20:22a
“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as know means “have information about something.” The disciples asked for these positions of authority without fully knowing what it might mean to have them. By asking to have authority with Jesus, they were asking to suffer with him.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
You do not understand what you are asking (Revised English Bible)
-or-
You don’t realize what you’re asking. (God’s Word)
You do not know what you are asking: In Greek, You do not know and you are asking are plural. The mother alone asked Jesus a question, but Jesus responded to the two sons. It is possible that he included the mother in his response. But because the two men answered in 20:22c, it is best to understand Jesus’ response as addressed to the sons. If your language has both plural and dual pronouns, you should use dual pronouns here.
20:22b
Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?:
The expression drink the cup is a complex figure of speech. The cup represents the contents of the cup. The expression drink the cup compares suffering with drinking the contents of a cup. This metaphor was used in the Old Testament to represent suffering.
In this context, Jesus used this figure of speech to refer to the suffering that he would experience. In other words, Jesus asked the disciples if they were able to suffer in the same way that he would suffer.
Here are some other ways to translate this expression:
• Keep the metaphor and clearly show that the word cup represents the contents of the cup. For example:
Are you able to drink from the cup that I must soon drink from? (Contemporary English Version)
• Keep the metaphor but make explicit the meaning of the word cup. For example:
Can you drink the cup of suffering that I am about to drink? (Good News Translation)
• Change the metaphor to a simile and make the meaning of cup explicit. For example:
Can you ⌊suffer with me⌋, as though we drank ⌊suffering⌋ from the same cup?
• State the meaning directly. For example:
Can you endure the suffering that I will experience?
The word “cup” is used as a figure of speech in various places in both the Old and New Testaments. If it is not possible to use this figure of speech in your language, you may want to add a footnote that gives the literal meaning. Here is a sample footnote:
What Jesus literally said was, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?” The phrase “drink the cup” is a metaphor. In the Old Testament it often referred to the experience of suffering or of punishment from God. Here it refers to the suffering that Jesus was about to experience.
Can you: This Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Can you means “Do you have the capacity to do something.”
Here are some other ways to translate this verb:
Is it possible for you
-or-
Are you capable
-or-
Do you have the strength/power
I am going to drink: In Greek, this clause is more literally “that I am about to drink.” The Greek word that means “about to” indicates that this would happen in the near future.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
that I am about to drink (NET Bible)
-or-
that I am soon to drink
20:22c
We can: In some languages, it may be natural to add the word “Yes” here. For example:
Yes, we are able
We: If your language has both inclusive and exclusive pronouns, the pronoun We should be exclusive here. If your language has both plural and dual pronouns, the pronoun We should be dual here.
can: The verb can is the same verb as in 20:22b. You should translate it the same way in both places. For example:
Is it possible
-or-
We are capable
-or-
We have the strength/power
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