Bible Synapse

Did Jesus pray the same words the second time in Gethsemane, or different ones?

Hard question · The death and resurrection of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate

The meaning of a wordA summary and a fuller account
See the passages joined in the interactive map

The passages

Mark 14:36–39

Jesus prayed “take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”; the second time he “spake the same words”.

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.

Matthew 26:39–42

The first prayer asks that the cup may pass if possible; the second says “if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done”.

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 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.

The objection

Mark says that when Jesus went away to pray the second time he “spake the same words” as before. Matthew records the second prayer, and its wording is not the same as the first: the first asks that the cup may pass if it is possible, the second accepts that it may not. Critics say both accounts cannot be accurate.

The answer

Mark’s Greek does not say that Jesus repeated the first prayer word for word. The phrase is ton auton logon eipōn, literally ‘saying the same word’, in the singular. Logos (Strong’s G3056) often means a saying or a matter: what was said rather than the individual words, much as we say ‘he said the same thing’. The BSB translates Mark 14:39 in just that way, and Gill explains it so: the same matter and substance, though not the same express words.

Matthew shows that this is how the phrase was meant. He gives the second prayer in different wording from the first, and then says that the third time Jesus prayed “saying the same words” (Matthew 26:42–44), the very phrase Mark uses. Matthew plainly did not think that a change of wording made it a different prayer. And it was the same prayer: both times Jesus addresses his Father, speaks of the cup, and submits to his Father’s will. The second simply looks at the condition from the other side: the first asks that the cup pass if it is possible, the second accepts that if it cannot pass, the Father’s will be done. Jesus prayed for a long time, perhaps an hour (Matthew 26:40), and, as Barnes says, the evangelists record the substance of his petitions rather than every word.

From the classic commentators

not in the selfsame words, or in the express form he had before delivered it; for it is certain, that his second prayer is not expressed in the same form of words as the first: but the sense is, that he prayed to the same purposeJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Matthew 26:44 (1746–1763)

Sources

Further reading

Raised by: Shabir Ally, 101 Clear Contradictions in the Bible. Only the verse references come from these lists.

Checked 2026-10-22. All hard questions