Understanding the Cenacle on Mount Zion
Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover. […] As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. […] He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.” (Luke 22:7–12)
This two-story stone building atop Mount Zion (below) ranks among the most intriguing sites in Jerusalem. It is traditionally called the Cenacle (from the Latin coenaculum, “dining-room”) and you will find it just outside the present-day Old City walls to the south (see map). The building’s lower story has been associated since the Middle Ages with the Tomb of David, the purported burial place of the Biblical King David, while the upper story—often referred to in English as the “Upper Room”—is traditionally believed to be the place of Jesus’ Last Supper.1
Even though it suffered numerous natural and man-inflicted disasters and was claimed and successively held by the faithful of all three monotheistic religions, the Last Supper Cenacle remains standing as a testimony to a long-shared sacrality in the Eternal City. It has been a church, a mosque and a synagogue.
It was not until quite recently, however, that the location of Jesus’ Last Supper and the identity of this particular building were questioned and became an object of scholarly debate. David Christian Clausen, adjunct lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, examines the evidence for various claims regarding the historical purpose of the Cenacle in his Archaeological Views column “Mount Zion’s Upper Room and Tomb of David” in the January/February 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Regrettably, no archaeological excavation has ever been attempted at or around the alleged site of Jesus’ Last Supper and the Tomb of David on Mount Zion to assess the development, relationship or even age of the built structures. Only limited probing and non-invasive soundings were performed at different times in history—typically in association with new construction or renovation at the site.
In his latest book,2 Clausen looks at all the extant historical evidence and tries to make sense of what the limited archaeological data tell us when interpreted together with contemporary artistic representations, literary sources, accounts by Western pilgrims and the various traditions passed on through the ages.
In unraveling the complex story, Clausen tackles two sets of issues: First, when was the building we now call the Cenacle established, and what were its functions over the centuries? Second, where are the actual sites of Jesus’ Last Supper and the Tomb of David?
Biblical texts locate the Tomb of David in the City of David, the ancient settlement overlooking the Kidron Valley (1 Kings 2:10 and Nehemiah 3:14–16). It was apparently only in the Middle Ages that the burial place of King David began to be expressly associated with Mount Zion. Adding to the puzzle, however, is the uncertain location of the Biblical Zion vs. the modern-day Mount Zion. Can we safely identify the Biblical Zion with the western hill we now call Mount Zion?
Modern scholars generally argue that the Biblical Zion was located on the hill east of the present-day Mount Zion, on the site where the formerly Jebusite City of David stood; they also mostly agree that Mount Zion came to be identified with the western hill only around the turn of the era. It is thus highly unlikely that the Cenacle has anything to do with the actual tomb of David.3
Where Jesus’ Last Supper took place as narrated in the Gospels is even more intricate. Unlike with the tomb of David, the location of the Last Supper’s cenacle is not specified in the Bible.4 Nor is the location of a number of other events associated with the same building clear, including appearances by the risen Jesus (Luke 24:36; John 20:19–29), the selection of Matthias the twelfth apostle (Acts 1:26), the first Pentecost following Easter Sunday (Acts 2:1–14), and the interment of Jesus’ brother James. And literary sources, such as the anonymous pilgrim from Bordeaux and Egeria who associate the location of Jesus’ Last Supper with Mount Zion, go back only to the fourth century C.E.
As the alleged place of congregation and worship for early Christians in Jerusalem, the Cenacle on Mount Zion would be the first Christian church ever.5 So, did subsequent churches at the site of today’s Cenacle honor the location of the original Upper Room? Was the Byzantine basilica of Hagia Sion (“Holy Zion”)—built in 379–381 C.E. and demolished in 1009 C.E.—constructed to incorporate the house where Jesus’ Last Supper happened? Called “the mother of all churches,” the Hagia Sion might have been, but the sixth-century mosaics of Jerusalem from Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and St. George Church in Madaba, Jordan, which are the two earliest artistic representations of the basilica, do not support this opinion, but rather show an autonomous structure standing to the south of the Holy Zion Church.
Next, what is the relationship of the earliest architectural stages of the Cenacle to the Crusader-period Church of Virgin Mary and to the modern Dormition Abbey and the Basilica of the Assumption (or Dormition), built in the early 1900s over the western end of the Byzantine-era Hagia Sion?
But, most fundamentally: Do the Cenacle’s origins actually date back to Jesus’ time? Without new hard evidence—such as from excavations—this is impossible to tell for sure. Did other Biblical events traditionally associated with this building really take place at the same spot? We might never know.
Some scholars, including Amit Reem of the Israel Antiquities Authority, maintain that the structures detected under the Cenacle are nothing more than just remains of a late-fourth-century Byzantine church, the Holy Zion basilica. Clausen, however, asserts that the Cenacle’s oldest elements did originate before the Byzantine period.
To learn Clausen’s full argument, read his Archaeological Views column “Mount Zion’s Upper Room and Tomb of David” in the January/February 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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1. “Room upstairs” in the opening quote from Luke’s gospel corresponds in the original Greek text to the word anagaion, which denotes any upper-floor room (or elevated part) of the house. In Luke’s gospel, it serves as a dining-room (hence the Latin coenaculum).
2. David Christian Clausen, The Upper Room and Tomb of David: The History, Art and Archaeology of the Cenacle on Mount Zion (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016).
