Rooms and Mansions

I’m presently preparing a small talk to give at a housewarming tomorrow evening, and I think I’ve settled on talking on John 14:1-3, vaguely on the thought of although there is much enjoyment to be had in homes here on earth, it is not our permanent home, and Jesus is preparing for us a place in heaven where we shall be eternally. In my preparation, I was trying to ascertain whether my theory that the Greek word monai (translated “rooms” in NIV and ESV, or “mansions” in KJV) had any implication of permanence, which would help my point (I’m freely admitting this is not a model for faithful preparation of talks), so I’ve been flicking through commentaries. This led me to Don Carson’s excellent book on the Upper Room discourse in John, “Jesus and his Friends”, in which I found a quote that although it was not directly helpful to my question, made me laugh…

“The Authorized Version promises 'many mansions' rather than 'many rooms'; and no doubt the prospect of an eternal mansion is much more appealing to many than an eternal room. The word mansion has called forth quite a number of songs which picture eternal bliss in largely materialistic category: 'I've got a mansion just over the hilltop,' we sing, scarcely able to restrain our imaginations from counting the valets at our beck and call. 'A tent or a cottage, why should I care?/They're building a palace for me over there.' Here we even manage to upgrade 'mansion' to 'palace'.”

Well, it amused me anyway. For anyone interested, it seems that the word does suggest permanence, so it’s good, and provided me with some amusement for the afternoon.