Temple rebuilt by Herod. The magnificence of the temple rebuilt by Herod would give basis for assuming that this temple must also have contained lampstands equal in beauty and costliness to those in Solomon’s temple. We have no mention of them in the Scriptures, however. Evidence of such a lampstand is found in its mention by Josephus and its representation on a bas-relief in an interior vault of the triumphal Arch of Titus in Rome. On this arch are depicted certain items taken from Jerusalem when it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Josephus claimed to have been an eyewitness of this triumphal procession of Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus. Josephus speaks of the procession carrying “a lampstand, likewise made of gold, but constructed on a different pattern from those which we use in ordinary life. Affixed to a pedestal was a central shaft, from which there extended slender branches, arranged trident-fashion, a wrought lamp being attached to the extremity of each branch; of these there were seven.”​—The Jewish War, VII, 148, 149 (v, 5).

No one can say for certain today whether the lampstand depicted on the Arch of Titus looks exactly the same as the original from the temple in Jerusalem. Differences in opinion concern mainly the form of the base, made up of two parallel polygonal cases, the smaller one above the larger. One viewpoint is that the Roman representation on the arch is accurate but that Herod himself had changed its design from the traditional Jewish form of a triangular, or tripod, base in a “westernizing” campaign to please the Romans. Other scholars disagree that the representation is exact. Decorative panels on the base display eagles and sea monsters, which they cite as an apparent violation of the second commandment.

Some conclude that the original temple lampstand stood on three legs, basing this in part on the numerous representations of the lampstand from different parts of Europe and the Middle East dating from the third to the sixth centuries that show a tripod base, a few with animal feet. The oldest representation of the lampstand appears on coins of Antigonus II, who reigned 40-37 B.C.E. Though not well preserved, one specimen seems to indicate that the base consisted of a plate with feet. In 1969, a representation of the temple lampstand was found incised in plaster in a house excavated in the old city of Jerusalem. The schematic drawing indicates seven branches and a triangular base, all ornamented with knobs separated by two parallel lines. In the Tomb of Jason, discovered in Jerusalem in 1956 and dated to the beginning of the first century B.C.E., archaeologists found designs of a seven-branched lampstand scratched into plaster. The lower sections seem to be stuck into a box or stand.

Thus, on the basis of these archaeological findings, some object to the appearance of the base of the lampstand on the Arch of Titus and suggest among other possibilities that the carvings are a Roman artist’s conception influenced by Jewish designs familiar to him from other sources.