3. See Jeffrey R. Zorn, “Is T1 David’s Tomb?” BAR, November/December 2012.
4. See Matthew 26:17–20; Mark 14:12–17; Luke 22:7–12.
5. See Bargil Pixner, “Church of the Apostles Found on Mt. Zion,” BAR, May/June 1990.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on February 9, 2017.
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both sites have no archaeological evidence, l would appreciate more articles on this subject
The history and use of Mount Zion’s “King David’s Tomb” building are indeed a story ripe for clarification. The article states: “It has been a church, a mosque and a synagogue…” and also: “…no archaeological excavation has ever been attempted at or around the alleged site… ” Not quite so. Decades ago, when first-floor stones were repaired, archeologists found layers of flooring, including mosaic images dated to the Crusader period, suggesting an early church. The wall niche faces the Temple mount, which suggests an ancient synagogue. Ongoing archeological digs on Mt. Zion uncovered Mediterranean shells that are associated with the purple dye used for Jewish prayer shawls. Today the building houses an active 1st floor synagogue. During Shavous, Jews throng to Mount Zion. The 2nd floor “Upper Chamber” hosts a daily flow of pilgrims, but no Christian sect officiates regular prayer services. The 3rd story is an active mosque. Weddings and other celebrations have been held on the roof itself. All three Abrahamic religions thus coexist peacefully in relative harmony at “King David’s Tomb,” similar to the harmonious divided usage of Elijah’s Cave at the foot of Mount Carmel in Haifa. There are underground chambers which are not open to the public. Archeologists found that the original wall around Jerusalem enclosed Mount Zion, whereas the Ottoman Turk reconstruction we see today cuts across Mount Zion itself, leaving it accessible by the Zion Gate which likely did not exist during the Temple era, because that wall did not itself exist. Researchers agree that Mount Zion has been a site of active religious usage from pre-Crusader times. It is a meaningful place to visit. My comments are based on 16 years of research, visits and interviews.
During the excavations done by the Redmond wile in 1906 for the Rothschild Foundation, in the southern spur of the City of David which is build on the true Mount Zion above the Gichon spring of the Garden of Eden the Seating Upper Room in a synagogue stile was unearthed. Within the deferment artifacts a Written Stone in Greek was found telling the same story as found in Luck 22. The real City of David use to be above the Gichon Spring until King Manasseh the wicked Baal worship son of King Hezekiah. he moved the palace from Mount Moriyah = mount Zion, to the high Western hill as all the Baal worshiper use to do.
blessings, nice information. but God’s temple was located in the City of David, not the temple mount. temple mount is the original Roman Fort Antonio.
The birds depicted on the posts are not eagles but pelicans. I’ve been in the Cenacle many times. See https://www.durhamworldheritagesite.com/architecture/castle/intro/west…/pelican
The pelican was believed to pierce its own breast with its beak and feed its young of its blood. It became a symbol of Christ sacrificing himself for man – and because of this was frequently represented in Christian art.
The profound and,as yet,only partially revealed theological-historical content of The Last Supper is infinitely more important than its’ supposed location.
I believe that this belief started due to a textual association of the Upper room with David in Acts 2:29. Peter says David “both died and was buried, and his tome is with us to this day.” (NRSV) I believe that Peter was speaking figuratively, but perhaps early Christians reading this passage believed that David’s tome and the Upper Room were one and the same.
Sometimes obvious things are hidden to the eyes of people who are supposed to know jewish customs… there is no way to have a building on top of a jewish tomb… more so over David’s tomb. So the place for Yeshua’s last supper could not be associated to David’s tomb.
David was buried in the valley of the Kings below in the area of the spur, as no doubt his son King Solomon was, though his tomb has no cenotaph near Davids.. This site is just another spurious, and unproven holy site. I imagine Jesus could have celebrated the feats of Tabernacles, with which the Triumphal Entry and cries of Hoshanna are closely linked to. The room in the greek described as Estronemon, which means covered over no doubt alluded to the Succah covered with the palm fronds which are not in gree bloom and bushiness during this season anymore then the shepherd were out on Dec 25 when anyone who knows Jersualems whether would have frozen to death in a matter of hours.
Jesus last meal could have been anywhere. Maybe here maybe there, in the house of a believer or supporter where he would be assured discretion.
The caption of one of the photos reads: “Re-used in this medieval, Islamic-period dome inside the Cenacle is a Crusader-era column capital with carved eagles and other Christian symbols. Photo: Courtesy of David C. Clausen.”. I beg to differ. It has the symbol of the Eucharist (A mother pelican wounds her chest to feed two of her young with her blood) over its four faces, extremely well preserved. It astounded me how such a direct reference to the supposed character of the Cenacle was respected after the islamic recapture of the city.
The traditional location had a large Essene community. http://www.centuryone.org/apostles.html BARGIL PIXNER http://www.centuryone.org/pixner-q-a.html see also The gate of the Essenes http://www.centuryone.org/essene.html. No one notices the BIG question. How could there be a prepared room available when the city was packed tight with Passover Pilgrims? Few scholars refer to Fr. Pixner, an eminent scholar with significant additional information. For a fictional account of the Last Supper weaving the many issues into a coherent story see http://thesignofconcord.com/uploads/Bk_3_Ch_4_Last_Supper.pdf