Matthew 25:1

Ten virgins (deka parqenoi). No special point in the number ten. The scene is apparently centered round the house of the bride to which the bridegroom is coming for the wedding festivities. But Plummer places the scene near the house of the bridegroom who has gone to bring the bride home. It is not pertinent to the point of the parable to settle it. Lamps (lampada). Probably torches with a wooden staff and a dish on top in which was placed a piece of rope or cloth dipped in oil or pitch. But sometimes lampa has the meaning of oil lamp (lucno) as in Acts 20:8 . That may be the meaning here (Rutherford, New Phrynichus).