TR: mᵉnôwrâh → lychnia (Lampstand)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
──────────────────     ──────────────────     ──────────────────
מְנוֹרָה (mᵉnôwrâh)  →  λυχνία (lychnia)    →  λυχνία (lychnia)
H4501, 31x in OT        28x as translation      11x in NT
"lampstand/chandelier"  of mᵉnôwrâh             "lampstand/candlestick"

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H4501	מְנוֹרָה (mᵉnôwrâh)	31	lampstand, chandelier, the golden menorah

Key OT passages: - Exo 25:31 — "And thou shalt make a candlestick [of] pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same" - Lev 24:4 — "He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually" - Num 3:31 — "And their charge [shall be] the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary" - 1Ki 7:49 — "And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right [side], and five on the left, before the oracle" - 2Ch 4:7 — "And he made ten candlesticks of gold according to their form, and set [them] in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left"

H4501 is not yet in the word studies library — TODO(need H4501 study).

LXX Bridge¶

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
mᵉnôwrâh (H4501)	λυχνία (G3087)	28x	32.20	Primary equivalent — extremely strong alignment
mᵉnôwrâh (H4501)	λύχνος (G3088)	11x	19.51	Occasional — lamp itself used for lampstand

Semantic continuity: The LXX translators chose λυχνία as an almost 1:1 rendering of מְנוֹרָה. Both words denote the stand holding lamps, not the lamp itself. The high PMI score (32.20) confirms this is one of the tightest Hebrew→Greek translation bonds in the sanctuary vocabulary. The NT writers inherited this equation directly — when John and the author of Hebrews write λυχνία, a Jewish reader would hear מְנוֹרָה.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G3087	λυχνία (lychnia)	11	lampstand, candlestick

Key NT passages: - Heb 9:2 — "For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein [was] the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread" — direct reference to the OT tabernacle lampstand, creating explicit OT→NT continuity - Rev 1:20 — "The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches" — the lampstand imagery is reapplied: the OT sanctuary object becomes a symbol for NT congregations - Rev 11:4 — "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth" — alludes to Zechariah 4 where the menorah and olive trees appear together

Direct OT → NT Connections¶

NT Verse	OT Echo	Shared Word	Significance
Heb 9:2	Exo 25:31; 40:24	mᵉnôwrâh → lychnia	Hebrews describes the tabernacle furnishings using the same LXX term
Rev 1:12–20	Zec 4:2–10	mᵉnôwrâh → lychnia	John's seven lampstands echo Zechariah's single menorah with seven lights
Rev 11:4	Zec 4:3, 11	mᵉnôwrâh + olive trees	The two-witnesses image draws directly on Zechariah's vision

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays the same: - The lampstand consistently represents the presence and testimony of God's people before him - The sanctuary setting carries from OT (Exo–Num) through the Hebrews reference into Revelation's heavenly temple imagery - Gold is the consistent material descriptor (Exo 25, 1 Ki 7, Rev 1)

What shifts: - In the OT the מְנוֹרָה is one (or seven, in Solomon's temple) physical objects in the holy place - In Revelation the seven λυχνίαι are explicitly interpreted as the seven churches (Rev 1:20) — the concrete furnishing becomes ecclesial symbol - The synoptic gospels (Mat 5, Mk 4, Lk 8, 11) use λυχνία in a purely domestic sense (household lamp stand), without sanctuary overtones — a semantic range the Hebrew מְנוֹרָה never occupied