The Place of the Last Supper

In preparing for the Passover meal, Jesus instructed the disciples to "go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him" (Mark 14:13). Does this bit of detail provide us with the location for Jesus' final meal with His disciples?

Scholars, like Bargil Pixner, think so. In his research and excavating on Mount Zion, Pixner thought that he had found evidence of an Essene monastery in Jerusalem. If so, this is the monastery built by Herod the Great for the monastic community. Furthermore, Pixner believed that this specific instruction by Jesus pointed to the monastery as the site of the supper. Among men in the first century, only unmarried priests would carry water. In such a case, the priest would have been an Essene. Therefore, this clue strongly points to the upper room of the monastery as the place of the Last Supper.

While we can't say for sure, this interpretation is intriguing. The traditional site of the Upper Room stands in close proximity to the Essene Quarter of old Jerusalem. As a pilgrim once said to me while standing near the Essene Gate, the supper must have taken place somewhere within a stone's throw.