Matthew 25:1

τότε, then, connecting what follows in the evangelist's mind with the time referred to in the previous parable, i.e., with the Parusia. δέκα παρθένοις : ten virgins, not as the usual number as to that no information is available but as one coming readily to the mind of a Jew, as we might in a similar case say a dozen. αἵτινες, such as; αἳ might have been used, but the tendency in N. T. and late Greek is to prefer ὅστις to ὅς. τὰς λαμπάδας α., their torches consisting of a wooden staff held in the hand, with a dish at the top, in which was a piece of cloth or rope dipped in oil or pitch (vide Lightfoot, Hor. Heb.). Rutherford (New Phrynicus, p. 131) says that λαμπάδας is here used in the sense of oil lamps, and that in the common dialect λαμπάς became equivalent to λύχνος. εἰς ὑπ (ἀπ -) άντησιν : vide at Matthew 8:34. τοῦ νυμφίου : the bridegroom, who is conceived of as coming with his party to the house of the bride, where the marriage feast is to take place, contrary to the usual though possibly not the invariable custom (Judges 14:10). The parable at this point seems to be adapted to the spiritual situation the Son of Man coming again. Resch thinks καὶ τῆς νύμφης a true part of the original parable, without which it cannot be understood (Aussercanonische Paralleltexte zu Mt. und Mk., p. 300).