Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 1:13

"And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were abiding; both Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James [the son] of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas [the son] of James." — Acts 1:13 (ASV)

Upper rooms in Palestinian cities were usually the choicest rooms because they were above the tumult of the crowded streets and beyond the prying eyes of passersby. For the wealthy, the upper room was the living room. Sometimes upper rooms were rented out. Often they served as places of assembly, study, and prayer. On their return to Jerusalem, the disciples “went upstairs to the room where they were staying,” a room that presumably was well known to the early Christians—perhaps the room where Jesus and his disciples kept the Passover just before his crucifixion (Mark 14:12–16). Perhaps it was also the room where he appeared to some of them after he rose from the dead (cf. Jn 20:19, 26).

Luke has already listed the names of the Twelve in his gospel (6:14–16).

Now he lists them again—though without Judas Iscariot, pointing out the incompleteness of the apostolic band and setting the stage for the account of its rectification through the choosing of Matthias. All this prepares for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the apostolic ministry. In obedience to their Lord and in anticipation of what is to follow, the apostles have returned to Jerusalem—only they lack the full complement needed for their witness within Jewry.