Luke 22:12
in Luke 22And he will show you a large upper room, already furnished. Make preparations there.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And he will show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.
KJV
And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.
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This verse in Luke 22
Commentary
14 notes on this verseAnd he shall show you a large upper room furnished,.... With all things necessary, to eat and drink out of, at the passover; there make ready. The Ethiopic version adds, "for us", as in Mar 14:15. The Persic version renders it, "there prepare a place"; but this was prepared already; the words design the preparation of the passover, and every thing proper for it.
This site's exposition
the owner of that house
on Luke 22:11-13
He will show them a large upper room, already furnished, spread with cushions for the reclining posture of a formal meal. They found it just as Jesus had told them. And they prepared the Passover, securing the lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs and wine the meal required.
This site's exposition
a large upper room, already furnished
John Gill takes furnished to mean supplied with all that was needed to eat and drink at the Passover. The room was ready. Gill reads the command to make preparations as the preparing of the Passover itself and everything proper to it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Now in the upper parts he has a large room furnished, that you may consider how great were his merits in whom the Lord could sit down with His disciples, rejoicing in His exalted virtues.
Let us then ascend with the Lord united to us, to the upper part in which is the guestchamber, which is shown by the understanding, that is, the goodman of the house, to every one of the disciples of Christ. But this upper room of our house must be large enough to receive Jesus the Word of God, who is not comprehended but by those who are greater in comprehension.
Perhaps Christ speaks this as symbolizing something mystical and necessary. Wherever waters enter, the waters of holy baptism, Christ stays there. How or in what way does this happen? They free us from all impurity, and they wash us from the stains of sin. They do this so that we also might become a holy temple of God and participants in his divine nature, by participation of the Holy Spirit. So that Christ may rest and stay in us, let us receive the saving waters, also confessing the faith that justifies the wicked and raises us high so that we might be counted as an upper room.…He that would say that the soul of every saint is an upper room would not miss the truth.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Now on the same fifth day He sends two of His disciples to prepare the Passover, namely, Peter and John, the one in truth as loving, the other as loved. In all things showing, that even to the end of His life He opposed not the law. And He sends them to a strange house; for He and His disciples had no house, else would He have kept the Passover in one of them. So it is added, And they said, Where will thou that we prepare? He sends them for this reason to an unknown man: to show them that He voluntarily underwent His Passion, since He who so swayed the mind of one unknown to Him, that He should receive them, was able to deal with the Jews just as He wished. But some say that He gave not the name of the man, lest the traitor knowing his name might open the house to the Pharisees, and they should have come and taken Him before that the supper was eaten, and He had delivered the spiritual mysteries to His disciples. But He directs them by particular signs to a certain house; whence it follows, And ye shall say to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, &c. And he will show you an upper room, &c. By the day of unleavened bread, we must understand that conversation which is wholly in the light of the Spirit, having lost all trace of the old corruption of Adam's first transgression. And living in this conversation, it becomes us to rejoice in the mysteries of Christ. Now these mysteries Peter and John prepare, that is, action and contemplation, fervid zeal and peaceful meekness. And these preparers a certain man meets, because in what we have just mentioned, lies the condition of man who was created after the image of God. And he carries a pitcher of water, which signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit. But the pitcher is humbleness of heart; for He giveth grace to the humble, who know themselves to be but earth and dust.
Spiritually, however, by the city is understood the Church, which is a firm city: Psalm: "Its foundations are in the holy mountains"; and after: "Glorious things are said of you, O city of God"; and again: "Who will lead me into the fortified city"? A …
6 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church3 voices
And because he knew his disposition, he therefore adds: And he will show you a large upper room, furnished, and there prepare, as if in an honorable place. These things are plain according to the literal sense.
