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Mat_26:39. Μικρόν ] belongs to προελθών : after He had gone forward a short distance. For μικρόν comp. Xen. Cyrop. iv. 2. 6 ( μικρὸν πορευθέντες ); Hist. Gr. vii. 2. 13 ( μικρὸν δʼ αὐτοὺς προπέμψαντες ).
ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ] The article was not necessary before πρόσωπ . (in opposition to Fritzsche, who takes αὐτοῦ as meaning there). Comp. Mat_11:10, Mat_17:6, and elsewhere. Winer, p. 116 [E. T. 152]. Bengel appropriately observes: “in faciem, non modo in genua; summa demissio.”
εἰ δυνατόν ἐστι ] ethical possibility according to the divine purpose. Similarly the popular expression πάντα δυνατά σοι is to be understood, according to the sense in which Jesus uses it, as implying the necessary condition of harmony with the divine will.
τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο ] i.e. this suffering and death immediately before me. Comp. Mat_20:22.
πλὴν οὐχ , κ . τ . λ .] The wish, to which in His human dread of suffering He gave utterance, that, if possible, He should not be called upon to endure it ( ἔδειξε τὸ ἀνθρώπινον , Chrysostom), at once gives place to absolute submission, Joh_5:30; Joh_6:38. The word to be understood after σύ ( θέλεις ) is not γενέσθω , but, as corresponding with the οὐχ (not μή , observe), γενήσεται , or ἔσται , in which the petitioner expresses his final determination. It may be observed further, that the broken utterance is in keeping with the deep emotion of our Lord.
For ὡς , which, so far as the essential meaning is concerned, is identical with the relative pronoun, comp. Hermann, ad Hom. h. in Cer. 172.