Mark 10:18

And Jesus said unto him, Why call me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
Read Chapter 10

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
God, therefore, is uniquely good, and this he cannot lose. He is good. He is not good by sharing in any other good, because the good by which he is good is himself. But, when a finite human being is good, his goodness derives from God, because he cannot be his own good. All who become good do so through his Spirit. Our nature has been created to attain to him through acts of its own will. If we are to become good, it is important for us to receive and hold what he gives, who is good in himself. Letter , To Macedonius.

Bede

AD 735
It is only by participation in the divine goodness that a rational creature is capable of becoming good.
< 1 min2/10

Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
The rich man called Jesus “good,” as if he were offering him a favor, just as some favor others with honorary titles. [The Lord] fled from that by which people favored him, so that he might show that he had received this goodness from the Father through nature and generation, and not [merely] in name. “Only one is good,” [he said], and did not remain silent, but added, “the Father,” so that he might show that the Son is good in just the way that the Father is good. Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron.
< 1 min3/10

George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
None is good. Of himself, entirely and essentially, but God alone: men may be good also, but only by a participation of God's goodness. (Challoner)
< 1 min4/10

Gregory the Theologian

AD 390
The words, “None is good” are a reply to the young ruler who was testing him and had borne witness to his goodness as a human being. Consummate goodness, he meant, belongs to God alone, though the word “good” can be derivatively applied to human beings. Oration , On the Son
< 1 min5/10

Hilary of Poitiers

AD 368
A complete understanding of the reply must come from the reason that prompted the question, for the answer will be directed to the matter that led to the inquiry…. He voiced his objection to the title of “good master” in such a way as to challenge the faith of the questioner rather than the designation of himself as a master or as good.
< 1 min6/10

Hilary of Poitiers

AD 368
He who is by nature God of God must possess the nature of his origin, which God possesses. The indistinguishable unity of a living nature cannot be divided by the birth of a living nature. But the troublers of church unity, under cover of the saving confession of the gospel faith, are subversively trying to take captive the truth by undermining it. By forcing their own interpretations on words spoken with other meanings and intentions, they are robbing the Son of his distinctive unity [with the Father].
< 1 min7/10

Hippolytus of Rome

AD 235
He says that this (one) alone is good, and that what is spoken by the Saviour. And as Himself acknowledges: "Why call ye me good? there is one good"
< 1 min8/10

Jerome

AD 420
The question is something like a priest who, while inwardly despising his bishop, yet continues to address him openly as “bishop.” Whereupon the bishop answers, “To you I am not the bishop; you may leave my presence.”
< 1 min9/10

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
"But "say they, "God is `good, 'and `most good, '
< 1 min10/10

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

App Store LogoPlay Store Logo