“Why do you call me Good?”

There are two issues that get brought up in relation to this saying of Jesus: “Why do you call me good?” First, why does Jesus ask this question at all, and second, why is there a variation in his utterance as recorded in Matthew as compared to the other two Synoptic Gospels.

The Verses

We’ll list the verses first (excerpts of relevant portions):

“As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments (…) You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:17-19, 21)

“A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments (…) “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Luke:18-19, 22)

The text from Matthew has slight variation from the other two synoptics:

“Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. (…) if you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Matt.19:16,17,21)

Interpreting “Why do you call me good?”

The meaning of what Jesus is saying to the man is in effect: “We learn goodness from the Source of all goodness that is only God. When you “call me “good” (Lk.18, Mk.10) you should consider the meaning of “good” itself- “ask me what is good” (Mt.19). And he tells the way “give up all worldly things, take up your cross, and follow me”. Gotquestions’ explanation is along the same lines, and shows that effectively Jesus is showing that he alone is good, and he alone is God:

“…Jesus’ fundamental lesson here is that goodness flows not from a man’s deeds, but rather from God Himself. Jesus invites the man to follow Him, the only means of doing good by God’s ultimate standard. Jesus describes to the young ruler what it means to follow Him—to be willing to give up everything, thus putting God first. When one considers that Jesus is drawing a distinction between man’s standard of goodness and God’s standard, it becomes clear that following Jesus is good. The command to follow Christ is the definitive proclamation of Christ’s goodness. Thus, by the very standard Jesus is exhorting the young ruler to adopt, Jesus is good. And it necessarily follows that if Jesus is indeed good by this standard, Jesus is implicitly declaring His deity.

Thus, Jesus’ question to the man is designed not to deny His deity, but rather to draw the man to recognize Christ’s divine identity. Such an interpretation is substantiated by passages such as John 10:11 wherein Jesus declares Himself to be “the good shepherd.” Similarly in John 8:46, Jesus asks, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” Of course the answer is “no.” Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), holy and undefiled (Hebrews 7:26), the only One who “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21)….”

(end of Gotquestions excerpt)

Matthew Variant reading

Why is there a variant in the text from Matthew? First, when we see discrepancies in the Gospel narratives, from a faith perspective we can always allow for the possibility that there may have been completely separate yet similar incidents that are being recorded. In this case for example, it would seem entirely possible that the same question were asked of Jesus more than once.

If it is to be taken that this is necessarily referring to the exact same incident, then it might also be help that the incident is paraphrased in its recording with a view to better bring out the meaning. This is not uncommon in oral traditions. We are used to word -for- word documentation. But in these early cultures, sometimes the emphasis can be more on preserving the meaning. One might in these cases assume that the Holy Spirit wills the variations in narration, with both the literal sense and the paraphrase preserved so that the reader might gain a more accurate perception of the sense of Jesus’ words.

This does not imply that Jesus’ words are inaccurately recorded, rather it is a limitation of language that all the senses of a proposition cannot be conveyed or captured in a single sentence. There is also the very real difficulty in translating accurately from the cultural and linguistic context when one is going from colloquial Aramaic to formal Greek with all the nuances of idiom and turns of phrase- in this case, the use of the rhetorical “why?”

It is not that one of the writers is “changing the words” of Jesus, as is alleged, rather that in a spiritual sense both are his words and convey his intention. God intends both forms of the verse to be recorded in order that the his intent be made clear for us. Were it the case that the reading in Mk., Lk. contradicted the one in Matthew, we could not use this explanation, however since the former does not bind us to a single implied meaning the problem does not arise.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when Jesus asks the man “why do you call me good?”, he is challenging the man to consider his reasons and his perception of goodness and how it is to be attained. Far from Jesus not being good, goodness is to be attained in him and him alone.

Take a look at other harmonizations of the Gospel accounts like the one here Day of the Crucifixion and in the “Hard Questions” playlist.

“Ye are gods”

“And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.  ¹⁸For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” (John 5:16-18)

“³⁰ …The Father and I are one.” ³¹ The Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³² Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” ³³ The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human, are making yourself God.” ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? ³⁵ If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’—and the scripture cannot be annulled— ³⁶ can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷ If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. ³⁸ But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:30-18)

The Jews charge Jesus with “you are making yourself God” in Ch.10 (v.33), and John himself states that Jesus is making himself equal to God in Ch.5 (v.18). The latter passage ends with “the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it” (v.21) while the former ends with “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (v.38), and begins with “the Father and I are one” (v.30), and “I give them eternal life and they will never perish” (v.28). Thus both passages actually are building up to claims of divinity, rather than the contrary.

But the passage from John 10 gets brought up more commonly, because the reply from Jesus seems somewhat tangential to the accusation, and indeed it is. Jesus first of all is not refuting the allegation. Rather he is stating that it is not in fact blasphemous for him to state that he is God’s Son (and one with the Father whose Son he is) since in any case the word “gods” does get used rather loosely in some cases. Jesus without refuting the allegation, is merely allaying their oversensitivity to the issue of blasphemy and open their minds to some amount of nuance in the use of the term “god”. The Jews are hard-wired to put to death anyone claiming divinity, and understandably so. Jesus is avoiding saying “I am not equal to God”, rather he is going to hold on to that divine claim, and the reasons for doing to will become gradually apparent to the Jews.