Background on the menorah lampstand

A menorah is a seven branched lamp-stand or candle-stick modeled, with varying degrees of liberality, on the one that stood in the Jerusalem temple.

The original instruction to construct such a stand is found in Exodus, where Moses commanded that one be made for the tabernacle, a portable shrine that served Israel during their wilderness wandering -

‘³¹“You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. Of hammered work shall the lampstand be made, even its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers, shall be of one piece with it.  ³²There shall be six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of its one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of its other side;  ³³three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower, so for the six branches going out of the lampstand;  ³⁴and in the lampstand four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers;  ³⁵and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the lampstand.  ³⁶Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, all of it one beaten work of pure gold.  ³⁷You shall make its lamps seven, and they shall light its lamps to give light to the space in front of it.  ³⁸Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold.  ³⁹It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these accessories.

(Exod 25:31-39 WEB)

This lamp stood on the southern side of the holy place and provided light by which the priest could carry out his duties (Exod 26:35).

The tabernacle itself appears to have been a model of heaven, based on a theological understanding of the cosmos in which the visible world was an image of heaven, which in turn was an image of a yet more holy heaven, that itself was an image of the glory of God (See The Emmaus View, Appendix Q  for more details). Within this model of heaven it was natural to use lamps to represent the priestly caste, for they represented the light of the world (cf. John 5:35, Matt 5:14, 2 Pet 1:9). Moreover, thanks to the promise that Abraham’s descendants would be like the stars (Gen 15:5, cf. Daniel 12:3), it was natural for the seven greater lights in the sky to become a metaphor for these heavenly lamps. Within the Tabernacle, the show-bread represented God’s provision for the twelve constellations of lesser stars that were the tribes of Israel. So, as the priests moved amongst these twelve, they naturally equate to the twelve constellations of the zodiac amongst which the planets move. Thus, Philo was able to explain, concerning the menorah:

“¹⁰² The candlestick was placed on the southern side of the tabernacle, since by it the maker intimates, in a figurative manner, the motions of the stars which give light; for the sun, and the moon, and the rest of the stars” . . . “¹⁰³ and in all the seven there were seven candles and seven lights, being symbols of those seven stars which are called planets by those men who are versed in natural philosophy; for the sun, like the candlestick, being placed in the middle of the other six, in the fourth rank, gives light to the three planets which are above him, and to those of equal number which are below him”

(Moses II 102-3, Yonge)

Similarly the first-century historian Josephus tells us, concerning the lamp-stand and the showbread that accompanied it in the holy place, “now, the seven lamps signified the seven planets; for so many there were springing out of the candlestick. Now, the twelve loaves that were upon the table signified the circle of the zodiac and the year” (Wars. 5.217, Whiston).

References

Josephus, Flavius, The Works of Josephus : Complete and Unabridged. 1996. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody: Hendrickson.

Philo of Alexandria, The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged. 1996. Translated by Charles Duke Yonge. Peabody: Hendrickson.