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 Æsacus 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 Δαλοῦ πικρὸν μίμημα, 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 Κομήτης,^f5 is, in the author of the description of the Olympiads, called Δαμπάς: and as it is supposed to be mentioned in the marble chronicle at Oxford, it is there said to burn, κατεκάν. (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 Cannæ, 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 πυρφόροι, or πυροφόροι, 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.

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 λάμπας, which in the LXX Septuagint represents the Hebrew lappîd 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 lappîd 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 lappîd 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 ḫuppah, (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 pitch—these 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 Palestine^{2 [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.

TORCH.—See Lamp, § 1; Lantern.

tôrch (לפּיד, lappı̄dh; λαμπάς, lampás; 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.

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."