Exegesis:

ei boulei ‘if you will,’ i.e. ‘if you decide so,’ not ‘if you are willing to grant me what I want,’ cf. Plummer. boulomai, cf. on 10.22.

parenegke touto to potērion ap’ emou ‘take this cup away from me.’

plēn ‘but,’ cf. on 18.8.

mē to thelēma mou alla to son ginesthō ‘not my will but your (will) be done.’ For to thelēma cf. on 12.47. It should be noted that mou is a less emphatic possessive pronoun than to son. ginesthō lit. ‘must happen,’ is a very general expression.

Translation:

Remove this cup from me. One may have to add a reference to the intention of the act, cf. e.g. ‘take this can/mug from my hand that I need not drink it’ (Sranan Tongo); or to explain the metaphorical meaning of cup, ‘cup of heaviness’ (Guhu-Samane), ‘trouble bowl’ (Zarma); or to substitute a non-metaphorical rendering, e.g. ‘take away this pain/affliction from me’ (Tae’ 1933, similarly in a Copainalá Zoque dialect), ‘free me from having to suffer this trial’ (Dios Habla Hoy), and cf. ‘if there were some way in which you would not allow suffering to come to me’ (Tzeltal).

Not my will, but thine, be done, or, ‘not what I wish/desire be done but (only) what you wish/desire,’ ‘do not do what (or, do not let it happen just as) I want….’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.