Talk:Ner tamid

Catholics have an eternal flame like this on their altars, which is extinguished only once a year (I believe during Lent). It also represents God's constant presence. Is there a separate term for this?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.237.90.24 (talk • contribs) .

I have no idea what the term for this is, but I highly doubt they call it by it's Hebrew name. Easter does mention a "perpetual flame", so that might be it, but the truth is you should probably be asking somewhere on a catholic linked page for a mroe authorotative answer. --Bachrach44 15:06, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

• It's a Sanctuary lamp--G Clark | Talk 22:28, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Merging

Should this page be incorporated instead into either Eternal Light or Sanctuary lamp? Namrevlis 02:25, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, the content should probably be merged. But I'd say "Eternal Light" should be merged to here, not the other way around. As for the other two, maybe they shouldn't be merged, and simply link to one another. What do others think? LordAmeth 03:40, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

I haven't checked the size of Sanctuary Lamp's article, but if it's not too much larger than this one, they should be merged. This article is tiny. True, if they were both decent-sized, a link would be appropriate, but merging stubs is just practical.68.102.179.135 05:59, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

They are two different things from two seperate religions - you can't possibly merge Sanctuary lamp and ner tamid regardless of the size of the articles. --Bachrach44 18:43, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

They're both eternal flames in the sanctuaries of holy places (Church, Synagogue), meant to represent the Judeo-Christian God. This article isn't substantial enough to warrant its own entry, and thus, it should either be merged or deleted...Or, you could add content. That'd solve the problem entirely.68.102.179.135 01:01, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree that they should be merged. These clearly seem to be variants on the same religoius icon, transformed to suit different religions. I especially think that the Jewish version of this lamp should be referred to in English as possible in English Wikipedia.Namrevlis 22:17, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

They are not variants on the same thing representing the same god. The only way to make that argument is to assume that Judaism and Christianity are the same religion, which they most certainly are not. You cannot simply merge two pages because they're short on both fall under the general topic of "religion". Should we merge Chip Bok and Ed Hannigan because they both have short articles and have the same profession? Of course not! There are different items used by different religions and thus have different encyclopedia entries. --Bachrach44 22:38, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not suggesting that Christianity and Judaism are the same religion, just that many Christian rituals stemmed from Jewish ones. the Catholic Encyclopedia states that the Altar lamp is prescribed in Exodus 27:20, 21, an edict that pertained to the Temple in Jerusalem. I've done a cursory journal search and easily found Mary Athans' "Teaching about Judaism in a Christian seminary" article in Religious Education (Spring91, Vol. 86, Issue 2); she specifically points out the following:

So often the Jewish roots of liturgy are neglected, or the assumption is made that a particular custom or feast is "Christian" when indeed it was one which Christians appropriated from the Jews (e.g., the belief that Pentecost was originally a Christian feast; or failing to see the Ner Tamid, the light before the Ark, as the predecessor of the sanctuary lamp in a Catholic church.

I think that Wikipedia should reflect this by having a single article, titled "Sanctuary Lamp" or "Altar Lamp" that shows the roots of this shared tradition and also points out the special variants that each religion has adopted. Namrevlis 01:47, 14 January 2007 (UTC)