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.

The meaning and usage of words in any language change over time. A word can mean one thing in one century and something entirely different in the next. These changes can impact how we read older writings in our own language without our even realizing it. We see a familiar word and read it with its modern definition without having any reason to pause and think about it, and thus we walk away with a different sense of the passage than the author intended. There are many such instances in old Bible translations like the KJV. For an example of this, let’s take the word “closet.”

When thou prayest, enter into thy closet

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) has been one of the most influential passages in all the Bible. Throughout the centuries, Christians have drawn from these particular words of Jesus’ instruction and advice for all areas of life. Some of these applications have been profound inner matters of the soul while others have been practical expressions of outer habit and piety. Among the latter, one of the more well known in modern times has been the idea of the “prayer closet.” The idea, according to those who practice it, is to empty out a closet or storage area and set it aside as a private, quiet, isolated place for prayer. This practice is derived from the wording of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly,” (Matthew 6:6, KJV).

Some, taking the wording here quite literally, clean out a closet to make room for a prayer space inside. There is certainly nothing wrong with such a practice, and it can be a helpful aid to a disciplined and consistent prayer life, but is that really what Jesus was talking about? No, actually it isn’t. Crucial to this application of the passage is the KJV’s use of the word “closet.” Today, a closet is a storage room or a small enclave where you normally hang clothes. In 1611, however, that’s not what the word meant. Instead, the word “closet” simply meant a private room. All the major English translations leading up to the KJV used the word “chamber.”¹See the Tyndale New Testament, Coverdale Bible, Matthew Bible, Great Bible, Geneva Bible, and Bishops Bible Modern translations simply render the word “room” (ESV, NIV, NKJV), “inner room” (NASB), or “private room” (CSB). The term likely referred to one’s bedroom, the private area of one’s home where guests and visitors are not prone to enter and see what you are doing. That is, indeed, the real point. When we read the greater context, we see:

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly,” (Matthew 6:5-6, KJV).

Hypocrites pray in public for all to see and hear. They are viewed as spiritual and righteous by all their public onlookers. Jesus warns us not to be like that. Instead, pray secretly where only God knows you are doing it. In this way, you will avoid the faithless motives of immediate reward through the praise of men, and instead, your prayer will be to and for God alone since he is the only one who knows you are praying. The passage has nothing to do with “closets” in today’s sense of the word. Indeed, the passage isn’t really about exactly where you pray at all, so long as the place is not public and visible to others. Distracted by the word “closet,” however, and misled by its changing meaning, many have missed the deeper point and focused on the wrong thing.

That which ye have spoken where?

We see the same word show up elsewhere in Jesus’ teachings. In Luke, for example, we read:

“Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops,” (Luke 12:3, KJV).

Once again, we have to remember that “closet” meant “private room.” Jesus is not talking about people having conversations inside clothing closets or storage lockers. Note, again, how other English Translators both before and after the KJV have rendered the word in this verse:

“Secret places,” (Tyndale New Testament, see also the Matthew Bible, Great Bible, Geneva Bible, Bishops Bible).

“Chambers,” (Coverdale Bible).

“Inner rooms,” (NASB, see also NIV, NKJV)

“Private rooms,” (ESV, see also CSB).

The point is simply that whatever you think you have said or done in secret will ultimately be brought out, if not in this life, then in the final judgment. The KJV translators were not wrong to use the word “closet.” It was a proper word in their day (though, even then, it was by no means the only word one might choose, as we see by referencing other early translations. “Closet” was right, but it was not the “one perfect translation” of the word even in its own day.) Reading these and other similar verses in the KJV today, however, we can misunderstand them or get ourselves sidetracked in a way that the translators never intended. The words have changed in meaning, and it is helpful to have translations that use words the way we use them today.