Bible Dictionary
Parlor
A parlor was a private chamber or audience room. Biblical translations use the term for an upper cooling room, a guest chamber, or rooms connected with the temple.
Definition
A parlor was a chamber used for a particular official or domestic purpose. In older English biblical usage, the term could refer to an audience chamber, a guest chamber, or chambers connected with the temple. Modern translations render the several underlying Hebrew terms more specifically.
Biblical Usage
The term is used of Eglon’s audience chamber, Samuel’s guest chamber, and the chambers associated with the temple. These references concern rooms for receiving people, hosting a sacrificial feast, or forming part of the temple complex.
Historical Background
The Authorized Version’s single term represents different kinds of rooms. Revised Version renderings include “upper room,” “guest-chamber,” and “chambers,” reflecting their differing functions.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
a word in English usage meaning the common room of the family, and hence probably in Authorized Version denoting the king’s audience-chamber, so used in reference to Eglon. (Judges 3:20-25)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>par'-ler: This word in the King James Version, occurring in Jud 3:20-25; 1Sa 9:22; 1Ch 28:11, is in every instance changed in the Revised Version: in Judges into "upper room," in 1 Samuel into "guest-chamber," in 1 Chronicles into "chambers," representing as many Hebrew words.</p><p>See HOUSE.</p>