Acts 1:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Blessed among women, She is scarcely exalted above the other believing women by the direct mention of Her name. But there is no doubt that John, to whom She had been entrusted by the Lord from the Cross (Jn 19:25-27), now surrounded Her with all the greater honor, love, and tenderness. So did the other Apostles and all the believers. They now recognized the whole divine majesty of their Teacher and Lord, yet were deprived of seeing Him in a sensory and bodily way. Therefore they surrounded His deeply humble Mother with all the more reverence. She, in Herself, was the summit of the virtues of created beings. Other members of this small community were the Lord's brothers according to the flesh. During the Savior's life they did not join the number of believers for a long time (Jn 7:5). Yet one must suppose that even during the Lord's life they came to believe in Him as the Messiah. We see that the risen Lord appeared especially to one of His brothers according to the flesh, James (1 Cor 15:7). Now they, together with the Apostles and the Theotokos, form the original and foundational Christian community. Finally, the author of Acts indicates one more class of persons included in the first Christian community, the broader class of disciples (verse 15). Together with the Apostles, the Theotokos, and the Lord's brothers according to the flesh, they formed the whole assembly of about one hundred twenty persons (verse 16). There were many more disciples of the Lord and faithful followers of His. Thus the risen Lord appeared to more than 500 brethren at once (1 Cor 15:6). Consequently, the disciples who were counted worthy to be witnesses of the Lord's Ascension and to be, together with the Apostles, foundation stones in the building of the Christian Church, were the best and most capable disciples. They had a more developed spiritual vision. It is very likely that among them were those 70 disciples whom the Lord, during His life, had sent to proclaim the near approach and manifestation of the Kingdom of the Messiah (Lk 10:1 and following). So here is that original community of Christ. Having been witness to the glorious Ascension of its Lord, it now returned, by His command, from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. There it went up into the prayerful upper room of a certain house. The owner, of course, was one of the followers of Jesus Christ and one of the witnesses of His Ascension. The characteristic mark of this community's outward condition was that its members all remained together. Its inward condition is expressed in this: its chief, almost exclusive occupation at that time was prayer. During the hours of prayer gatherings they visited the temple and joined with others in prayer before Jehovah (Lk 24:53). At other times they all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication (verse 14) in the house to which they had all come after the Lord's Ascension. They all continued in prayer and supplication with one accord. However diverse the persons were in character and natural gifts, they were all one in faith in Jesus Christ and in hope in His promise. The prayer of them all, like the prayer of one soul and the word of one mouth, rose to God, the Knower of hearts. Thus the believers prepared themselves to receive the Holy Spirit promised to them.

Probably this upper room was in a house whose owners were well disposed toward the Lord and His disciples, and were themselves His followers. Perhaps it was the same upper room where the Mystical Supper had been celebrated, the large upper room of Lk. 22:12.

"Where they were staying" does not mean that the disciples remained constantly and without leaving in this upper room, never dispersing. The expression is general.

It characterizes in general the outward state of the Lord's disciples after His Ascension until Pentecost. Their inward state is described in v. 14.

It means that, after returning from Olivet, the Lord's disciples did not disperse each to his own place. Rather, they went up into the known upper room, which from then on became the place of their regular prayer gatherings.

There they remained in prayer and supplication. In his Gospel Luke says that, after returning from Olivet, the Lord's disciples were continually in the temple (Lk. 24:51), glorifying and blessing God.

Here he says that they remained in the upper room. These indications are not contradictory or discordant.

From comparing them it becomes clear that the Lord's disciples remained in prayer both in the temple and in the upper room of a certain private house. That is, they were either in the temple or in the upper room, in constant prayer to God.

They were always in the temple as pious worshippers of God at the times of public prayers there. Their pious feeling found satisfaction and delight in the sacred rites of worship, not yet replaced by other sacred rites.

At other times they remained gathered in the upper room, spending the time there, as in the temple, in prayers and supplications.

Such gatherings were undoubtedly at intervals, but very frequent. This is what is indicated by the word "staying."

The names of the apostles listed here are the same, except for the fallen Iscariot, and almost in the same order as in the Gospels (cf. Mt. 10:2-4; Mk. 3:17-18; Lk. 6:14-16).

