Translation commentary on Mark 14:23

Text:

Before potērion ‘cup’ Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick add to ‘the,’ which is omitted by all other modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

potērion (cf. 7.4) ‘cup’ containing the wine.

eucharistēsas (cf. 8.6; 6.41) ‘giving thanks’: as already seen, the same as eulogēsas ‘blessing.’ Jeremias calls the verb eucharisteō a “Graecising” of the Semitic term eulogeō. Bengel (on Mt. 26.26) says of the two: “Each verb explains the other.”

epion ex autou pantes ‘they all drank from it,’ i.e. ‘they all drank some of its contents’: the cup was passed from disciple to disciple until they had all drunk of the wine.

Translation:

Had given thanks may require an object, e.g. ‘gave thanks to God.’

Gave it means ‘he gave the cup.’

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 14:23

14:23a

Then: In Greek this verse begins with the simple connector that is often translated as “and.” The Berean Standard Bible uses the word Then here because it introduces the next event. Use a natural expression in your language for introducing the next event in a story. For example:

Then
-or-
After that

He took the cup: The Greek words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He took the cup are literally “having taken a cup.” This cup was full of wine. (This wine reminded the Jews of the lamb’s blood that their ancestors put over their doors so that their firstborn sons would be saved from death.) In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example, the New Living Translation says:

he took a cup of wine.

Wine is a drink made from the fermented juice of grapes. If you need to mention “wine,” use the same word as in 2:22a.

It is a historical fact that they drank wine. However, the fact that it was fermented is not in focus. So you can also translate this as:

he took a cup filled with juice made from a fruit called grapes

In some areas, people do not have a drink made from the fermented juice of grapes. If that is true in your area, you may need to use a more general expression. For example:

cup of fermented fruit juice

cup: The type of cup that Jesus used was probably made from clay. It may have been like a bowl. The disciples present would drink in turn from the same cup.

In your translation you may use a term that refers to the type of container that people normally drink from. Some examples are: a glass, a gourd or a metal container.

14:23b

gave thanks: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gave thanks indicates here that Jesus thanked God for the wine. He also did that for the bread in 14:22. This is not the same Greek verb that Mark used in 14:22. See the note in 14:22b–c for a discussion of the different Greek verb used in that verse.

and gave it to them: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as gave is the same word that it translated as “gave” in 14:22c. It indicates that Jesus gave or handed his disciples the cup so that they would drink some of the wine in it.

Here are some other verbs that may be appropriate here:

gave
-or-
handed
-or-
passed

Use a word that is natural in your language for this kind of action.

14:23c

and they all drank from it: Each of the disciples took the cup one by one, and each person drank some of the wine in the cup. In some languages some of this implied information may need to be made explicit. For example:

They all passed it around and drank some of the wine.

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