that stand before the Lord of the earth.’ (Revelation 11:3-4)
The precise language and the exact vision delivered to John differs slightly from Zechariah’s, but the parallel is clear: the two olive trees and the one or two lampstands represent two distinguished servants of God. Most importantly, however, the undeniable parallels of these passages suggest that the lampstands in Revelation are of the same design and significance as the menorah which was witnessed by Zechariah and described to Moses.
Three other sources confirm that this connection is no coincidence; the first of which is the Epistle to the Hebrews. Hebrews 9:2 reads, “for there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand [luchnia] and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place.” The lampstand in this verse, by virtue of being in the tabernacle, is unambiguously the menorah described to Moses in Exodus 25:31. Hebrews thus provides evidence, both Christian and contemporary to John, that luchnia, the word for the lampstands in Revelation, could readily and freely refer to the menorah of the old covenant.
The second source is the Septuagint, the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, produced around the 3rd or 2nd century B.C. For centuries, the Septuagint stood as the most influential translation of its type, becoming the primary body of Scriptures for Greek-speaking Jews and for the newborn Christian church. For these reasons, the Septuagint was the most frequent source of Old Testament quotations for the New Testament’s Greek-writing authors. John’s composition of Revelation was doubtlessly shaped by Septuagintal language and wordings.
By consulting the Septuagint, we can see whether John’s word for lampstand, luchnia, copies the word for the menorah in Exodus 25:31. If John had seen a lampstand so distinct and symbolically remarkable as the menorah, it would make sense for him to label it according to the familiar Septuagintal name. This mimicry is indeed present. In the Septuagint’s translation of Exodus 25:31, God instructs Moses, “‘you shall make a lampstand [luchnia] of pure gold.’” John chooses the same word to describe the lampstands in his vision as the Septuagint’s translators assigned to the menorah.
The third source of confirmation is the Vulgate Bible. The Vulgate Bible, a Latin translation of the Old and New Testament from the original Hebrew and Greek, is in most places the work of St. Jerome, who revised old Latin translations of Scripture before producing his own. The Vulgate Bible then stood as the primary body of scriptures for the Catholic church for more than 1000 years. The Vulgate’s use is that, through its translation, it captures how early Christians interpreted connections across different passages of Scripture. If, for example, the Latin word for “lampstand” in Exodus 25:31 were different from the word for “lampstand” in Revelation 1 or 11, then we could reasonably conjecture that Jerome, or another Vulgate author, regarded these lampstands as different. But if the words are the same, we can postulate that Jerome (and other early Christians) saw the relationship between the passages and believed in the shared architecture of the lampstands. Indeed, the same Latin word for “lampstand,” candelabrum, appears in Exodus 25:31, Zechariah 4:2, Hebrews 9:2, Revelation 1:12, and Revelation 11:4. As far as the Vulgate Bible can bind these passages together, it does.
John is clearly not beginning Revelation by describing some random lampstands or candlesticks2 that were placed for decoration. But what are the fruits of such efforts to identify that the lampstands in Revelation are menorahs? At its most basic, this detail is important for the cohesion it adds to the Bible. We do not watch the “lamp of God” appear repeatedly throughout Scripture, only to see some random lampstands replace it in the Bible’s concluding book. Rather, just as God is eternal and the Bible’s message is everlasting, so too are the symbols which present God and his covenant to us.
Identifying the lampstands as menorahs brings Old Testament symbolism, and therefore the truths embodied by that symbolism, into our analysis of the passage. Jesus tells John that the seven lampstands which he sees denote the seven churches (Rev 1:20), but we also know from the Old Testament that the menorah, being a symbol of the tabernacle and of the temple, marked out God’s dwelling place on Earth. So, not only do the lampstands represent the churches, but they also represent God’s home in those churches. Our churches are dwelling places for God just like the tabernacle and the temple!
This analysis enriches Revelation 2:5, where Jesus warns a church, “‘therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.’” Because each church’s lampstand is the church, the removal of the lampstand clearly spells doom for the church. But, because the lampstand represents God’s dwelling place, its removal also symbolizes God leaving that church.
It is impossible, of course, to rewatch what John saw. Not even a time machine could deliver us into the midst of John’s ethereal vision. Nonetheless, the parallels with Zechariah’s vision, the commentary on the menorah in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Greek and Latin translations of the Bible all suggest that John witnessed menorahs. And although these menorahs are only a detail, understanding their true form guides to a deeper and richer appreciation of our Bibles and of the sanctity of our churches.
Today, “menorah” commonly refers to two different lamps. Well-known is the Hanukkah menorah, with 9 total branches. “Menorah” in this article, however, will refer to the “temple menorah,” the 7-branched lampstand described to Moses in Exodus 25.
“Candlestick” is another common translation of luchnia which, in my humble opinion, is errant in the context of Revelation 1:12. John sees lampstands shaped like menorahs, not just candlesticks.