Mark 10:18 — Community Reflections

MARK 10:18 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”

Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. No one is good — except God alone — the response to the good teacher title reorients the conversation: the category of goodness belongs to God alone. Jesus is not denying his own goodness but pressing the man to consider what calling Jesus good implies. If the man means good teacher in the ordinary sense, the correction stands. If the man means it in the sense that belongs only to God, then his instinct is correct but he has not yet followed it to its conclusion.

Church Fathers on Mark 10:18

A certain man had heard from the Lord that only they who are willing to be like little children are worthy to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and therefore he desires to have explained to him, not in parables, but openly, by the merits of what works a man may attain everlasting life.
Bede · 8th century

I wonder at this young man, who when all others come to Christ to be healed of their infirmities, begs of Him the possession of everlasting life, notwithstanding his love of money, the malignant passion which afterwards caused his sorrow.
Theophylact · 11th century

For in that He loved, or kissed him [ed. note: osculaius, interpretation in Ed. Ben. (?)], He appears to affirm the truth of his profession, in saying that he had fulfilled all those things; for on applying His mind to him, He saw that the man answered with a good conscience.
Origen · 3rd century · in Evan. tom. xv, 14

Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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