In the times of Jesus the word “Upper” referred to the neighborhood of Jerusalem we call today Mt. Zion. It was a suburb of Jerusalem, inside the walls (The walls of today are from the 16th century, not from the time of Jesus).
In the days of Jesus an “upper room” could mean one or all of several places; an upstairs room of a building, an elegant room or a room in an elite neighborhood of Jerusalem
From history and archaeological excavations we know that the priests lived on Mt. Zion in quite luxurious dwellings, and they supplemented their income by renting rooms to pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the three pilgrim festivals; Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.
Jesus and His disciples, also came to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals, however, stayed on the Mt. of Olives, possibly, being people of moderate means, they couldn’t afford the rent to stay on Mt. Zion for the whole duration of the feast, which was 8 days.
They could, however, afford to rent a luxury room for a few hours to celebrate the Passover meal in fitting elegance. This is, possibly, the reason why they return to Mt. of Olives after the meal and Jesus is betrayed there and not in the Upper Room.
The building in which we see the Upper Room today was built by the Crusaders(12th century.) over the tomb of David, and was used as a dining room of their Monastery of Mt. Zion.
The Crusaders believed that three events took place here: The burial of King David, The Last Supper and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
This belief is based on a verse in the Gospels where Peter, on the occasion of the Pentecost, says; “And David’s tomb is with us here to this day”. This places David’s Tomb and the Pentecost at the same site.
Pentecost is in turn connected to Passover because on Passover the Jews became a free people and, as free people they could accept G-d’s law, which they received on Mt. Sinai on the 50th day after Passover.
An additional factor uniting the three events is the Jewish tradition that David was born and died on Pentecost.
The prophet Isaiah says that “Torah”(knowledge of G-d) will go out from Zion and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem.
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