Exegesis:

abba ho patēr (Rom. 8.15, Gal. 4.6) ‘Abba, Father’: abba represents the Aramaic ’aba’, ‘Father,’ used in prayer. From its occurrence in Romans and Galatians, it would appear that this bi-lingual expression was used in prayer, as an address to God: ‘O my Father!.’

panta dunata (cf. 9.23; 10.27) ‘all things are possible,’ ‘(you) can do all things.’

parenegke (only here in Mark) ‘take away,’ ‘remove’: Field defines it, ‘turn aside, cause to pass by.’

to potērion touto ‘this cup’: in a figurative sense, of impending affliction (as in 10.38f.). In the context, ‘this cup’ and ‘the hour’ (in the previous verse) refer to the same experience.

egō … su ‘I … you’: the pronouns are emphatic.

Translation:

Abba, Father tends to cause a number of difficulties in translating. First, a transliteration of abba may, by coincidence, already have a meaning which would make it impossible in combination with ‘Father’ or it may, as in some instances, actually mean ‘father.’ For example, in Eastern Krahn, a language of Liberia, the correct transliteration of abba is aba, but this is a word meaning ‘our father.’ It cannot, however, be used with the following ‘my Father’ (the word father should be possessed). The only solution in this instance is to drop the expression Abba and translate simply ‘my Father.’ A similar problem exists in Barrow Eskimo, where the transliteration of abba would be aappa, which actually means ‘father,’ but in this type of context Jesus would have to say ‘my father’ (aappaang), or the expression would be a denial of his own sonship. Moreover, it is impossible to use aappa, aappaang, literally ‘father, my father.’ Again, the only solution is to drop the transliteration.

In most languages, of course, it is possible to use the transliterated expression equivalent to Abba, but it may not be possible to use it in an appositional expression with much meaning, and it is scarcely warranted to put in an explanatory phrase, as though this would be a part of the prayer of Jesus to his Father. Accordingly, the best which can be done is to reproduce the Abba, despite its relative meaninglessness and add ‘father’ or ‘my father,’ immediately following.

All things are possible to thee must usually be shifted to a more direct form of expression, e.g. ‘you can do anything’ or ‘you are able to do everything.’

Remove this cup from me may be badly understood if translated literally, e.g. ‘remove this cup which is stuck to me’ or ‘take away this cup which I have.’ In some instances, where the figure of ‘cup’ is utterly meaningless (and in fact quite misleading) a phrase has been added to indicate the figurative nature of the expression. For example, in Chol, immediately following the use of vaso (borrowed from Spanish), the phrase ‘which is the picture of wocol’ has been employed. The Chol word wocol has a wide range of meaning, including affliction, trial, punishment, and retribution. It is particularly important that in any word for ‘cup’ one avoid the connotations of ‘cup of intoxicating liquor’ (a not infrequent mistake).

Not what I will, but what thou wilt is only very tenuously connected with the preceding. The ellipsis must sometimes be filled in as ‘but do not do what I want…’ or ‘but do not let it happen just as I want….’ In Tzeltal the contrast in desire is neatly expressed as ‘not the desire of my heart, but the desire of your heart.’

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .