Bible Strands
Luke 22:42
“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus, alone in Gethsemane, has knelt and withdrawn from His disciples to pray the night before His arrest. He addresses the Father directly.
The words — boulei (βούλει) is the hinge of the sentence: "if You are willing" makes the request explicitly conditional on the Father's desire, so the submission that follows is not a fallback but the stated priority. potērion (ποτήριον) is the same "cup" word Matthew uses for the cup of judgment (Matt 26:39, 42).
The thread — Matthew 26:39 and 26:42 give the two-fold repetition; John 12:27 is the earlier echo where Jesus asks to be saved "from this hour" and then affirms the purpose.
Why it lands — It holds a real human request and a real surrender in the same breath without resolving the tension. The reader is asked to stop treating submission as the absence of struggle.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Cross-references
- John 12:27 Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
- Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
- Matthew 26:42 A second time He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”
- Mark 14:36 “Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”
- Psalms 40:8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
- John 18:11 “Put your sword back in its sheath!” Jesus said to Peter. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”
- Matthew 20:22 “You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” the brothers answered.
- John 5:30 I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
- John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.
- John 4:34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.