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Where in Jerusalem Were the Disciples... 73

In 348 A.D., just a few decades after the Roman emperor Constantine declared Christianity
a lawful religion, Cyril (who later became bishop of Jerusalem) delivered a famous sermon in the
newly constructed basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. In the course of his address, he remarked that it
would have been more appropriate to speak about the holy spirit in the very place where the Pente-
cost spirit descended upon the apostles -- namely “in the Upper Church of the Apostles” (Baldi, En-
chiridion, number 730).

By this time the Judeo-Christian synagogue on Mt. Zion, which marked the supposed spot
of the house with the “upper room,” had become known as the Church of the Apostles.

A House Built on Sand

It is often positively asserted -- as if it were a recorded fact -- that this “upper room” was “the
birthplace of the Church.” However, the truth is that the historical and Biblical records offer no
proof whatsoever for the idea that the disciples were gathered in an upper room when the holy spirit
came upon them. Not only that, but there is no proof that the upper room mentioned in Acts 1:13
was ever their assembling place during the ten days of their staying behind in Jerusalem, in obedi-
ence to Yeshua’s command. The fact that Eucherius links this spot to the resurrection, and the fact
that Cyril indicates this spot is close to the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, engenders immediate sus-
picion because it can be conclusively proven that the death and Resurrection of the Messiah took
place on the Mount of Olives. For more information send for our article entitled, Just Where in Je-
rusalem Did Our Savior Die?

All that is claimed in the Bible regarding the “upper room” is that the apostles, after witness-
ing Yeshua’s ascension from the Mount of Olives, returned to Jerusalem and went to an upper room
where Peter, James, John and the other of the eleven apostles were living -- see Acts 1:12-13. What
appears from the records -- and ALL that appears -- is that those men, during their stay in Jerusalem,
had their living quarters in an “upper room.” There is no suggestion whatsoever that the living quar-
ters of these men was also the meeting place of the 120 disciples of the Messiah who were in Jerusa-
lem at that time. There is still less reason for supposing that the morning of the great Feast-day
would have found them gathered in such a place.

The Precincts of the Temple

There was, in fact, only ONE PLACE in the city of Jerusalem where devout Jews, of what-
ever sect, would have congregated on that morning. And there is only ONE PLACE where the
events recorded in Acts 2 could possibly have transpired. That place is the Temple. But I don’t base
this conclusion on inference alone. A careful study of the Bible reveals positive proof that it was in
the Temple that the holy spirit of YEHOVAH God came “suddenly” upon Yeshua’s disciples, and
that from the Temple the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God be-
gan to go forth into all the world! And I will show that it was the outflow of the Gospel -- “all the
words of this life” (Acts 5:20) -- that was prefigured by the vision of “living waters” issuing from
the Temple.

Truly, it is befitting that it should have been so. For it is in accordance with all that has been
revealed to us of YEHOVAH’s order of things, and of the connection between the Old Covenant

The Berean Voice March-April 2003