This enumeration here has the purpose of indicating, at the beginning of the book, the persons who formed the center of the first Christian community. The writer of Acts intends to describe their deeds in his book.

"Luke mentioned the disciples by name not without reason," says Saint John Chrysostom. "Since one of them became a traitor, another denied, a third did not believe, and afterward almost all fled, he shows that except for the one traitor all were intact."

The upper room into which the apostles now gathered was, according to tradition, the same upper room of Zion in which Jesus Christ celebrated the Mystical Supper.

It was also where the apostles later gathered for Christian worship, while for common prayers they went to the Jerusalem temple. There much remained edifying, while Christian worship was only beginning to be ordered.

This upper room was in the upper part of a house belonging to a Christian family, which adorned it, preparing to receive worshippers, especially for the celebration of the Holy Mysteries (see Lk. 22:12).

The freedom with which the holy apostles hurriedly entered this upper room, and their long stay in it, show that this upper room was the first Christian temple.

Today the place of this upper room is shown not far from the former palace of King David, almost beside the monastery of Saint James, which belongs to the Armenians.

The very number of those represented as staying in this upper room does not allow us to think so. The twelve Apostles, the Most Holy Mother of the Lord, the myrrh-bearing women and other pious women, and the other disciples of the Lord were there. The Evangelist counts them all as "about one hundred twenty persons" (Acts 1:16). Would it have been fitting, convenient, or possible for them to dwell in one upper room? What, then, was this upper room? It recalls to me the "large upper room, furnished" (Lk 22:12), mentioned by the same Evangelist. Concerning it the Lord said to Peter and John: "Prepare the Passover there." There He instituted and first celebrated the Mystery of His Body and Blood. Either this is the same upper room in its very place, or at least the two rooms are the same in purpose and dignity. Its purpose was not that people should spend day and night in it, eat and sup, sit and rest there. Its purpose was that those staying in it "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." In it the Lord's Mystical Supper was celebrated. In it Matthias was chosen for sacred ministry and numbered with the apostolic choir. This was an upper room that rose upward, above everything earthly and worldly. By the pious spirit of those who stayed in it, it touched what is heavenly and divine. Therefore it finally received the highest privilege: heaven and the Godhead appeared there solemnly and wondrously. The Holy Spirit not only animated the Apostles by His almighty breath. He not only enlightened their minds with fiery tongues, enkindled their hearts, and formed their tongues for the worldwide preaching of salvation. He also filled the very place of their stay with His holiness and grace. He "filled the whole house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). Once more I ask: what is this upper room? I hope what I have said so far is sufficient to justify the final answer that I give to the proposed question. The upper room of Zion, the apostolic upper room, the upper room of the descent of the Holy Spirit, is nothing other than the first model of the holy Christian temple. Conversely, the holy Christian temple is the repeated, renewed, and multiplied apostolic upper room of the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is true that today you have not heard here "a sound as of a rushing mighty wind" (Acts 2:2). You have not seen fiery tongues. No one here speaks in the different tongues of many peoples. But consider this: even in the apostolic upper room, or otherwise, in the apostolic holy temple, the shaking mighty wind was not heard every day. The fiery tongues appeared only once. Yet at other times that temple was not deprived of the grace with which the Holy Spirit had filled it. Without the original wondrous movement and fiery brilliance, the holy Apostles continued to impart the same gift of the Holy Spirit. They did so in the quiet laying on of hands, which extends by succession even to the present hierarchic sacred actions in our sanctuaries. "Tongues," says the Apostle Paul, "are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers" (1 Cor 14:22). That is, the wondrous gift of speaking different unlearned tongues was sent down by God for people who had not yet believed. Through the given knowledge of a language, instruction in the faith could be given to them. At the same time, the miraculous gift would assure them of the divinity of the faith. But for those who have already believed, this sign is not needed. As the divine faith spread over the earth, the miraculous gift of tongues diminished. Therefore the concealment of this gift is not a lack of grace, but the cessation of need. The Lord does not approve in believers the search for visible, confirming signs. Rather, He ascribes special dignity to the faith that does not require them. "Blessed," He says, "are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (Jn 20:29).