This article is part of a series on the changing meaning of English words and its impact on the King James Only debate. To see the introduction to this series, click The King James Version and the changing use of words.
However we may wish it to be so, words are not permanent things. Some once-popular words are now long forgotten, while new words unknown to our forebearers are regularly added to our vocabulary. But perhaps more importantly, words change in their meaning even while remaining in use. Words that meant one thing even a few generations ago may now mean something completely different to present-day English speakers. Such changes can impact how we read, understand, and apply older English writings without our even realizing it, leaving us with a completely wrong impression of what the original writer or translator actually meant. The words in the KJV are no exception. There are many places where the translators used words that were quite common then and that are still common now but mean something different now than they did then, and this can lead to confusion. For an example of this, let’s consider the word “careful.”
Be careful for nothing
Today, “careful” means to be alert and pay attention to what you are doing and to your surroundings. Based on this definition, the Apostle Paul gives us some unusual advice:
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God,” (Philippians 4:6).
Is it really virtuous to avoid being careful? Should prayer and thanksgiving really somehow lead us to be careless? Paul doubles down, though, saying elsewhere things like:
“But I would have you without carefulness…” (1 Corinthians 7:32, KJV).
Paul very clearly does not want Christians to be careful. This seems quite strange! What on Earth could be wrong with being careful? Is Paul perhaps saying that, if we give everything to God in prayer, He will protect us and so we don’t even need to be careful anymore? Is being careful actually a sign of some lack of faith? No, that’s actually not what Paul is saying at all. Clearing up the confusion can be as easy as looking at a few more translations. In Philippians 4:6, for example, we read in other versions:
“Be anxious for nothing…” (NASB, see also ESV, NKJV, NIV).
“Don’t worry about anything…” (CSB).
And in 1 Corinthians 7:32, we see:
“I want you to be free from anxieties…” (ESV).
“But I want you to be free from concern…” (NASB, see also NIV, CSB).
Careful was, back then, synonymous with being worried or anxious. It meant, quite literally, “full of care.” “Care” in this context means worry or concern. While we no longer use the word “careful” in this way, we do still preserve this root meaning of “care” in terms like “carefree” and idioms like “she doesn’t have a care in the world.” Paul does not wish us to be careless or to lack attention; he wants us to be free from anxiety and unburdened by worldly concerns.
Are we supposed to be careless in the year of drought?
To take another example, Jeremiah writes the following blessing on the faithful:
“For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit,” (Jeremiah 17:8, KJV).
When it says that she will not be “careful” in the year of drought, it is not saying that such a person will not be prepared for or diligent in hard times. It is saying that such hard times will not worry them or give them anxiety because God will see them through. This is why modern translations here read:
“…it will not be anxious in a year of drought…” (NASB, see also ESV, NKJV).
“…It will not worry in a year of drought…” (CSB, see also NIV).
The issue, again, is concern or worry rather than “carefulness” as we would think of it today. So too when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood threatened before the fiery furnace for refusing to worship the golden image:
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter,” (Daniel 3:16, KJV).
They are not sheepishly claiming that they were careless or ill-prepared in their answer. They were, rather, boldly declaring that it did not worry them to defy the king in this regard because they feared God rather than men. They didn’t need to defend themselves to the pagan king. God was perfectly capable of defending them. This was an example of the boldness of faith driving out anxiety and concern, exactly what all the other passages we have looked at were pointing to. In 1611, “careful” was an ideal word for these and other verses, but today the word has shifted in its meaning so that it no longer says to us what it said to them. Today, it is as likely to confuse as to accurately communicate, which is why more recent translations have updated the wording to reflect the language as we speak it today.
