cenaculum meaning dining room
cena meaning dinner
Scripture refers to the room where the Last Supper occurred as the “cenacle” and the “upper room.”
Know history or be doomed!
The New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. A.D. 600).
The Catholic Church provided a conciliar definition of the biblical canon in A.D. 382 at the Council of Rome. What that means is that the Church approved what was in and what was out.
Saint Jerome translated the Bible from Greek into Latin between 383 and 404, but as he went along, he checked — quality assurance in modern parlance — the Old Testament against the Hebrew original. His translation is called the Vulgate.
The Council of Trent of 1545 reaffirmed, among other things, the North African Councils of Hippo and Carthage of 393-419.
The Douay-Rheims is the English translation of the Vulgate by members of the English College, Douai, France. Translators finished the New Testament in 1582, and the University of Douai published the Old Testament in two volumes in 1609 and 1610.
The King James version was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611 for use by the Church of England, not the Roman Catholic Church.
Stick with the Douay-Rheims. The 1962 Missal uses that translation. Not long ago a non-Catholic asked me if the Missal contains the Bible. I wanted to laugh out loud, but that would not be nice. The English in the Douay-Rheims, as with the King James version, is superior. There are some blog entries of hymns sung by Church of England choirs because their singing is so beautiful. I am speaking as a writer who has gained insight through the 1962 Missal.
When used as a proper noun, the “Cenacle” is the site in Jerusalem.
As a common noun, “cenacle” came into use in the late 19th century as a place where people in literary societies would meet for discussion groups.