Think Wink.

Here is my translation of Mark 10:35-45. This episode in Mark’s gospel narrative ends his section on discipleship and what it means to be the greatest in the kingdom of God: the slave of everyone. Enjoy, but know that it is a lengthy post.

Greek
35 καὶ προσπορεύονται αὐτῷ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωάννης οἱ υἱοὶ Ζεβεδαίου λέγοντες αὐτῷ διδάσκαλε θέλομεν ἵνα ὃ ἐὰν αἰτήσωμέν σε ποιήσῃς ἡμῖν 36 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς τί θέλετέ με ποιήσω ὑμῖν 37 οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ δὸς ἡμῖν ἵνα εἷς σου ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ εἷς ἐξ ἀριστερῶν καθίσωμεν ἐν τῇ δόξῃ σου 38 ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς οὐκ οἴδατε τί αἰτεῖσθε δύνασθε πιεῖν τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω ἢ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθῆναι 39 οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ δυνάμεθα ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω πίεσθε καὶ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθήσεσθε 40 τὸ δὲ καθίσαι ἐκ δεξιῶν μου ἢ ἐξ εὐωνύμων οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὸν δοῦναι ἀλλ’ οἷς ἡτοίμασται 41 καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ δέκα ἤρξαντο ἀγανακτεῖν περὶ Ἰακώβου καὶ Ἰωάννου 42 καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς οἴδατε ὅτι οἱ δοκοῦντες ἄρχειν τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι αὐτῶν κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν 43 οὐχ οὕτως δέ ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν ἀλλ’ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ μέγας γενέσθαι ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος 44 καὶ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος ἔσται πάντων δοῦλος 45 καὶ γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν διακονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι καὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν

Translation
35 As [the disciples] came to him, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we wish that you will give to us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do?” 37 Then they said to [Jesus], “Let us sit beside you in your glory, one by your right hand and the other by your left hand.” 38 So Jesus asked them, “You do not understand what you are ask [for yourselves]. Can you drink from the cup that I drink from? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39 [James and John] answered, “We can.” Then Jesus said to them, “You will drink from the cup that I drink. You will be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. 40 But to sit at my right [hand] or [my] left [hand] is not for me to give but to whom it was prepared. 41 And when the [other] ten [disciples] heard [this], they became angry with James and John. 42 So Jesus called [the disciples] to himself and said to them, “You know that the rulers of the nations rule over them and their great ones exercise their authority over the [nations]. 43 But this is not the way you will act. Rather those who desire to become great among you are your servants. 44 Those who want to be first among you must be the slave of everyone. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life [as] a ransom in the place of many.

Notes on Mark 10:35
καὶ προσπορεύονται αὐτῷ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωάννης οἱ υἱοὶ Ζεβεδαίου λέγοντες αὐτῷ διδάσκαλε θέλομεν ἵνα ὃ ἐὰν αἰτήσωμέν σε ποιήσῃς ἡμῖν — As [the disciples] came to him, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we wish that you will give to us whatever we ask of you.” Many places in this passage of Mark assume a given subject or direct object of the verbs. I have taken the liberty to supply those blank spots to make the reading easier. For example I supplied Jesus in the place of αὐτῷ, which would be rendered “to him.” James and John were speaking to Jesus but Mark assumes the reader already understands this.
Also the main verbs of the ἵνα are almost always subjunctive verbs. But here I translated them as futures because the ἵνα clause is purpose in force. Thus αἰτήσωμέν becomes “will ask” instead of “might ask;” ποιήσῃς becomes “will give” instead of “might do.”

Notes on Mark 10:36
ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς τί θέλετέ με ποιήσω ὑμῖν — And he said to them, “What do you want me to do?” The first person personal pronoun με is a variant but I included it because it would be implied by Jesus’ words as a whole.

Notes on Mark 10:37
οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ δὸς ἡμῖν ἵνα εἷς σου ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ εἷς ἐξ ἀριστερῶν καθίσωμεν ἐν τῇ δόξῃ σου — Then they said to [Jesus], “Let us sit beside you in your glory, one by your right hand and the other by your left hand.” I did not follow a strict word-for-word translation here, moving the prepositional phrase ἐν τῇ δόξῃ σου (in your glory) to the front of the sentence to show its connection to its relationship with the main clause.
I did not translate δὸς as the imperative “you give.” It flows better and shows that this is a request by James and John. I like “Let us” better as it shows the nature of the imperative to be a request (αἴτημα). I don’t see James and John being so arrogant as to demand this from Jesus.
As in 10:36, the subjunctive καθίσωμεν was translated as a future to show that the ἵνα clause it is a part of shows its force as purpose.

Notes on Mark 10:38
ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς οὐκ οἴδατε τί αἰτεῖσθε δύνασθε πιεῖν τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω ἢ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθῆναι — So Jesus asked them, “You do not understand what you are asking [for yourselves]. Can you drink from the cup that I drink from? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Even thought he verb here is εἶπεν I translated it as “asked” to indicate what Jesus was actually doing in his statement.
The verb αἰτεῖσθε is translated as a present participle even though it is a finite verb. This is to really bring out the present aspect of the verb. Also, the verb is in the middle voice and not the passive. James and John are making this request with respect for themselves. Thus I added in brackets “for yourselves.”
In the question that Jesus asks in 10:38 I was somewhat confused by the verb order. τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθῆναι is literally rendered “the baptism which I am baptized to be baptized.” So I restructured the order of the verbs and their subjects and objects to make it flow more smoothly, though I’m not sure that I am entirely satisfied with the translation. I also broke the one Greek sentence into two English sentences.

