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Mark 10 · a question people ask

What are the cup and the baptism Jesus speaks of in 10:38?

In the text

Jesus asks James and John, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (10:38). They say, "We are able", and he says, "You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with" (10:39). He doesn't explain either one in this chapter, and Mark doesn't say when or how the two would drink it. Mark has cup again on the last night: "He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them" (14:23), and in Gethsemane Jesus prays, "Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire" (14:36). In Luke he says, "But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!" (Luke 12:50). The chapter doesn't say that these verses speak of the same cup or the same baptism, and these notes don't say it either.

The verses

“But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to him, “We are able.” Jesus said to them, “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with;”
Mark 10:38-39 · World English Bible
“He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them. They all drank of it.”
Mark 14:23 · World English Bible
“He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire.””
Mark 14:36 · World English Bible
“But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”
Luke 12:50 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Mark 10

Mark 10: Followed Jesus on the way

Jesus asks the same question twice in this chapter: "What do you want me to do for you?" (10:36, 10:51). James and John asked to sit at his right hand and his left in his glory. Blind Bartimaeus asked to see again, and then "followed Jesus on the way" (10:52).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions