StrongerBible

luchnia

λυχνία

GreekG3087lampstand, candlestick

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:15Mrk 4:21Luk 8:16Luk 11:33Heb 9:2Rev 1:12Rev 1:13Rev 1:20 (2×)Rev 2:1Rev 2:5Rev 11:4
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What luchnia means

a lampstand: the raised stand that holds an oil lamp so its light reaches the whole room

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

A lampstand is not the lamp but the thing that holds it. In the ancient world a lamp (λύχνος) was a small clay or bronze dish of olive oil with a wick, and the lampstand was the raised stand, shelf, or bracket that lifted that little lamp so its light could fill the room. The two words sit side by side in the same sentence: people light a lamp and then set it on the lampstand. This was an ordinary household object, common enough that Greek shopping lists and temple inventories mention it for centuries before the New Testament.

The same plain word carries a sacred weight, because the Greek Old Testament used it for the golden lampstand of Israel's tabernacle, the seven-branched menorah (מנורה). So when the letter to the Hebrews lists the furniture of the holy place, this is the word in view. For a reader who knew the Greek Old Testament, a lampstand in a place of worship pointed straight to that golden menorah and the presence of God it stood for.

The book of Revelation gathers up both threads. John sees seven golden lampstands and is told plainly that they are the seven churches, with Christ walking among them as a priest tends the lamps. A church, in other words, is pictured as a lampstand: its job is simply to hold up the light. The warning to one church, that its lampstand could be removed, is a warning that a community can lose that role.

Nuances

1aan ordinary household lampstand: the stand or shelf that lifts a burning lamp so it lights the room
Mat 5:15Mrk 4:21Luk 8:16Luk 11:33
1bthe golden lampstand of Israel's sanctuary, the seven-branched menorah
Heb 9:2
1cone of the golden lampstands in John's vision, which the text itself identifies as the churches
Rev 1:12Rev 1:13Rev 1:20 (2×)Rev 2:1Rev 2:5Rev 11:4

What scholars say about luchnia

Every major lexicon (BDAG, LSJ, Louw-Nida 6.105, Moulton-Milligan, EDNT) glosses λυχνία as "lampstand," the stand for an oil lamp (λύχνος), and stresses the lamp/stand distinction that the KJV's "candle/candlestick" obscured. Michaelis (TDNT 4:324-327) traces the word-family to the Indo-European root *leuk- "to shine." The word is a common Koine household term, attested in Hellenistic temple inventories, papyri, and literature from the fourth century BCE, and only sounds "biblical" because English versions severed it from that everyday context. Its theological weight comes from the Septuagint, which renders מְנוֹרָה (menorah) by λυχνία in roughly thirty-three of forty-two occurrences (Houtman, SAHD), fixing λυχνία as the Greek word for the tabernacle-temple lampstand and the background for Zechariah 4. In Hebrews 9:2 commentators (Attridge, Lane, Koester, Ellingworth) agree the author describes the Mosaic tabernacle of the LXX, not the Herodian temple. Revelation's identification of the seven golden lampstands as the churches (1:20) is undisputed (Beale, Aune, Koester, Bauckham); scholars debate only the balance of Jewish-cultic and Greco-Roman backgrounds and the significance of John's shift from one seven-branched menorah to seven separate stands, and, at Revelation 11:4, whether the two lampstands are the whole witnessing church (the majority, following Bauckham, Climax of Prophecy) or literal figures such as Moses and Elijah.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. λυχνίαlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. λυχνίαlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, §6.105lexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. λυχνίαlexicon
  • W. Michaelis, 'λύχνος, λυχνία,' TDNT 4:324-327dictionary
  • H. Balz and G. Schneider, EDNT, vol. 2, s.v. λυχνίαdictionary
  • Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989), 232-240commentary
  • Craig R. Koester, Revelation (Anchor Yale Bible 38A, 2014), 497-498commentary
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC, 1999), 573-608commentary
  • Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy (T&T Clark, 1993), 164-274monograph
  • Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah (1976; repr. Gorgias, 2003)monograph

All attested forms of λυχνία

accusative f s

λυχνίαν

Mat 5:15, Mrk 4:21, Luk 11:33, Rev 2:5

accusative f p

λυχνίας

Rev 1:12, Rev 1:20

genitive f p

λυχνιῶν

Rev 1:13, Rev 2:1

nominative f p

λυχνίαι

Rev 1:20, Rev 11:4

genitive f s

λυχνίας

Luk 8:16

nominative f s

λυχνία

Heb 9:2