Torch
Torch
is the occasional rendering in the A.V. of , lappid (Zec 12:6), which usually signifies (and is translated) a lamp; and so (Joh 18:3). In Nah 2:3 [Hebrews 4] it represents
,peladdh, which rather signifies iron. SEE STEEL. The distinction in the East between a torch and a lantern (q.v.) is not very marked as both are often but forms of flambeaus. SEE LAMP. A flaming torch is sometimes quoted by the prophets as the symbol of great anger and destruction (Zec 12:6). So also Isaiah (Isa 7:4) compares Rezin, king of Syria, and the king of Israel, two bitter enemies to Ahaz, king of Judah, to two tails of smoking firebrands. SEE FIREBRAND.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Torch
TORCH.In the six passages in which the word torch occurs in the Gospels (Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ), once in the text (Joh 18:3) and five times as an alternative rendering in the margin (Mat 25:1; Mat 25:3 f., Mat 25:7 f.,), it answers to the Greek , which in the LXX Septuagint represents the Hebrew lappd in Gen 15:17, Exo 20:18, Jdg 7:16; Jdg 7:20; Jdg 15:4 f., Job 41:19, Isa 62:1, Eze 1:13, Dan 10:6, Nah 2:4, Zec 12:6. Now the regular meaning of lappd is torch, by which it is mostly rendered in the OT either in the text or in the margin. This meaning fits in very well with the context in Joh 18:3, but seems unsuitable in the other passages, where a light fed with oil is required. Probably we are to think in them of a lamp borne on a pole, and therefore bearing some resemblance to a torch, or of a torch fed with oil in some way from time to time. The use of the former is attested for Arabs in the Middle Ages by a statement to which Lightfoot called attention (Works, ed. 1684, vol. ii. p. 247), found in the mediaeval lexicon Aruch, and, on the authority of Rabbi Solomon, in a gloss on the reference to lappd in Kelim, ii. 8. It has been often cited or referred to, but a literal translation from the gloss may be of interest:
It is a custom in the land of Ishmael for the bride to be conducted from the house of her father to the house of her husband in the night before she goes into the uppah, (cf. Psa 19:4), and for ten poles to be borne before her, on the top of each of which is a sort of saucer of brass containing pieces of garments and oil and pitchthese are kindled, and give light before her.
The other custom, the use of torches fed with oil, is said by the German writer, Ludwig Schneller, who was born in Jerusalem, and was for a time a minister in Bethlehem, to be in force in the Holy Land at the present day. These torches consist of long poles, round the upper end of which are wrapped rags saturated with olive oil. Unless fed with fresh oil, they burn down in less than a quarter of an hour (Evangelienfahrten, p. 460). The maidens of Bethlehem, says the same writer (ib. p. 459), assemble at sunset on the occasion of a marriage, and move with dance and song through the street to the house of the marriage festival bearing torches in their hands. Bauer also (Volksleben im Lande der Bibel, p. 94) mentions the use of oily torches by the women who go out to meet the bridegroom. On the other hand, Robinson Lees (Village Life in Palestine2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , p. 87 f.) affirms that small earthenware lamps are still carried in villages by the virgins who go to meet the bridegroom, together with little jars containing an additional supply of oil. He admits, however, that torches are used in the cities. With our presen slender knowledge of the marriage customs of the Jews in the time of our Lord, it is impossible to determine exactly the nature of the torches or lamps of the parable, but the balance of probability seems to incline to some kind of lamp-torch lifted high into the air. See Lamp.
Literature.Besides the authorities cited above, see Wetstein and Zahn on Mat 25:1; Edersheim, LT [Note: T Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Edersheim].] ii. 455.
W. Taylor Smith.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Torch
TORCH.See Lamp, 1; Lantern.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Torch
torch (, lappdh; , lampas; in the King James Version this word occurs only 4 times (Nah 2:3, Nah 2:4 (Hebrew 4, 5); Zec 12:6; Joh 18:3). In the Revised Version (British and American) it is found 10 times (Gen 15:17; Jdg 7:16, Jdg 7:20; Job 41:19 (Hebrew 11); Eze 1:13; Dan 10:6; Nah 2:4 (Hebrew 5); Zec 12:6; Joh 18:3; Rev 8:10)): A flambeau; a large portable light. See LAMP; LANTERN.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
TORCH
Torch when considered in respect only of its burning, is a symbol of great anger and destruction. It is thus used by the prophet Zechariah, Zec 12:6 “In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand, and on the left.”
So in Isa 7:4, Rezin king of Syria, and the king of Israel, two bitter enemies of Ahaz king of Judah, threatening war against Judah, are called “two tails of smoking firebrands,”-two angry, fiery fellows, going out in a snuff.
Thus the dream of Hecuba, when with child of Paris, how she brought forth a torch which burnt the city, was explained by sacus the Oneirocritic, that the child would prove to be the ruin of his country:f1 and therefore Euripides calls this Paris or Alexander, by the name of , the bitter representative of a torch:f2 and so Horace, speaking of Hannibal, compares him to torches set on fire, or a blasting wind, another symbol of war;-
” Dirus per urbes Afer ut Italas,
Ceu flamma per thdas, vel Eurus
Per Siculas equitavit undas.f3
A star burning like a torch may be a description of that sort of comets which for the figure of them are called Lampadias.f4 And what is by Aristotle called ,f5 is, in the author of the description of the Olympiads, called : and as it is supposed to be mentioned in the marble chronicle at Oxford, it is there said to burn, . (See SHOOTING STARS.)
Now a comet was always thought to be a prodigy of bad omen; that in the times of Augustus only excepted by Pliny.f6 And streams of fire-like torches, of which Livy gives some instances, were looked upon as ill omens.f7 And Silius Italicus, describing the prodigies which foreboded the event of the battle at Cann, mentions such torches.f8
Lastly, concerning torches, it may be observed, that the ancient Grecian signals for beginning the battle were lighted torches thrown from both armies by men called , or , who were priests of Mars, and therefore held inviolable; and who having cast their torches had safe regress.f9
F1 Apollod. Biblioth. L. iii. c. 11. 5.
F2 Eurip. Troad. ver. 922.
F3 Hor. L. iv. Od. 4.
F4 Plin. Nat. Hist. L. ii. c. 25.
F5 Ar. Meteorol. L. i. c. 6,
F6 Plin. Nat. Hist. L. ii. c. 25.
F7 Liv. L. xxix. xli. xliii.
F8 Sil. Ital. de B. Pun. L. viii.
F9 The Lord Bishop of Oxford’s Arch. Gr. Vol. ii. p. 78.
Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary
Torch
“a torch,” is used in the plur. and translated “torches” in Joh 18:3; in Rev 8:10, RV, “torch” (AV, “lamp”). See LAMP.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Torch
Zec 12:6 (a) GOD is prophesying that the rulers of Jerusalem will some day destroy all their enemies, as the fire destroys the wood.
Joh 18:3 (c) We may understand that this is a type of human intelligence, research and reasoning by means of which men seek to find the Lord JESUS, who is the light of life. “Reason is the natural sun in the mental world.” Men with the feeble light of their intelligence seek to find the One who made “the sun to rule by day, and the moon by night.”