What Does Mark 10:38 Mean in the King James?
But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The cup is taken in, while the immersion closes around the whole person: two images of entering the same ordeal.
THE MEANING
Jesus asks whether they can receive the experience he receives, pictured as a cup taken within and an immersion that surrounds them. The question exposes what remains hidden inside a request until its full contents are faced. It speaks to the reader now: a desired share may include an experience that enters and surrounds the person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a share in Jesus’ place can be separated from the cup and immersion that come with it.
THE ROOT
βάπτισμα
báptisma
GROWS FROM
βάπτω
báptō
To dip or immerse.
The Greek word translated “baptism” grows from the verb for dipping or immersing, and Jesus repeats that word-family as noun and verb. Beside the cup, immersion makes the same ordeal an image that surrounds the whole person.
ALSO GROWS
baptízō: Immerse, dip
βαπτίζω
The verb names the act Jesus says he is undergoing.
baptismós: Immersion, washing
βαπτισμός
This related noun preserves the image of being immersed.
ποτήριον
potḗrion
GROWS FROM
πιν-/ποτ- (pin-/pot-, the Greek drink word-family)
Drink; drinking.
In Greek, “cup” belongs to the drink word-family: the vessel is named from drinking. Here the family makes the cup a concrete act of taking something in, not a distant emblem.
ALSO GROWS
pínō: Drink
πίνω
The verse repeats this verb around the word for cup: “drink the cup that I drink.”
póma: Drink, beverage
πόμα
This related noun names what is drunk, reinforcing the cup’s contents as something received.
THE PATTERN
A cup names a portion of experience taken in, whether it brings deliverance or suffering.
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?THE THREAD
And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:The next verse repeats the same drink-and-cup image and immersion word-family, showing that Jesus’ question names a shared experience. Their answer, “We can,” comes before they understand what that experience contains.
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