Bible Lexicons

ποτήριον, ποτηρίου, τό (diminutive of ποτήρ), a cup, a drinking vessel;

a. properly: Matthew 23:25; Matthew 26:27; Mark 7:4, 8 (T WH omit; Tr brackets the verse); Mark 14:23; Luke 11:39; Luke 22:17, 20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Revelation 17:4; πίνειν ἐκ τοῦ ποτηρίου, 1 Corinthians 11:28; τό ποτήριον τῆς ἐυλογιασς (see εὐλογία, 4), 1 Corinthians 10:16; with a genitive of the thing with which the cup is filled: ψυχροῦ, Matthew 10:42; ὕδατος, Mark 9:41; by metonymy, of the container for the contained, the contents of the cup, what is offered to be drunk, Luke 22:20b ((WH reject the passage) cf. Winer's 635f (589f)); 1 Corinthians 11:25f; τό ποτήριον τίνος, genitive of the person giving the entertainment (cf. Rückert, Abendmahl, p. 217f): πίνειν, 1 Corinthians 10:21 (cf. Winer's Grammar, 189 (178)); (cf. Winers Grammar, 411 (410)).

b. By a figure common to Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and not unknown to Latin writers, one's lot or experience, whether joyous or adverse, divine appointments, whether favorable or unfavorable, are likened to a cup which God presents one to drink (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32): so of prosperity, Psalm 15:5 (); Psalm 22:5 (); Psalm 115:13 (); of adversity, Psalm 10:6 (); Psalm 74:9 (); Isaiah 51:17, 22. In the N. T. of the bitter lot (the sufferings) of Christ: Matthew 26:39, 42 Rec.; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42; John 18:11; πίνειν τό ποτήριον μου or ὁ ἐγώ πίνω, to undergo the same calamities which I undergo, Matthew 20:22, 23; Mark 10:38, 39 (Plautus Cas. 5, 2, 53 (50) ut senex hoc eodem poculo quod ego bibi biberet, i. e. that he might be treated as harshly as I was); used of the divine penalties: Revelation 14:10; Revelation 16:19; Revelation 18:6. ((Alcaeus, Sappho), Herodotus, Ctesias (), Aristophanes, Lucian, others; the Sept. for כּוס.)