Mar 10:38 You know not what you ask...
Mar 10:38 You know not what you ask: can you drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
Alternative: You do not see what you are asking: do you have the power to drink from the cup that I drink from and be washed by the drowning by which I am washed?
The first part of this verse is that statement of a simple truth. Since we do not know where we come from or where we are going, we never know what to ask for and what our desires mean.
More interesting are the symbols of drinking from the cup and and being washed by baptism. From the context, we can tell that both are difficult (requiring power) and are a type of testing. They are important symbols of Christ's major theme of the transformation process.
Baptism is the easier of the two because it was introduced by John as a ritual washing and rebirth of water. Here, however, this washing is equated with drowning (another meaning for the word baptizo) of our old life and literally dying to be reborn to a new life. Turning ourselves over to another, being submerged, and emerging to see the world anew encapsulates all three aspects of the temporal life: the emotional, the physical, and the mental.
"Drinking from the cup" is more interesting because it is an older Jewish symbol. In the OT, God forces the evil to drink from the cup so that they lose their senses and are humiliated (see Psa 75:8, Isa 51:22, Jer 25:15-17, Jer 49:12, Eze 23:32, and Hab 2:16). Again, if you read these verse, the process of drinking cover the three aspects of temporal life: physical pleasure, mental disorientation, leading to pubic humiliation. So, as death is the effect of drowning, humiliation is the effect of drinking.
However, while baptism carries its message of rebirth in emerging from the water, drinking from the cup carries no such message of transformation in the OT testament sense. This is an idea that Christ added: that all that falls to humiliation from faith and duty will also rise.
"You know" is from eidon (eidon), which means "to see," "to perceive," "to behold," "to experience," "to look," "to see mentally," "to examine," "to investigate," "to see with the mind's eye," and "to know how."
"Ask" is from aiteô (aiteo), which means "to ask," "to demand," "to beg," and "to ask for one's own use."
"Can" is from the verb, dunamai (dynamai), which means "to have power by virtue of your own capabilities," "to be able," and "to be strong enough."
"Drink" is from pinô (pino), which means "to drink."
"Cup" is from potêrion (poterion), which means "a drinking-cup," "a wine-cup," "a jar," and "a receptacle" for offerings in the temple.
"Baptize" is from baptizô (baptizo), which means "to dip," "to plunge," "to be drenched," "to be drowned," and "getting in deep water."
"Baptism" is from baptisma, (baptisma) which is only in the New Testament and means "baptism."
