ἀνώγεον

From the study of Luke 22:12

Range of meaning

From ana ('up') + gē/gaia ('ground, earth'): 'what is above the ground'. It means an upper storey, or a room built upstairs or on the flat roof of a house. It carries no special religious meaning. It is an ordinary word for part of a house.

Against the English

'Upper room' (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT) is accurate. NIV's 'a large room upstairs' says the same thing in plainer English. The capitalised 'the Upper Room' of church language is a later title, not a translation.

How it drifted

Christian tradition merged this room with the 'upper room' of Acts 1:13, where the disciples stayed before Pentecost. In Latin both became the 'Cenacle' (from Latin cenaculum), and later a building on Jerusalem's Mount Zion was venerated as the site. Acts uses a different Greek word (hyperōon), and the text never says the two rooms are the same.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare in the New Testament: only here and in the parallel Mark 14:15. It occurs in classical and later Greek in various spellings (Attic anōgeōn and others), with the sense 'upper floor' (LSJ). The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) normally uses hyperōon for the Hebrew ʿaliyyah, the roof chamber of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kgs 17:19; 2 Kgs 4:10) and Daniel's upstairs room (Dan 6:10).

From the study of Mark 14:15

Range of meaning

A room or storey built 'above the ground' (from ana, 'up', and gē, 'ground'): an upstairs room or upper floor of a house. It is a plain building word with no religious meaning of its own.

Against the English

All the major English versions say 'upper room', which is accurate. But in Christian use 'the Upper Room' has become a proper name for a holy place. The Greek just means 'an upstairs room'.

How it drifted

Later Christian devotion and pilgrimage, especially the 'Cenacle' shown to visitors on Mount Zion (the present building is medieval), turned 'an upper room' into 'the Upper Room'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used in classical and later Greek for an upper storey. Lexicons such as BDAG cite examples from Xenophon and the papyri. In the New Testament it occurs only here and in the parallel Luke 22:12. Acts 1:13 and 9:37, 39 use a different word, hyperōon, for an upstairs room.