Luke 22:42

22:42 please take this cup of suffering away: A cup is a metaphor for experiencing either judgment or blessing (see, e.g., Pss 23:5; 75:8; 116:13; Isa 51:17). Jesus felt all the emotions of his humanity, including fear and anxiety.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 22:42. Εἰ βούλει παρενεγκεῖν, if thou he willing, remove) The Infinitive put for the Imperative is a frequent usage of the Greeks. See note on Rev 10:9.[246] And in this passage, indeed, such an Enallage (or change of mood and tense) expresses the reverential modesty of Jesus towards the Father. But in this passage, if we suppose an aposiopesis of the verb παρένεγκε [and make παρενεγκεῖν the Infin. after βούλει, this feeling of reverential modesty will be still more expressively conveyed.

[246] The Infinitive expressing the absolute idea of the verb, irrespective of the particular relations of mood and tense, tends to impart the feeling of majesty to the language when used for the Imperative; especially when God speaks. It was often used archaically for the Imperative, and also for the Imperfect Indicative, in both Latin and Greek.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 22:42 . πάτερ , Father! the keynote, a prayer of faith however dire the distress. εἰ βούλει , etc.: with the reading παρένεγκε the sense is simple: if Thou wilt, take away. With παρενεγκεῖν or παρενέγκαι we have a sentence unfinished: “apodosis suppressed by sorrow” (Winer, p. 750), or an infinitive for an imperative (Bengel, etc.). The use of παρ . in the sense of “remove” is somewhat unusual. Hesychius gives as synonyms verbs of the opposite meaning παραθεῖναι , παραβαλεῖν . The ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ leaves no doubt what is meant. In Lk.’s narrative there is only a single act of prayer. The whole account is mitigated as compared with that in Mt. and Mk. Jesus goes to the accustomed place, craves no sympathy from the three, kneels, utters a single prayer, then returns to the Twelve. With this picture the statement in Luk 22:43-44 is entirely out of harmony.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(42) Not my will, but thine, be done.—See Notes on Mat_26:39. Here there is a more distinct echo of the prayer which He had taught His disciples. He, too, could say, “Lead us not into temptation,” but that prayer was subject, now explicitly, as at all times implicitly, to the antecedent condition that it was in harmony with “Thy will be done.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

42. if thou be willing] The principle of His whole life of suffering obedience, Joh_5:30; Joh_6:38.

this cup] Mat_20:22; comp. Eze_22:31; Psa_75:8. This prayer is an instance of the “strong crying and tears,” amid which He “learned obedience by the things which He suffered,” Heb_5:7-8.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven,.... Whether this was Michael the archangel, as some have conjectured, or Gabriel, or what particular angel, is not for us to know, nor is it of any importance: it is certain, it was a good angel: "an angel of God", as the Ethiopic version reads; since he came from heaven, and was one of the angels of heaven, sent by God on this occasion; and it is clear also, that he was in a visible form, and was seen by Christ, since he is said to appear to him:

