Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(shine). The temple candlestick (Ex. 25:31-40; 1 Kings 7:49). Torches (Judg. 7:16). Oriental lamps of many shapes and ornamental. Fed with oil, tallow, wax (Matt. 25:1).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
1St Century Oil Lamp
The lamp was commonly used to furnish artificial light, and numbers of them have been found in the ruins of Jerusalem and other cities, some being made of terra cotta and others of glass. In the “golden candlestick” the light was obtained from lamps, and wherever the word “candle” occurs a lamp is signified. The lamp is used symbolically for the light that is obtained from it; thus “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet” (Psalm 119:105; Prov. 6:23). The ten virgins, when they went forth to meet the bridegroom, each took a lamp (more correctly a torch); but the issue made it manifest that the lamp without oil could give no light: a striking symbol of mere profession without the Holy Spirit (Matt. 25:1-8). Oil for the light is further exemplified in the candlestick in Zechariah 4, where the seven lamps are furnished with oil by pipes from two olive trees: to these God’s two witnesses in a future day are compared (Rev. 11:4). See LIGHT.
8th Century Oil Lamp
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Meaning:
or lappid {lap-peed'}; from an unused root probably meaning to shine; a flambeau, lamp or flame
KJV Usage:
(fire-)brand, (burning) lamp, lightning, torch
“230. Torches” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Judges 7:16. He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
These “lamps” were probably torches, which could be quickly prepared for the use of the three hundred men. Lane says, that in the streets of Cairo the Agha of the police goes about at night accompanied by an executioner and a torch bearer, the latter of whom carries with him a torch which is called “shealeh.” “This torch burns, soon after it is lighted, without a flame, excepting when it is waved through the air, when it suddenly blazes forth; it therefore answers the same purpose as our dark lantern. The burning end is sometimes concealed in a small pot or jar, or covered with something else when not required to give light” (Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, vol. 1, p. 178).
“708. Torches” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Matthew 25:3- 4. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
It is difficult to tell whether lamps proper or torches are here meant. The rabbins speak of a staff used on such occasions, on top of which was a brazen dish containing rags, oil, and pitch. Chardin says that, in many places of the East, instead of torches they carry a pot of oil in one hand and a lamp full of oily rags in the other. The account given by Forbes is similar. He says: “The massaul or torch in India is composed of coarse rags rolled up to the size of an English flambeau, eighteen or twenty inches long, fixed in a brass handle. This is carried in the left hand; in the right the massaulchee (or torch-bearer) holds a brass vessel containing the oil, with which he feeds the flame as occasion requires” (Oriental Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 417).
Whether these virgins carried torches, or merely lamps, as some commentators suppose, they needed a supply of oil to replenish their light, and hence were obliged to carry “vessels” to contain the supplies of oil. Great efforts are made to have an abundance of light at Oriental weddings, which always take place at night. Reference is made to this custom of night-weddings, not only in these two verses, but also in the first verse, and in the fifth and sixth verses. Lamps, torches, and lanterns are freely used in the marriage procession, and also at the house of the bridegroom, where the ceremony is performed. Only vegetable oil, chiefly olive, is used for illuminating purposes.