Notes on Mark 10:39
οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ δυνάμεθα ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω πίεσθε καὶ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθήσεσθε — [James and John] answered, “We can.” Then Jesus said to them, “You will drink from the cup that I drink. You will be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. Again I did not translate εἶπαν as “they said” but rather as “they answered” because that is what they were doing, answering Jesus’ question. Also I gave the implied subject of James and John instead of the general “they” that is implied in the third person plural εἶπαν. And I also did not include the αὐτῷ (to him) that shows that Jesus is the object of the verb εἶπαν. Modern English in these conversational situations doesn’t always repeat the object as it is implied.

Notes on Mark 10:40
τὸ δὲ καθίσαι ἐκ δεξιῶν μου ἢ ἐξ εὐωνύμων οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὸν δοῦναι ἀλλ’ οἷς ἡτοίμασται — But to sit at my right [hand] or [my] left [hand] is not for me to give but to whom it was prepared. As the reader can see, I supplied some words to smooth out the Greek text.
I must confess that I am not satisfied with the rendering of ἀλλ’ οἷς ἡτοίμασται as “but to whom it was prepared.” I still find it confusing English but I did not know of a better way. The ESV and the NET (my favorite translations) do not help me any either.
I must express my love for Greek here. The articular infinitive τὸ καθίσαι just screams that it is the subject of the verb ἔστιν. The nominative article really helps the reader know the subject of the verb and the verb itself.

Notes on Mark 10:41
καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ δέκα ἤρξαντο ἀγανακτεῖν περὶ Ἰακώβου καὶ Ἰωάννου — And when the [other] ten [disciples] heard [this], they became angry with James and John. Again I added some, hopefully, clarifying words in brackets to allow for an easier reading of the text. I added “other” because James and John are apart of the Twelve. The above conversation of Mark 10:35-40 was between them and Jesus. The rest of the Twelve, or the Ten, overheard the conversation and Mark records their response.

Notes on Mark 10:42
καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς οἴδατε ὅτι οἱ δοκοῦντες ἄρχειν τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι αὐτῶν κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν — So Jesus called [the disciples] to himself and said to them, “You know that the rulers of the nations rule over them and their great ones exercise their authority over the [nations]. The aorist participle προσκαλεσάμενος is a middle voice verb. Therefore I added “to himself” to indicate the the middle voice and its intended force. I rendered αὐτοὺς as “the disciples” because Jesus is addressing the anger and indignant attitude of the Ten with the sons of Zebedee. I also moved “Jesus” in front of προσκαλεσάμενος to show that he is the subject of both προσκαλεσάμενος and λέγει, “said.”
I meant to mention this earlier but I have not translated the καὶ that begins the verses as “and” every time. I wanted to help show the flow of the narrative so I would substitute “and” with terms like “So” and “Then.”
I feel that the two verbs spoken by Jesus here, κατακυριεύουσιν and κατεξουσιάζουσιν, translate awkwardly for me. I think I did a good enough job but I might just be picky. The fact that the direct objects of these two verbs being αὐτῶν doesn’t help either. I hope that by changing the αὐτῶν at the end of 10:42 helps to smooth it out and read easier.

Notes on Mark 10:43
οὐχ οὕτως δέ ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν ἀλλ’ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ μέγας γενέσθαι ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος — But this is not the way you will act. Rather those who desire to become great among you are your servants. οὐχ οὕτως δέ was difficult to render, especially οὕτως which means “in this manner.” I went with a dynamic translation here to try to get at the force of the sentence rather than a formal translation. I also broke the sentence up into two sentences to create a better English flow.
I translated the subjunctive θέλῃ as an indicative verb to make the sentence read more concretely. It might read better if one translated it as “Those who might desire to become great…” I certainly would have no problems with that.

Notes on Mark 10:44
καὶ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος ἔσται πάντων δοῦλος — Those who want to be first among you must be the slave of everyone. Again I translated the subjunctive θέλῃ as an indicative verb but I have no problems bringing out the full subjunctive force of “might want/desire/wish.”
I also translated δοῦλος as “slave” when many feel that it is better to translate it as “servant.” I think “slave” brings out a more vibrant picture to what Jesus is saying about our service. We are not just servants. We serve as ones who have no rights, we serve as slaves.

Notes on Mark 10:45
καὶ γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν διακονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι καὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν — For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life [as] a ransom in the place of many. The first thing to note is that I have added “as” to smooth out the translation.
Note that I have translated the preposition ἀντὶ as “in the place of” to bring out its substitution idea. There is a great deal of debate about whether ἀντὶ is a substitutionary preposition. But in Mark 10:45 there is no reason to translate it otherwise. The verbal phrase ἦλθεν δοῦναι and the object of ἀντὶ being πολλῶν demand that the preposition be substitutionary in meaning. It is the only thing that makes sense. Plus studies into the LXX, specifically texts like Exodus 30:12 in its use of λύτρον and Genesis 44:33, show that ἀντὶ has the meaning of “in the place of” or “on behalf of,” similar to ὑπέρ–though not identically.

Related posts:

Matthew vs Mark

The Jesus Christ Gospel According to Mark pt 1

Testifying without Testifying Part 2 of 3