strengthening him; under his present distress, against the terrors of Satan, and the fears of death, by assuring him of the divine favour, as man, and of the fulfilment of the promises to him to stand by him, assist, strengthen, and carry him through what was before him; and by observing to him the glory and honour he should be crowned with, after his sufferings and death, find the complete salvation of his people, which would be obtained hereby, and which was the joy set before him; and which animated him, as man, to bear the cross, and despise the shame with a brave and heroic Spirit. Now, though God the Father could have strengthened the human nature of Christ, without making use of an angel; and Christ could have strengthened it himself, by his divine nature, to which it was united; but the human nature was to be brought into so low a condition, and to be left to itself, as to stand in need of the assistance of an angel: and this shows not only the ministration of angels to Christ, as man, but that he was at this present time made a little lower than the angels, who was the Creator and Lord of them; as he afterwards more apparently was, through the sufferings of death.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Ver. 42. lf thou be willing] He was so astonished with the greatness of his present pressures, that he seems for a time to suffer some kind of forgetfulness of his office.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We have a larger account given us of our Saviour’s prayer, See Poole on "Mat 26:39", and following verses to Mat 26:46. See Poole on "Mar 14:35", and following verses to Mar 14:42.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. The three synoptists give this prayer in slightly varying terms; "but the figure of the cup is common to all the three; "it was indelibly impressed on tradition. This cup, which Jesus entreats God to cause to pass from before (para) his lips, is the symbol of that terrible punishment, the dreadful and mournful picture of which is traced before him at this moment by a skillful painter with extraordinary vividness. The painter is the same who in the wilderness, using a like illusion, passed before his view the magical scene -f the glories belonging to the Messianic kingdom" (Godet). If thou be willing. He looked on in this supreme hour, just before "the Passion" really began, to the Crucifixion and all the horrors which preceded it and accompanied it to the treason of Judas; the denial of Peter; the desertion of the apostles; the cruel, relentless enmity of the priests and rulers; the heartless abandonment of the people; the insults; the scourging: and then the shameful and agonizing lingering death which was to close the Passion; and, more dreadful than all, the reason why he was here in Gethsemane; why he was to drink this dreadful cup of suffering; the memory of all the sin of man! To drink this cup of a suffering, measureless, inconceivable, the Redeemer for a moment shrank back, and asked the Father if the cross was the only means of gaining the glorious end in view the saving the souls of unnumbered millions. Could not God in his unlimited power find another way of reconciliation? And yet beneath this awful agony, the intensity of which we are utterly incapable of grasping beneath it there lay the intensest desire that his Father"s wish and will should be done. That wish and will were in reality his own. The prayer was made and answered. It was not the Father"s will that the cup should pass away, and the Son"s will was entirely the same; it was answered by the gift of strength strength from heaven being given to enable the Son to drink the cup of agony to its dregs. How this strength was given St. Luke relates in the next verse.

Self-surrender.

"Not my will, but thine, be done." These words are suggestive as well as expressive. They suggest to us

I THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF SIN. Where shall we find the root of sin? Its manifold fruits we see around us in all forms of irreligion, of vice, of violence. But in what shall we find its root? In the preference of our own will to the will of God. If we trace human wrong-doing and wrong-being to its ultimate point, we arrived that conclusion. It is because men are not willing to be what God created them to be, not willing to do what he desires them to do; it is because they want to pursue those lines of thought and of action which he has forbidden, and to find their pleasure and their portion in things which he has disallowed, that they err from the strait path and begin the course which ends in condemnation and in death. The essence of all sin is in this assertion of our will against the will of God. We fail to recognize the foundation truth that we are his; that by every sacred tie that can bind one being to another we are bound, and we belong to him from whom we came and in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We assume to be the masters of our own lives and fortunes, the directors of our own selves, of our own will; we say, "My will, not thine, be done." Thus are we radically wrong; and being radically wrong, the issues of our hearts are evil. From this fountain of error and of evil the streams of sin are flowing; to that we trace their origin.

II THE HOUR AND ACT OF SPIRITUAL SURRENDER. When does the human spirit return to God, and by what act? That hour and that act, we reply, are not found at the time of any intellectual apprehension of the truth. A man may understand but little of Christian doctrine, and yet may be within the kingdom of heaven; or, on the other hand, he may know much, and yet remain outside that kingdom. Nor at the time of keen sensibility; for it is possible to be moved to deep and to fervent feeling, and yet to withhold the heart and life from the Supreme. Nor at the time of association with the visible Church of Christ. It is the hour at which and the act by which the soul cordially surrenders itself to God. When, in recognition of the paramount claims of God the Divine Father, the gracious Savior of mankind, we yield ourselves to God, that for all the future he may lead and guide us, may employ us in his holy service; when we have it in our heart to say, "Henceforth thy will, not ours, be done; then do we return unto the Lord our God, and then does he count us among the number of his own.

III THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR. When do we reach our highest point? Not when we have fought our fiercest battle, or have done our most fruitful work, or have gained our clearest and brightest vision of Divine truth; but when we have reached the point in which we can most cheerfully and most habitually say, after Christ our Lord, "Not my will, but thine, be done;" when under serious discouragement or even sad defeat, when after exhausting pain or before terrible suffering, when under heavy loss or in long-continued loneliness, or in prospect of early death, we are perfectly willing that God should do with us as his own wisdom and love direct. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

cup

(See Scofield "Mat 26:39").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

42. εἰ βούλει. Aposiopesis. Sacrifice of His own will was the principle of His whole life of suffering obedience, Joh 5:30; Joh 6:38.

παρένεγκε. So BD, Vulg[383] It[384] &c. If παρενεγκεῖν be read with the Rec[385] or παρενέγκαι with א we must suppose that as in Luk 19:42 “sorrow has suppressed the apodosis”—Winer, p. 750.

[383] Vulg. Vulgate.

[384] It. Old Latin Version (Itala).

[385] Rec. The Textus Receptus.

τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον. Mat 20:22; comp. Eze 22:31; Psa 75:8. This prayer is an instance of the “strong crying and tears,” amid which He “learned obedience by the things which He suffered,” Heb 5:7-8.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

42.] εἰ is not to be rendered ‘utinam,’ but ‘si,’ and the sentence is broken off at ἐμοῦ: thus rendering the meaning equivalent to a wish. Some suppose παρενεγκεῖν to be an inf. for an imperative, but incorrectly.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

42. Πάτερ, εἰ βούλει, παρένεγκε. We might have expected εἰ θέλεις (comp. ἐὰν θέλῃς, 5:12), because of τὸ θέλημα in the next sentence. But this is one of the passages which tend to show that in N.T. θέλω indicates mere choice, while βούλομαι implies deliberate selection (Mat 1:19). The latter is far less common in N.T. In LXX there is not much difference.

This is the only passage in which the Attic βούλει for βούλῃ is well supported. Such forms are found in some texts Mat 27:4; Joh 11:40; Act 16:31, Act 24:8.

In D a c d e ff2 μὴ τὸ θέλημα … γενέσθω precedes εἰ βούλει … ἐμοῦ, πλήν being omitted. Several of the same authorities have a similar inversion 9:62.

The reading παρενεγκεῖν (A Q X Γ Δ Λ) turns the prayer into an unfinished pleading: “Father, if Thou be willing to remove this cup from Me.”—Comp. Exo 32:32. B D T Versions, and Orig. support παρένεγκε. Vulg. transfer calicem istum; Tert. transfer poculum istud; but he may be quoting Mar 14:36 (De Orat. 4.). Boh. Sah. Syr-Cur. Syr-Sin. have “let this cup pass.”

παρέενεγκε τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ. “This cup” and the address “Father” are in all three accounts. In O.T. the metaphor of “cup” for a person’s fortune, whether good or bad, is very common (Psa 11:6, Psa 16:5, Psa 23:5, Psa 75:8, etc.). In N.T. specially of the sufferings of Christ (Mar 14:36; Joh 18:11; Mat 20:22, Mat 20:23; Mar 10:38, Mar 10:39): comp. Rev 14:10, Rev 16:19, Rev 18:6. In class. Grk. παραφέρειν ποτήριον would mean to place a cup at the side of a person. put it on the table near him (Hdt. 1:119, 5, 133, 3; Plat. Rep. 1. p. 354). But in Plutarch παραφέρειν is used in the sense of “lay aside, remove” (Camill. 41.). Elsewhere in N.T. it is used of leading astray (Heb 13:9; Jud 1:12).

τὸ θέλημά μου. Either βούλημα or βουλή might have been used of the Father’s will. but less suitably of Christ’s (Eph 1:11). The γινέσθω is peculiar to Lk. It recalls γέηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου (Mat 6:10), which Lk. omits (11:2). For πλήν comp. 10:11, 14, 20.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.