LAMP (נִיר֮, H5775, KJV alternately CANDLE, LAMP; לַפִּיד, H4365, KJV alternately LIGHT, LAMP, PLOWING [Prov 21:4]; KJV לַפִּיד, H4365, RSV TORCH; λαμπάς, G3286, KJV and RSV alternately LAMP, TORCH [John 18:3; Rev 4:5; 8:10], LIGHT [Acts 20:8]; λύχνος, G3394, KJV alternately CANDLE, LIGHT).
The common household lamp is never described in the Bible, although the twisted flax wick is mentioned (Isa 42:3) and olive oil as fuel (Exod 25:6; 27:20; Matt 25:3, 4). Palestinian tombs and excavations of towns, however, have provided innumerable lamps from the time of Abraham onward, so that the archeologist can carefully trace the development of lamp forms. While Scripture alludes to their common daily use (e.g. Prov 31:18; Jer 25:10), lamps also are mentioned with rich symbolical meaning.
Lamps found in Pal. from the OT period were made almost entirely of pottery. In some cases certain features indicate that metal prototypes were copied. In the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages (3300-2100 b.c.) shallow round-based bowls for holding the oil seem—from marks of wicks burning on the rims—to have been used as lamps. Probably the incoming Amorite tribesmen c. 2000 b.c. (MB I) introduced the first true lamps; these are invariably fourspouted (i.e., the rim is pinched in four places to form wide lips for holding wicks). From c. 1850 b.c. onward the ordinary lamp had a single lip. This became increasingly pinched together.
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land they simply copied the Canaanite lamp shapes for many centuries. In the time of the prophets potters in Judah added a base to make the lamp more stable. While the lip became more elongated, through the Pers. period the lamp remained an open vessel, with always the danger of the oil slopping over when carried.
Imported Gr. lamps were so practical, however, that in the Hel. age local potters soon switched from the open saucer lamp to the wheel-made lamp with a central filling hole in the top of the round, enclosed body, to which a long projecting nozzle was attached. In the Rom. period, the so-called Herodian lamp became popular in Jerusalem and the hill country, simple and small with round body and short, flaring nozzle. Undoubtedly Jesus had this style in mind in His parable of the woman who lighted a lamp to search for her lost coin (Luke 15:8), and in the parable of the ten virgins who were awakened at midnight and arose to trim their lamps, i.e., adjust the wicks (Matt 25:7).
The form of the individual lamps (Exod 25:37) on the menôrāh, the golden lampstand (q.v.) in the Tabernacle, is suggested by a correct understanding of Zechariah 4:2. The envisioned gold lampstand consists of a large bowl, elevated on a stand, with seven lamps, each having seven lips (RSV, tr. Heb. mûṩāqôt) or spouts (KB, p. 505), arranged around its broad rim. Such seven-lipped lamps have been found in tombs and house ruins at many Iron I and Iron II sites in Pal., so that the style was enjoyed by commoners as well as in the sanctuary. Lamps of this type seem to have originated around Ras Shamra in Syria, where they have been excavated from the Middle Bronze level. It can no longer be held that the concept of a sevenfold light source was a priestly invention of the 5th cent. b.c.
In practice, the ordinary lamp in OT times held enough oil to burn through the night, but the wick had to be adjusted every few hours as it burned down. Hence, the virtuous housewife (Prov 31:18) needed to arise once or twice during the night to “trim” her lamp lest it go out and there be no pilot flame to light her fire in the morning. Lamps prob. were placed in concave niches in the walls of houses, as they were in walls of tombs and of water tunnels. If lampstands were used, as the lychnía of Matthew 5:15; Luke 8:16; 11:33 (KJV candlestick), they were prob. made of wood, for ceramic and metal stands have been found only in ruins of shrines. Candles were unknown in Bible times; hence every KJV reference to a candle is incorrect and should be a lamp.
In 2 Kings 4:10 the menôrāh prob. refers to a pottery lamp of a different style from the common nēr. It may have been the “cup-and-saucer” lamp, a high cup in the center of a small bowl, all made in one piece by the potter (BA, XXVII, 14-17). More likely it was a pedestal lamp, a seven-spouted lamp on a terra cotta pedestal in the form of a stylized tree, having religious significance and thus suitable for a “holy man of God” (BA, XXVII, 23f.).
The OT lamp was not adapted for night travel. Therefore torches were used whenever light was needed, as in Gideon’s attack on the Midianite camp (Judg 7:16, 20, RSV). Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path,” may depict two images, lamplight for one’s walk in his home and torchlight for his journey out-of-doors. By NT times actual lanterns (phanoi) were available as well as torches (lampádes) for the Temple police going to arrest Jesus (John 18:3; see BA, XXIX, 6f.).
Since the Oriental feared darkness, the presence of a burning lamp with its light symbolized abundant life, joy, and peace (Ps 18:28); whereas the extinguishing of the lamp suggested dying and utter gloom and desolation (2 Sam 21:17; Job 18:5f.; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20). The lamp of the wicked will go out because it lacks the true life-giving illumination of God (BA, XXVII, 21). Because the ancient considered his life to be continued through his offspring, his “light” was not put out if he had a son. The lamp also symbolized posterity (1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19). Placing lighted lamps in tombs was a symbolic act signifying belief in, and hope for, life after death.
Bibliography R. H. Smith, “The Household Lamps of Palestine in OT Times,” BA, XXVII (1964), 1-31; “...in Intertestamental Times,” BA, XXVII, 101-124; “...in NT Times,” BA, XXIX (1966), 1-27.