Room
Room is employed in the A.V. as the equivalent of no less than four Heb. and eight Greek terms. The only one of these, however, which need be noticed here is πρωτοκλισία (Mt 23:6; Mr 12:39; Lu 14:7-8; Lu 20:46), which signifies, not a "room" in the sense we commonly attach to it of a chamber, but the highest place on the highest couch round the dinner or supper table — the "uppermost seat, "as it is more accurately rendered in Lu 11:43. SEE MEAL. The word "seat" is, however, generally appropriated by our translators to καθέδρα, which seems to mean some kind of official chair. In Lu 14:9-10, they have rendered τόπος by both "place" and "room." SEE UPPER ROOM.
The convenience of dividing habitations into separate apartments early suggested itself. We read of various kinds of rooms in Scripture — bedchamber, inner chamber, upper chamber, bride chamber, guest chamber, guard chamber, of the king's house. In early times the females and children of the family slept in one room, on a separate beds, and the males in another. SEE CHAMBER.