And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there. And going, they found it as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. The large upper room is the spiritual law that, moving out of the narrow confines of the …
Why then does the Lord observe the Passover? In order to prove by all His actions to His very last breath that He is not an opponent of the Law. Let us also eat this Passover with understanding; let us understand by the day of …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Whether it was a friend's house or a public house does not appear; but the disciples found their guide, and the house, and the room, just as he had said to them (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
proposed
The chapter which opens with these verses, begins Luke's account of our Lord's sufferings and death. No part of the Gospels is so important as this. The death of Christ — was the life of the world. No part of our Lord's history is so fully given by all the gospel writers as this. Only two of them describe the circumstances of Christ's birth. All four dwell minutely on Christ's death. And of all the four, no one supplies us with such full and interesting details as Luke.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
proposed
The chapter which opens with these verses, begins Luke's account of our Lord's sufferings and death. No part of the Gospels is so important as this. The death of Christ — was the life of the world. No part of our Lord's history is so fully given by all the gospel writers as this. Only two of them describe the circumstances of Christ's birth. All four dwell minutely on Christ's death. And of all the four, no one supplies us with such full and interesting details as Luke. We see, firstly, in these verses — that high offices in the church do not preserve the holders of them from great blindness and sin. We read that "the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Jesus." The first step in putting Christ to death, was taken by the religious teachers of the Jewish nation. The very men who ought to have welcomed the Messiah — were the men who conspired to kill Him. The very teachers who ought to have rejoiced at the appearing of the Lamb of God — had the chief hand in slaying Him. They sat in Moses' seat. They claimed to be "guides of the blind," and "lights of those who were in darkness." (Romans 2:19.) They belonged to the tribe of Levi. They were, most of them — in direct succession and descent from Aaron. Yet they were the very men who crucified the Lord of glory! With all their boasted knowledge — they were far more ignorant than the few Galilean fishermen who followed Christ. Let us beware of attaching an excessive importance to Christian ministers because of their office. Ordination and religious office confer no exemption from error. The greatest heresies have been sown, and the greatest practical abuses have been introduced into the church — by ordained men! Respect is undoubtedly due to high official position. Order and discipline ought not to be forgotten.
How the passage was read
On Luke 22:1-23On Luke 22:1-23
The cups on the table
Luke alone records TWO cups (22:17, 22:20), and the detail is at home in the feast: the Passover meal was ordered around four cups of wine, a structure already fixed in the Mishnah, the first written code of Jewish oral law (Pesachim 10:1). Passover (Pesach) is the spring feast remembering the exodus; its meal, the seder (“order”), moved through blessing, story, and psalm with a cup at each station. Jesus takes the feast's own furniture, and at the cup after supper says the words that made it new: “this cup... is the new covenant in my blood.”
The seder as Jewish families keep it today descends from the same order, reshaped after the Temple fell in AD 70; the lamb on the table then is matzah and remembrance now.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 10:1 (the four cups) · The Lord's Supper (this site's study)
The words behind it
8 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| κἀκεῖνος | kakeinos | And he | G2532 →G1565 → | 260 times |
| ὑμῖν | humin | you | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| δείξει | deixei | will show | G1166 → | 33 times |
| ἀνάγαιον | anagaion | an upper room | G508 → | |
| μέγα | mega | large | G3173 → | 243 times |
| ἐστρωμένον· | estromenon | furnished; | G4766 → | |
| ἐκεῖ | ekei | there | G1563 → | 105 times |
| ἑτοιμάσατε. | hetoimasate | do prepare. | G2090 → | 40 times |
κἀκεῖνοςAnd he
ὑμῖνyou
huminG4771 →2973 times
δείξειwill show
deixeiG1166 →33 times
ἀνάγαιονan upper room
anagaionG508 →
μέγαlarge
megaG3173 →243 times
ἐστρωμένον·furnished;
estromenonG4766 →
ἐκεῖthere
ekeiG1563 →105 times
ἑτοιμάσατε.do prepare.
hetoimasateG2090 →40 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 21:17Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,”…
it leads to
- John 13:38
“Will you lay down your life for Me?” Jesus replied. “Truly, truly, I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.
- Mark 14:72
And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he broke down…
- John 16:30
Now we understand that You know all things and that You have no need for anyone to question You. Because of this, we believe that You came from God.”
- John 13:38
Through
John 2:25He did not need any testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.
it leads to
- John 13:11
For He knew who would betray Him. That is why He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
- Matthew 9:4
But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why do you harbor evil in your hearts?
- John 6:64
However, there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him.)
- John 13:11
Through
Acts 1:13When they arrived, they went to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas…
it leads to
- Acts 20:8
Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.
- Acts 20:8
Through
Acts 20:8Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.
it leads to
- Acts 1:13
When they arrived, they went to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas…
- Acts 1:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies25
On this verse
On this chapter
- The Covenants
- Forgiving Yourself: What Scripture Says
- Gethsemane (The Garden Called the Oil Press)
- Hospitality
- Jesus on Discipleship
- Jesus on the Kingdom
Show the next 6 titles
About Luke
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Ambrose of Milan, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, On the Gospel of Luke; Bonaventure, Commentary on Luke, Chapter 22; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 141; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Luke.