But Jesus answered is translated “Jesus answered the sons” by Good News Translation. It is important to mention specifically that Jesus is now addressing the sons (in Greek the plural form of the pronoun you is used); otherwise the readers will automatically assume that the words are addressed to the mother of the two men, since she is the one who made the request. At this point Matthew begins to follow more closely the Marcan form of the text.

You do not know what you are asking is a fairly literal rendering of the Greek text, and it is found in a number of English translations.

Are you able has sometimes been rendered “Are you willing” or “Are you prepared.”

Cup is qualified by Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “cup of suffering,” to show that the term is used figuratively. If translators retain the image of cup, they must be sure that readers do not think Jesus is referring literally to something he will drink. Rather he is referring to the bitter suffering he must experience. Barclay completely does away with the figure: “Can you pass through the bitter experience through which I must pass?” Others have had “Are you willing (or, able) to suffer as I am going to suffer?” In some languages it will be impossible to speak of “drinking a cup,” since one actually drinks from a cup. New American Bible resolves this dilemma by translating the question raised here as “Can you drink of the cup I am to drink of?” Then in verse 23 the response of Jesus is phrased as “… from the cup I drink of….” Phillips overcomes the difficulty by dropping the cup imagery altogether: “Can you two drink what I have to drink?”

We are able (Good News Translation “We can”) is the answer of the two sons of Zebedee. It is obvious that a first person exclusive form of the pronoun We should be used; moreover it should be a form which will refer only to two persons (the two sons) and not to three (the two sons plus their mother), if the receptor language requires such a distinction.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .