The images derive from the small living accommodations in which the ordinary disciples were raised. The basket can be used to snuff out a candle quickly. The notion that one might place an oil lamp under a bed is comical and absurd, for then it does not help you at all when you recline at table or in the night. By these laborious references, Jesus strongly emphasizes the self-evident truth that a lamp is placed on a stand. From this place the light shines higher and farther, and that is the purpose of a lamp. It looks like a naïve observation, and it makes the listeners ashamed. It seems that things that are so foolish in the image really happen!1
21 Il leur dit encore: Apporte-t-on la lampe pour la mettre sous le boisseau, ou sous le lit? N'est-ce pas pour la mettre sur le chandelier?