OF

CANDLES

Reading Reference
for Candlestick
Seven-branched,
EX XXV 31;
with seven lamps,
Zach. iv.  2

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THE TABERNACLE

The triangle with one right angle was the type of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, the creative forces, receptive matter, and the visible universe, and the cube (the Holy of Holies) typified order, stability, and perfection, as attributes of the Divine Mind.

That the Deity was supposed to reside in the darkness of the Holy of Holies was a type of real life, in which light and darkness, death and life, are closely united.

The veil also held before the adytum in the Egyptian temple, and in one instance, at the shrine of Isis at Sais, it bore the words, "I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my veil no mortal hath withdrawn."

Divine wisdom was symbolized also in the cherubims.

As gold, a type of Divine glory, was most profusely used in the Holy of Holies, silver, the type of Human purity, took its place in the outer sanctuary, where it was trodden daily with bare feet by the priests who moved about in the lamps on the seven-branched candlestick, one taller than the others, as the Sabbath is set apart above the other six days of the week.

Research: The Golden Candlestick was said by Josephus to weigh one hundred pounds, or a talent, made of beaten gold, representing spheres, flowers, fruits, and the seven planets, including the sun and moon, by seven lamps, set on seven branches. Josephus says there were seventy parts of the candlestick, which is the number of the divisions of the zodiac.

Josephus makes the seven branches and lamps of the candlestick emblems of the seven days of creation and rest, the seven days of the week. The same ideas are found in Clemens of Alexandria and in Philo Jedaeus.