[b]Exodus 25:31-32 - "You are to make a menorah of pure gold. It is to be made of hammered work; its base, shaft, cups, ring of outer leaves and petals are to be of one piece with it. It is to have six branches extending from its sides, three branches of the menorah on one side of it and three on the other."[/b] The word Candlestick in the KJ english is from the Hebrew word "[i]menorah[/i]." This word is taken from the word "[i]ner[/i]" or "[i]light[/i]." The ner forms the middle of the word Menorah. With the addition of the prefix and suffix the light now becomes the apparatus from which the light shines, illuminates or exposes. If you read the text casually you would conclude that this lampstand is formemd with six branches, however a closer study reveals a middle shaft called a "yarek." The six branches actually extend from this shaft and all seven branches form the menorah that is one beaten work. This is the meaning behind the supplied phrase "[i]of the same[/i]." The word "[i]it[/i]" in verse 32 refers back to the shaft. The word "yarek is generally translated as "thigh,loins or body." The six branches extend out from the shaft and are yet one with the shaft. The Menorah is all made from the same material. Is it just a coincidence that believers of the Messiah are reffered to as branches in Romans 11? Is it just happenstance that these branches are all one with the central shaft of the tree, and called one body? Is it just a luck of the draw that Yeshua uses this lampstand to refer to himself in John 8:12? [i]"Yeshua spoke to them saying, 'I am the light of the world.'"[/i] The greek word used for light is "[i]Phos[/i]" and means: emitted by a lamp. Yeshua said He was the Menorah, the apparatus from which the light shines. We clearly see that the menorah is of the very same substance as the branches and all can only emit the light which is HaShem. Yeshua is not HaShem, He, like us, is the apparatus from which the light shines.