Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
Matthew 6:6 tells believers to pray in their "closet": meaning literally inside a small storage closet or wardrobe.
In 1611 English "closet" meant any private room, not a small storage space for clothes.
Matthew 6:6, in every translation this tool compares.
Matthew 6:6 (KJV) reads: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." A 1611 "closet" was simply a private chamber: a room a household might use for private business, safekeeping valuables, or, as here, solitary prayer. The word comes from French closet, "small enclosure," but denoted a room, not a cupboard.
It did not mean a cramped, shelf-lined space for hanging clothes, which is the picture the word conjures for a modern reader. Jesus's instruction is simply "go somewhere private and shut the door": any room that gets you away from an audience qualifies, not a specific type of small room.
