Is the Lamb called 'light' or 'lamp' in Revelation 21:23?

Lamp — and John chose that word deliberately.

"For the glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb." — Revelation 21:23

The word John uses for the Lamb is lychnos (λύχνος, G3088), which means lamp — a physical device that holds and channels light from another source. He doesn't use phos (φῶς, "light") or phoster (φωστήρ, "luminary"). A lamp is an instrument, not a source.

The verse actually contains three distinct light terms doing three different jobs. The glory of God (he doxa tou theou) is the originating light source — the verb says it "illuminated" the city, which is the action of a source. The Lamb is the lamp — the instrument through which that glory becomes accessible to the city. And in the next verse (Revelation 21:24), the nations walk by "the light of it" (phos) — the resulting illumination that fills the city.

This distinction matters because of what the Gospel of John says. In John 1 and John 8:12, Jesus is called "the light of the world" — phos, the source-word. In Revelation 21, he's the lamp. That's not a contradiction — it's a shift in category and moment. In the Gospel, the incarnate Christ enters a dark world and is the light. In the New Jerusalem, the glorified Lamb mediates the Father's uncreated glory to a redeemed city. Different eschatological moment, different optical metaphor.

John carries this through the whole book. Revelation 18:23 describes Babylon with its lamp (lychnos) extinguished forever. Revelation 22:5 says the lamp won't even be needed in the final age because the Lord God illuminates directly — no mediation required. The arc runs from Babylon's extinguished lamp, through the Lamb as lamp in the New Jerusalem, to unmediated divine light at the end.

Read the full taxonomy of John's light vocabulary in Revelation