What does Jesus mean when he says that only one is good?

Explanation:

When a rich young man asks Jesus what good he might do to have eternal life, Jesus’ answer suggests that he is correcting the man’s misunderstanding of the nature of goodness. We know that the Jews have the law of God, but the man seems to think there might be one good thing he can do beyond the law to secure eternal life. To think that there is something beyond the law of God that the man might do to secure eternal life is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of goodness. For the man seems to think that the laws, or the deeds, are what is good, but Jesus explains that there is only One who is good (Matthew 19:17). In other words, the man has his mind on deeds that might reflect goodness, while Jesus wants the man to understand absolute goodness.⁴ Absolute goodness is God himself, whose nature is absolutely good. And since God is absolutely good, whatever he commands, such as what is contained in the law, reflects his goodness. This is why Jesus tells the man that if he would enter life, he ought to keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17). The implication is that since the commands preserve God’s will, the commands reflect the goodness of God.

Counterargument:

It is not clear that the man asks whether there is something beyond the law that might secure eternal life. Rather, the focus seems to be not on what one must do but on what is necessary in the law for eternal life. In other words, the young man is aware that the law captures the goodness of God, but he wants to know which aspects of the law are necessary. Does he have to keep every law, or only some of them, and to what extent? Of course, when Jesus says there is One who is good, he is not saying anything surprising but reiterating what is common knowledge. Since God is good, the law is good.⁵

Response to counterargument:

Whether Jesus says something surprising is not the point. The point is that when the man asks what good deed he must do to have eternal life, the man reveals that he does not understand the nature of goodness. The question is not whether it was common knowledge in Judaism that the law is good because it reflects the goodness of God. Rather, the question is why Jesus explains the fact that only God is good in the context of the man who asks him how to secure eternal life. When Jesus says, Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good, his aim is to correct the man’s notion of goodness. In other words, Jesus is saying to the man, You think there are deeds that are good in themselves that can therefore earn you eternal life? You are wrong; there is only one who is good, namely, God. Thus, there is no work that is inherently good, but only works that align with the will of God, who is goodness itself.

Explanation:

The man asks Jesus what good deed he must do to have eternal life, to which Jesus responds that there is only one who is good. Likely when he says this, he is alluding to the well-known Shema.⁶ The man thinks that by doing a good deed he might have eternal life, but he should already know that according to Matthew 19:17, the Lord is one, and should be obeyed with all one’s heart, soul, and mind. Jesus reinforces the notion that Jesus has the Shema in mind with his choice of grammar.⁷ For Jesus says, εἷς ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθός, which means, There is one who is good. Compare this with Deuteronomy 6:4 as recorded in the Septuagint, which says, The Lord our God, the Lord is one [εἷς ἐστιν]. Thus, both Matthew 19:17 and Deuteronomy 6:4 use the construction εἷς ἐστιν to refer to the oneness of God.

Counterargument:

That both Matthew 19:17 and Deuteronomy 6:4 use the phrase εἷς ἐστιν (is one) does not show that Jesus has the Shema in mind. Rather, there are only so many ways to say that something is one in Greek. Further, the statements are used differently, for in Deuteronomy 6:4 the statement predicates something of God. That is, the statement says about God that he is one. On the other hand, the one of Matthew 19:17 is not a predicate but the subject. The subject is the one and the predicate is good. So the constructions are similar but not identical. Finally, the connection between the Shema and the fact that there is only one who is good is not right away obvious. That is, it is not obvious that when Jesus says there is only one who is good, he has God in mind.

Response to counterargument:

While Jesus’ use of the phrase εἷς ἐστιν may operate slightly differently in Matthew 19:17 than it does in Deuteronomy 6:4, the fact is that the construction is still the same, so it might remind Matthew’s readers who are familiar with the Septuagint of the Shema. Further, the thematic connection between the Shema and Jesus’ statement in Matthew 19:17 could not be stronger. That Jesus has the Shema implies that although the man may recite the Shema often, he may not understand the consequence of what it means. That God is one not only means that there is only one God, but that he is unique. God is unique in the sense that he is the only one that is goodness itself. Thus, anything else that is good is only good insofar as it is created by God or is a command of God.

Possible weaknesses:

It is hard to see what the weakness of this view might be. The man asked Jesus about the good and Jesus explains that there is only one who is good. There could not be a clearer passage for the notion that God is goodness itself. And of course, because the law captures the will of God, Jesus explains that if you want to enter life, you ought to live according to the law. Of course, to uphold the law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, a task that is only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Explanation:

When a young man asks Jesus what good deed he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus’ response is difficult to understand.⁸ Interestingly, this same event is recounted by Mark, who records the event differently. In Mark 10:17, a young man calls Jesus good teacher, and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Matthew has recorded the event so that instead of calling Jesus good, the man asks what good he can do to have eternal life. When we consider Jesus’ response that there is only One who is good, in light of the notion that the man calls Jesus good teacher, we can make more sense of what Jesus means. There is no precedence in Judaism for calling a teacher good, so when the man calls Jesus good teacher he demonstrates shallow flattery. Jesus is not impressed by this flattery and calls on the man think about what is truly good, which is God alone, so that he will not call things good without first thinking about what he is saying.⁹

Counterargument:

The issue with this interpretation is that it goes well beyond the immediate context to interpret the passage. Matthew is the author of this narrative, and our goal as exegetes is to interpret what Matthew means. Thus, we are not to understand Jesus’ response so much in light of the details that Mark brings to his gospel, but in light of the details that Matthew brings to his. Matthew does not include the phrase good teacher, so we should be careful not to understand Jesus’ response with the phrase good teacher in mind. Understanding why Matthew recalls the event differently from Mark is a question all on its own.