SEV Biblia, Chapter 26:39
Y yndose un poco ms adelante, se postr sobre su rostro, orando, y diciendo: Padre mío, si es posible, pase de mí este vaso; pero no como yo quiero, sino como t.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 26:39
Verse 39. Fell on his face] See the note on Luke xxii. 44. This was the ordinary posture of the supplicant when the favour was great which was asked, and deep humiliation required. The head was put between the knees, and the forehead brought to touch the earth-this was not only a humiliating, but a very painful posture also. This cup] The word cup is frequently used in the Sacred Writings to point out sorrow, anguish, terror, death. It seems to be an allusion to a very ancient method of punishing criminals. A cup of poison was put into their hands, and they were obliged to drink it. Socrates was killed thus, being obliged by the magistrates of Athens to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock. To death, by the poisoned cup, there seems an allusion in Heb. ii. 9, Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, TASTED death for every man. The whole world are here represented as standing guilty and condemned before the tribunal of God; into every man's hand the deadly cup is put, and he is required to drink off the poison-Jesus enters, takes every man's cup out of his hand, and drinks off the poison, and thus tastes or suffers the death which every man otherwise must have undergone.
Pass from me] Perhaps there is an allusion here to several criminals standing in a row, who are all to drink of the same cup; but, the judge extending favour to a certain one, the cup passes by him to the next.
Instead of proelqwn mikron, going a little forward, many eminent MSS.
have proselqwn, coming a little forward-but the variation is of little moment. At the close of this verse several MSS. add the clause in Luke xxii. 43, There appeared an angel, &c.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 39. And he went a little further , etc.] Luke says, ( Luke 22:41), about a stones cast, about fifty or sixty feet from the place where they were, and fell on his face, and prayed ; partly to show his great reverence of God, the sword of whose justice was awaked against him, the terrors of whose law were set in array before him, and whose wrath was pouring down upon him; and partly to signify how much his soul was depressed, how low he was brought, and in what distress and anguish of spirit he was, that he was not able to lift up his head, and look up. This was a prayer gesture used when a person was in the utmost perplexity. The account the Jews give of it, is this f1576 , hynp l[ ylpwnk , when they fall upon their faces, they do not stretch out their hands and their feet, but incline on their sides.
This was not to be done by any person, or at any time; the rules are these f1577 : no man is accounted fit wynp l[ lwpyl , to fall upon his face, but he that knows in himself that he is righteous, as Joshua; but he inclines his face a little, and does not bow it down to the floor; and it is lawful for a man to pray in one place, and to fall upon his face in another: it is a custom that reaches throughout all Israel, that there is no falling upon the face on a sabbath day, nor on feast days, nor on the beginning of the year, nor on the beginning of the month, nor on the feast of dedication, nor on the days of purim, nor at the time of the meat offering of the eves of the sabbath days, and good days, nor at the evening prayer for every day; and there are private persons that fall upon their faces at the evening prayer, and on the day of atonement only: they fall upon their faces because it is a time of supplication, request, and fasting. Saying, O my father ; or, as in Mark, Abba, Father, ( Mark 14:36); Abba being the Syriac word he used, and signifies, my father; and the other word is added for explanations sake, and to denote the vehemency of his mind, and fervour of spirit in prayer. Christ prayed in the same manner he taught his disciples to pray, saying, our Father; and as all his children pray under the influence of the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry Abba, Father. God is the Father of Christ, not as man, for as such he was without father, being the seed of the woman, and made of a woman, without man; nor by creation, as he is the Father of spirits, of angels, and the souls of men, of Adam, and all mankind; nor by adoption, as he is the Father of all the chosen, redeemed, and regenerated ones; but by nature, he being the only begotten of the Father, in a manner inconceivable and inexpressible by us. Christ now addresses him in prayer in his human nature, as standing in this relation to him as the Son of God, both to express his reverence of him, and what freedom and boldness he might use with him; what confidence he might put in him; and what expectation he might have of being heard and regarded by him; and what submission and resignation of will was due from himself unto him. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; meaning not only the hour, as it is called in Mark, the present season and time of distress, and horror; but all his future sufferings and death, which were at hand; together with the bearing the sins of his people, the enduring the curse of the law, and the wrath of God, all which were ingredients in, and made up this dreadful bitter cup, this cup of fury, cursing, and trembling; called a cup, either in allusion to the nauseous potions given by physicians to their patients; or rather to the cup of poison given to malefactors the sooner to dispatch them; or to that of wine mingled with myrrh and frankincense to intoxicate them, that they might not feel their pain, see Gill Mark 15:23 , or to the cup appointed by the master of the family to everyone in the house; these sorrows, sufferings, and death of Christ being what were allotted and appointed by his heavenly Father: and when he prays that this cup might pass from him, his meaning is, that he might be freed from the present horrors of his mind, be excused the sufferings of death, and be delivered from the curse of the law, and wrath of God; which request was made without sin, though it betrayed the weakness of the human nature under its insupportable load, and its reluctance to sufferings and death, which is natural; and yet does not represent him herein as inferior to martyrs, who have desired death, and triumphed in the midst of exquisite torments: for their case and his were widely different; they had the presence of God with them, Christ was under the hidings of his Fathers face; they had the love of God shed abroad in them, he had the wrath of God poured out upon him; and his prayer bespeaks him to be in a condition which neither they, nor any mortal creature were ever in. Moreover, the human nature of Christ was now, as it were, swallowed up in sorrow, and intent upon nothing but sufferings and death; had nothing in view but the wrath of God, and the curse of the law; so that everything else was, for the present, out of sight; as the purposes of God, his counsel and covenant, his own engagements and office, and the salvation of his people; hence it is no wonder to hear such a request made; and yet it is with this condition, if it be possible. In Mark it is said, all things are possible unto thee, ( Mark 14:36); intimating, that the taking away, or causing the cup to pass from him, was: all things are possible to God, which are consistent with the perfections of his nature, and the counsel of his will: and all such things, though possible in themselves, yet are not under such and such circumstances so; the removal of the cup from Christ was possible in itself, but not as things were circumstanced, and as matters then stood; and therefore it is hypothetically put, if it be possible, as it was not; and that by reason of the decrees and purposes of God, which had fixed it, and are immutable; and on account of the covenant of grace, of which this was a considerable branch and article, and in which Christ had agreed unto it, and is unalterable; and also on the score of the prophecies of the Old Testament, in which it had been often spoken of; and therefore without it, how should the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? they would not have been the Scriptures of truth. Besides, Christ had foretold it himself once and again, and therefore consistent with the truth of his own predictions, it could not be dispensed with: add to all this, that the salvation of his people required his drinking it; that could not be brought about no other way in agreement with the veracity, faithfulness, justice, and holiness of God. This condition qualities and restrains the above petition; nor is it to be considered but in connection with what follows: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt ; which shows that the request was far from being sinful, or contrary to piety to God, or love to men, or to true fortitude of mind; the pure natural will of Christ, or the will of Christs human nature, being left to act in a mere natural way, shows a reluctancy to sorrows, sufferings, and death; this same will acting on rational principles, and in a rational way, puts it upon the possibility the thing, and the agreement of the divine will to it. That there are two wills in Christ, human and divine, is certain; his human will, though in some instances, as in this, may have been different from the divine will, yet not contrary to it; and his divine will is always the same with his Fathers. This, as mediator, he engaged to do, and came down from heaven for that purpose, took delight in doing it, and has completely finished it.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 36-46 - He who made atonement for the sins of mankind, submitted himself in garden of suffering, to the will of God, from which man had revolted in a garden of pleasure. Christ took with him into that part of the garde where he suffered his agony, only those who had witnessed his glory in his transfiguration. Those are best prepared to suffer with Christ, wh have by faith beheld his glory. The words used denote the most entir dejection, amazement, anguish, and horror of mind; the state of on surrounded with sorrows, overwhelmed with miseries, and almos swallowed up with terror and dismay. He now began to be sorrowful, an never ceased to be so till he said, It is finished. He prayed that, i possible, the cup might pass from him. But he also showed his perfec readiness to bear the load of his sufferings; he was willing to submi to all for our redemption and salvation. According to this example of Christ, we must drink of the bitterest cup which God puts into ou hands; though nature struggle, it must submit. It should be more ou care to get troubles sanctified, and our hearts satisfied under them than to get them taken away. It is well for us that our salvation is in the hand of One who neither slumbers nor sleeps. All are tempted, but we should be much afraid of entering into temptation. To be secure from this, we should watch and pray, and continually look unto the Lor to hold us up that we may be safe. Doubtless our Lord had a clear an full view of the sufferings he was to endure, yet he spoke with the greatest calmness till this time. Christ was a Surety, who undertook to be answerable for our sins. Accordingly he was made sin for us, an suffered for our sins, the Just for the unjust; and Scripture ascribe his heaviest sufferings to the hand of God. He had full knowledge of the infinite evil of sin, and of the immense extent of that guilt for which he was to atone; with awful views of the Divine justice an holiness, and the punishment deserved by the sins of men, such as n tongue can express, or mind conceive. At the same time, Christ suffere being tempted; probably horrible thoughts were suggested by Satan tha tended to gloom and every dreadful conclusion: these would be the mor hard to bear from his perfect holiness. And did the load of impute guilt so weigh down the soul of Him of whom it is said, He upholdet all things by the word of his power? into what misery then must thos sink whose sins are left upon their own heads! How will those escap who neglect so great salvation?
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 CONJ προελθων 4281 5631 V-2AAP-NSM μικρον 3397 A-ASM επεσεν 4098 5627 V-2AAI-3S επι 1909 PREP προσωπον 4383 N-ASN αυτου 846 P-GSM προσευχομενος 4336 5740 V-PNP-NSM και 2532 CONJ λεγων 3004 5723 V-PAP-NSM πατερ 3962 N-VSM μου 3450 P-1GS ει 1487 COND δυνατον 1415 A-NSN εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S παρελθετω 3928 5628 V-2AAM-3S απ 575 PREP εμου 1700 P-1GS το 3588 T-ASN ποτηριον 4221 N-ASN τουτο 5124 D-ASN πλην 4133 ADV ουχ 3756 PRT-N ως 5613 ADV εγω 1473 P-1NS θελω 2309 5719 V-PAI-1S αλλ 235 CONJ ως 5613 ADV συ 4771 P-2NS
Robertson's NT Word Studies
26:39 {He went forward a little} (proelth"n mikron). As if he could not fight the battle in their immediate presence. He was on his face, not on his knees (McNeile). { this cup} (to poterion touto). The figure can mean only the approaching death. Jesus had used it of his coming death when James and John came to him with their ambitious request, "the cup which I am about to drink" (#Mt 20:22). But now the Master is about to taste the bitter dregs in the cup of death for the Sin of the world. He was not afraid that he would die before the Cross, though he instinctively shrank from the cup, but instantly surrendered his will to the Father's will and drank it to the full. Evidently Satan tempted Christ now to draw back from the Cross. Here Jesus won the power to go on to Calvary.
