He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

Again a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, thy will be done.

Again the second time, he went and prayed, saying: My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done.

Again going away a second time he prayed saying, My Father, if this cannot pass from me unless I drink it, thy will be done.

Again, a second time, having gone away, he prayed, saying, 'My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me except I drink it, Thy will be done;'

Again a second time He went away and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is impossible for this cup to pass without my drinking it, Thy will be done."

Again, a second time he went away, and said in prayer, O my Father, if this may not go from me without my taking it, let your pleasure be done.

Again, a second time, he went and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this chalice cannot pass away, unless I drink it, let your will be done."

Again, a second time, he went away, and prayed. "My Father," he said, "if I cannot be spared this cup, but must drink it, your will be done!"

Again he went away a second time. By these words Christ seems as if, having subdued fear, he came with greater freedom and courage to submit to the will of the Father; for he no longer asks to have the cup removed from him, but, leaving out this prayer, insists rather on obeying the purpose of God. But according to Mark, this progress is not described; and even when Christ returned a second time, we are told that he repeated the same prayer; and, indeed, I have no doubt, that at each of the times when he prayed, fear and horror impelled him to ask that he might be delivered from death. [1] Yet it is probable that, at the second time, he labored more to yield obedience to the Father, and that the first encounter with temptation animated him to approach death with greater confidence.Luke does not expressly relate that he prayed three several times, but only says that, when he was pressed with anguish, he prayed with greater copiousness and earnestness, as if he had continued to pray without any intermission. But we know that the Evangelists sometimes leave out circumstances, and only glance rapidly at the substance of what took place. Accordingly, when he says towards the close, that Christ came to his disciples, it is a hysteron proteton; [2] just as, in another clause, he relates that an angel from heaven appeared, before he speaks of Christ's anguish. But the inversion of the order carries no absurdity; for, in order to inform us that the angel was not sent without a good reason, the necessity for it is afterwards stated; and thus the latter part of the narrative is, in some sort, a reason assigned for the former. Now though it is the Spirit of God alone that imparts fortitude, that does not hinder God from employing angels as his ministers. And hence we may conclude what excruciating distresses the Son of God must have endured, since it was necessary that the assistance of God should be granted to him in a visible manner.

Footnotes

1 - "A requerir qu'il ne veinst point a ceste mort;" -- "to ask that he might not com to that death."

2 - Hysteron proteron (husteron proteron) is a figure of rhetoric, by which the natural order of events is reversed. -- Ed.

O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me - If it be not possible - to redeem fallen man, unless I drink this cup, unless I suffer death for them; thy will be done - I am content to suffer whatever may be requisite to accomplish the great design. In this address the humanity of Christ most evidently appears; for it was his humanity alone that could suffer; and if it did not appear that he had felt these sufferings, it would have been a presumption that he had not suffered, and consequently made no atonement. And had he not appeared to have been perfectly resigned in these sufferings, his sacrifice could not have been a free-will but a constrained offering, and therefore of no use to the salvation of mankind.

He went away again the second time,.... To the same place as before, or at some little distance; after he had reproved his disciples for their sleeping, and had exhorted them to watchfulness and prayer, suggesting the danger they were liable to, and the condition they were in:
and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. The sense of this prayer to his God and Father is, that if his sufferings and death could not be dispensed with; if it was not consistent with the decrees of God, and the covenant of grace, that he should be excused from them; or if the glory of God, and the salvation of his people required it, that he must drink up that bitter cup, he was content to do it; desiring in all things to submit unto, and to fulfil his Father's will, though it was so irksome and disagreeable to nature.

He went away again the second time and prayed. "More earnestly," says Luke, who adds the account of the bloody sweat (Luke 22:44). His agony returned on him. The continuance of the trial he accepts as God's answer to the petition, "Let this cup pass from me." Now he asks only, "Thy will be done."